MEDICAL POT USERS NEED MORE THAN DOCTOR'S NOTE

They Must Wait for State-Issued Cards

Almost 2,000 people have applied to use and grow medical marijuana in
Michigan, and roughly half fall in a legal black hole where they have
letters recommending its use but not the state-issued cards that make it legal.

Of the applications, about 700 have not yet been processed and 260
have been rejected, according to the Michigan Department of Community
Health. Some people who have cards now face legal questions because
the state took months to launch its ID program after the law went into effect.

"There hasn't been quite the degree of confusion as in the Michigan
program," Dan Bernath, a spokesman for the Washington-based Marijuana
Policy Project, said about the other states the group has guided in
starting medical marijuana programs.

Medical marijuana advocates maintain a doctor's letter is sufficient
to prevent prosecution for small amounts of marijuana, but state
health officials disagree.

"You needed to wait until the program was established," said James
McCurtis, spokesman for the MDCH.

In the courts, the law is being tested by Bob Redden, 59, and Torey
Clark, 47, of Madison Heights, who face a preliminary examination
Wednesday on felony charges of manufacturing marijuana. Police took
multiple plants during a late March raid on their home. While they
both have cards now, the raid came before the state was issuing them.
Their attorney is trying to get the charges thrown out because they
had doctor's letters.

The defense could work, said David A. Moran, co-director of the
Michigan Innocence Clinic at the University of Michigan, but it's "an
expensive, dangerous risk to take."

McCurtis said another gray area is the roughly 15 days between
submitting an application and when the card is in hand. And while
most of the denials thus far have been for improperly filled-out
applications, they still represent one out of every six processed applications.

Stephanie Annis, 30, of New Hudson said many patients can't wait for
the card. She wants one for appetite stimulation after multiple
surgeries left the 5-foot-6 graduate student at 99 pounds and without
much of her intestinal tract.

She's on disability, and since April has tried to gather required
documents to qualify for a reduced fee of $25 for the card, rather
than $100. The soonest she says she thinks she would get her card is
late June."I would think the doctor would be the authority," she said.