MEDICAL MARIJUANA: LEGAL TO SMOKE, ILLEGAL TO OBTAIN

Nearly 2,000 State Residents Are Authorized to Use Pot

KALAMAZOO -- Steve used to take prescription painkillers such as
Vicodin after he tore the tendons in his right hand about six years ago.

Now he's using fewer pills. Instead, he smokes marijuana to ease the pain.

"No, it's not a cure-all," said Steve, 37, of Kalamazoo. "It helps so
I don't have to take a handful of pills every day."

Steve is among nearly 2,000 residents in Michigan, including 190 in
southwestern Michigan, who are legally using marijuana to treat
serious ailments such as HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma.

Michigan residents last November voted to legalize medical marijuana.
In April, the state began issuing photo identification cards to users
who have been approved.

Medical-marijuana patients, advocates, law-enforcement officials and
others say the program is working fairly well, but there have been
bumps along the way. Among the concerns that have been raised:

. Patients are on their own to get the drug -- either by obtaining
starter plants or seeds to grow plants or buying it. It is still
illegal to buy marijuana or seeds.

. What constitutes an "enclosed, locked" marijuana facility?

. More research is needed to understand the medical benefits of the
plant and proper dosages.

. Law enforcement is encountering some legal issues, such as whether
a patient who has received a doctor's note but not a state
identification card is breaking the law by using medical marijuana.

Steve said he suffers from chronic pain, attention-deficit disorder
and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder. His doctor recommended
medical marijuana because of the chronic pain from the hand injury,
which he said has left him unemployed and seeking disability
payments. He said he's used marijuana before, but until he got his
identification card, his only relief was painkillers.

Steve and other medical-marijuana patients interviewed for this
report declined to give their full names, fearing their use of the
drug could attract burglaries. A patient can legally possess 2.5
ounces of usable marijuana, valued on the street at $250, and up to
12 marijuana plants, valued each at $1,000, police said.

'They Are on Their Own'

As of June 23, the state had issued 2,674 identification cards for
medical marijuana -- and rejected 434 applications. In southwestern
Michigan, Kalamazoo County was tops among counties, with 70
identification cards issued to caregivers and patients. Caregivers
are those licensed to grow and provide marijuana to patients.

Across the state, 700 identification cards had been issued to
caregivers, including 78 in southwestern Michigan.

Applications have been rejected primarily because they aren't
properly filled out and fees weren't paid, said James McCurtis, a
spokesman for the Michigan Department of Community Health, which
reviews applications and issues the cards.

If an identification card is approved, it's up to the patient to
figure out how to obtain the marijuana.

"They are on their own. That's pretty much where it is," McCurtis said.

That might be the biggest challenge in establishing the use of
medical marijuana in Michigan, which is at least the 15th state to
have a medical-marijuana law.

Until a network of caregivers is established, patients can legally
smoke it, but they can't legally obtain it.

Law and Order

One legal case involving medical marijuana has been reported in the
Kalamazoo area since the law took effect, police said.

Carl was arrested in November with a stash of marijuana that is
permitted under the medical-marijuana law. But the law hadn't taken
effect yet, and he didn't have an identification card.

Carl, who lives in Kalamazoo, suffers from irritable bowel syndrome.
He isn't using marijuana now because his case is pending.

"It was great. It was a good thing," he said. "It was either that or
take a fistful of prescription meds."

Other drugs such as cocaine, heroin and larger quantities of
marijuana are "of a far greater concern" than the regulation of
medical marijuana, said Capt. Joseph Taylor of the Kalamazoo Valley
Enforcement Team.

"What I predict is that we're going to experience people saying that
they're caregivers when they're actually growing for themselves," Taylor said.

Taylor said the law requires a secured, locked area for growing
marijuana, and exactly what that means hasn't been determined.
Parameters of the law may need to be defined in the courts.

Carl's lawyer, John Targowski, said he doesn't foresee much
law-enforcement action against medical-marijuana wrongdoing.

"If I'm a cop, I'm not going to risk my life to have a guy pee in a
cup every once in a while," Targowski said.

Research Needed

Some Kalamazoo-area physicians have been reluctant to recommend
medical marijuana, forcing patients to travel to other parts of the
state to get a doctor's endorsement, several users said.

"Patients, they're having to jump through hoops," said Greg
Francisco, of Paw Paw, executive director of the Michigan Medical
Marijuana Association.

Doctors are using caution because they are trying to understand the
medical benefits before recommending marijuana, said Dr. Ronald
Seagle, the family medicine outpatient medical director at Michigan
State University Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies.

"Right now medical marijuana is very new," he said. "It's so new it's
not within the realm of accepted medical standards yet."

Seagle and medical-marijuana patients and caregivers say more
research is needed.

For doctors, recommending marijuana isn't like prescribing drugs, Seagle said.

Doctors recommend it, the state regulates it, and patients use it how
they wish. This situation poses more confusion for doctors, Seagle said.

"In the medical community, we are taking it seriously," he said.
"Personally, why I think any research is not being done at this point
is because of the public stigma of smoking marijuana."

Tainted Subject?

Aaron Hatfield is working to erase that stigma.

Hatfield heads the Kalamazoo Compassion Club, a loose-knit group of
about 50 patients, caregivers and advocates of medical-marijuana that
meets every other week.

At a recent meeting, several club members talked about the many pills
they once took to treat their conditions.

"My wife, my family, would much rather be around me on marijuana than
(on the antidpressant and anti-anxiety drug) Effexor," Hatfield said.

He said public perception needs to change so research on marijuana
can advance. But for now, club members believe people are starting to
recognize their cause.

"I abide by the laws. I pay my taxes," Hatfield said. "I'm not a criminal."

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MICHIGAN MEDICAL MARIJUANA:

By the Numbers

Michigan's medical marijuana law, which allows approved patients who
are seriously ill to use the drug for medical purposes, was passed by
voters in November and took effect in April. As of June 23, a total
of 1,974 people had received state identification cards to use
medical marijuana. Some 700 caregivers who are licensed to grow and
provide the drug to medical-marijuana patients also were approved.
Here is a breakdown of the number of identification cards issued so
far in southwestern Michigan counties:

Kalamazoo: 49 patients, 21 caregivers.

Calhoun: 39 patients, 16 caregivers.

Van Buren: 32 patients, 17 caregivers.

Allegan: 34 patients, 11 caregivers.

St. Joseph: 14 patients, 3 caregivers.

Barry: 12 patients, 8 caregivers.

Cass: 10 patients, 2 caregivers.

Total: 190 patients, 78 caregivers.

Source: Michigan Department of Community Health