ORG HOSTS MARIJUANA ACTIVISM BOOT CAMP

Simulcast to Inform Advocates and Users on Their Rights

The Americans for Safe Access and the National Lawyers Guild will
hold a nationally simulcasted activist boot camp training Feb. 19 and
20 in the Wayne State Law School for medical marijuana users and advocates.

The ASA is the nation's largest organization made up of patients,
medical professionals and advocates for the therapeutic use of
marijuana, said Brandy Zink of the ASA.

Zink said the goal of the training is to organize and mobilize
advocates and to inform people of their rights.

"Patients are being trampled on all over the state," Zink said.

Zink said the Michigan Department of Community Health has done a poor
job of issuing permanent carrying cards within 20 days.

What happens, she said, is patients are being pulled over and
arrested because they don't have their plastic cards on them. And
police aren't accepting the temporary paperwork despite the language
on the paperwork telling them to do so, Zink said.

"Patients are being arrested every day," she said. "Hundreds, if not
thousands, are being wrongfully arrested."

Since the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act was passed in 2008, several
cities and townships have tried to circumvent state law and ban
medical marijuana with local ordinances.

"The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act clearly permits patients with
state-issued medical marijuana cards to take marijuana to treat their
illnesses," Michael J Steinberg, legal director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Michigan, wrote in an e-mail.

"While every law is subject to interpretation, cities that make any
use or possession of medical marijuana a crime are thumbing their
nose at state law and Michigan voters who overwhelmingly approved the
law in 2008."

The ACLU currently is involved in pending lawsuits with Livonia,
Wyoming, Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham, "because they have enacted
ordinances banning medical marijuana within their cities," Steinberg said.

On the other side, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said
earlier in February on Grand Rapids' WOOD TV8, the act is "exploited
by those who really are making a mockery of laws across Michigan." He
went on to say the law is "loosely written" and taken advantage of by
those pushing for complete marijuana legalization.

The activist training will take place both days from 9:30 a.m. to
5:30 p.m. at the Law Classroom Building, room 1525, and is set to
involve thousands from across the nation, Zink said. There are only
two locations in Michigan: WSU and Gulliver.

Zink said it is the first time ASA has done this type of training and
decided to link up with the NLG after attending a symposium on
medical marijuana the guild sponsored two years ago.

The NLG began in Detroit in 1937. It is an organization "dedicated to
the need for basic change in the structure of our political and
economic system," according to the website. Its members - both
attorneys and students - often are seen at progressive rallies or
demonstrations wearing neon-green caps as legal observers.