POLICE NEED TO GET ON BOARD WITH PROGRAM FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

It has been more than a year since Michigan voters determined that
people, whose doctors conclude that marijuana would be beneficial in
the treatment of some malady, can use pot medicinally without fear of
arrest and prosecution.

It wasn't a close vote, either. Sixty-three percent of the electorate
voted to approve Proposal 1 on the November 2008 ballot. If it was a
politician, that kind of margin would have been considered a landslide
victory. Elected officials have claimed to have "a clear mandate" on
much thinner polling results than that.

Cops still don't like it.

Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said recently his department has
yet to bust someone for smoking marijuana, then learn the person was
smoking with a doctor's consent under the state program. Nonetheless,
he said compliance with the new law could become cumbersome in the
county, which has reduced his force due to budget cuts. Extensive time
could be spent verifying participants' cards, he added.

"It just creates so many more issues for us at a time when we have
less people and more things happening. It's kind of frustrating, from
our point of view," Bezotte said.

Local law enforcement is not alone. Protesters went to the state
Capitol in October looking for Attorney General Mike Cox to pressure
law enforcement agencies to stop raiding the homes of patients who
have registered and been approved for cards for medical marijuana use.
They said police in Flint and West Branch conducted seizures even
though the subject had a legal card.

The proposal included a process for reviewing registration
applications. Patients have to submit statements from their doctors.
The illness the marijuana is intended to treat has to meet the
criteria in the law, which includes that the patient is suffering from
cancer, HIV, Crohn's disease or other conditions involving chronic
pain. Then there is a limit as to how much they can have, 2.5 ounces
or 12 plants for an individual who has a registry card.

The latest figures available, from Dec. 18, show 12,000 applications
have been received by the state. More than 2,000 have been rejected.

So there is a screening process in place ... one voters accepted when
they voted to pass this program last November.

Quite frankly, police across the state need to get on board with this
program. Laws are not passed based on what is convenient for cops to
enforce. Election results are not dependent on what police officers
agree with.

Voters determined that if a sick person's physician concludes that
this particular drug, pot, would be useful in the treatment of some
illness, the law or a police officer should not be able to overrule
the doctor's order.

The complaints about the difficulty of enforcement are pretty weak.
When police are shown a medical marijuana card, they should stop. Of
course, medical marijuana users can't use it in public and they can't
have more than 2.5 ounces, so if there is a violation of those rules,
it's on them, not the cops.

But if it is just a matter of verifying the card, that should be a
small matter. Police verify driver's licenses all the time.

In any case, voters determined patients should be able to get the
medicine they need. If they have a card, police should leave them alone.

"We're waiting for the first time that somebody calls us and wants to
us to investigate someone stealing their marijuana. We're going to
take that really serious," Bezotte said jokingly.

Actually, they should. They'd take it seriously if someone stole a
diabetic's insulin. They'd take it seriously if someone stole a heart
patient's nitroglycerin.

Voters have said that for those who need it, marijuana is medicine.