MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW REMAINS HAZY

Arrests, Firings Follow 2008 Bill

Michigan's two-year-old law allowing the use of marijuana for medical
purposes is leaving communities, courts, patients and police locked
in disputes over what is legal and what isn't.

Many patients who have the state's OK to use marijuana to ease their
pain from conditions ranging from cancer to Crohn's disease have been
arrested and others have been fired because of different
interpretations of the law approved by Michigan voters in late 2008.
Courts face a rash of medical marijuana cases, with the law raising
so many questions one state appeals court judge described reading it
as a "maze."

Local governments are jumping in and passing their own ordinances,
mostly trying to limit, ban or regulate a wave of businesses popping
up to grow and sell the drug.

In Battle Creek, a moratorium on new medical marijuana businesses
will likely be extended another six months. City officials hope more
time will bring clarity to the state law.

A similar freeze in Marshall is set to expire in late January. City
Attorney Paul Beardslee said the Marshall City Council could take one
of several approaches, including letting the moratorium expire, but
he said he wouldn't be surprised if Marshall also lengthened its
moratorium because of the uncertainly surrounding the state statute.

"It raises as many questions as it answers," Beardslee said.

Michigan isn't alone in trying to sort out hazy medical marijuana
laws. Fourteen other states have similar statutes -- prompting raids
and debate over local regulations in California, disputes over which
doctors can recommend pot in Colorado and fights over proposed
regulations in New Jersey.

Many of the clashes are between medical marijuana advocates who say
they're acting within the law and police who say they aren't. Adding
to the tension is federal law that continues to ban the use and
possession of marijuana. Although it won't be a top priority for
lawmakers in a state swamped by economic and state government budget
problems, Michigan's next Legislature likely will devote some time to
clarifying the law.

Ari Adler, a spokesman for incoming Republican House Speaker Jase
Bolger, said "the level of confusion" that exists related to the law
likely will prompt the new Legislature to address it during the
2011-12 session.

Michigan's more than 45,000 licensed medical marijuana patients can
possess up to 2-1/2 ounces of usable marijuana and have up to 12
plants kept in an enclosed, locked facility -- or have a registered
caregiver grow the drug for them.

Some police agencies want a better system to verify the authenticity
of authorization cards. Physicians must certify patients would
benefit from the pain-reducing aspects of marijuana, but it's left to
the patients to register with the state and to self-regulate the
amount and quality of the drug they take.

"There is absolutely no connection to medicine and what's going on
with medical marijuana right now," said Oakland County Sheriff Mike
Bouchard. "You don't have a required patient-doctor relationship. You
don't go to a state-licensed, inspected and regulated facility like a
pharmacy. ... It's creating already a lot of problems and a lot of
misconceptions."

Advocates of medical marijuana say nothing in the law prohibits
dispensaries and collective growing facilities, and that communities
are ignoring the will of Michigan voters by cracking down on those
businesses. Advocates of the law say it's broad by design to protect
a wide range of activities.

Many Michigan communities have said state law isn't clear or is
largely silent on how the drug can be grown and distributed by anyone
other than patients or caregivers, or how plants and seeds can be
bought in the first place.

Officials in Battle Creek grappled with the dispensing issue before
deciding to hold off on approving any ordinances regulating medical marijuana.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the southeastern Michigan
cities of Livonia, Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills and joined a
lawsuit against the west Michigan city of Wyoming over policies it
says effectively ban the use of medical marijuana.

Local governments counter that they are trying to make sure illegal
drug dealing and other crimes don't take place in the absence of a
clear state law.

Individual patients also have run into trouble with police or
employers. Joseph Casias, authorized by the state to use marijuana
because of pain associated with cancer, lost his job at a Wal-Mart
store in Battle Creek in 2009 after testing positive for pot. He's
battling the company in court.