MICHIGAN'S MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW SHROUDED IN HAZE

LANSING - 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.

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.

A class on legal issues is a staple at Med Grow Cannabis College in
Southfield, one of the few medical marijuana trade schools in the
nation. Nick Tennant, who last year opened up the trade school in
suburban Detroit, said the goal of the class is to provide students
some clarity about a law that has gray areas.

"A lot of people want definitive answers," Tennant, 25, said. "It's
just hard, because sometimes the attorneys can't really give a
definitive answer. They can give almost a 'best practices, here's how
you stay out of trouble, don't raise your risk tolerance in this gray
area' type of thing."

The school also provides students with instruction on the medical and
horticultural aspects of growing pot for medicinal use.

"We don't want the people and the public to be afraid of us or to
think we're drug dealers, because that's really a popular
misconception as well. We're here to help," said Travis Williams, a
38-year-old Detroiter who took classes at the school and now provides
marijuana he grows himself to patients.

Michigan's more than 45,000 licensed medical marijuana patients can
possess up to 21/2 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.

Oakland County narcotics agents raided two medical marijuana
dispensaries this summer after they sold the drug to deputies
carrying phony state ID cards. The city of Lansing recently adopted
an ordinance banning the opening of any new medical marijuana
businesses until July, in hopes of buying enough time for local
officials to draft rules for their operation.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the southeast 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.

Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Peter O'Connell wrote in a September
opinion that the law is susceptible to multiple interpretations and
that reading it "carelessly or out of context could result in jail or
prison time for many of our citizens." He urged state officials to
clear up contradictions and vague areas in the voter-approved 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.