MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW NEEDS A MAJOR OVERHAUL

Since the medical marijuana law was legalized in a proposition
approved by Michigan voters in 2008, people have been scratching their
heads. The law is overly confusing, leaving many aspects of the new
medical marijuana industry in a grey area.

Its intentions were noble. The law allows for a person with a chronic
illness to apply for a medical marijuana card in order to obtain
marijuana and use it to ease their pain. In some cases, patients feel
marijuana is the most effective medicine for their condition. A person
with a medical marijuana card is allowed to grow up to 12 plants for
their own use and possess 2.5 ounces, or enlist a caregiver to grow it
for them. The caregiver is allowed to provide for five patients,
growing up to 12 plants for each of them.

From there, things become confused. In March, a district judge in the
Detroit suburb of Dearborn named Mark Somers ruled in a case that
Michigan's medical marijuana law is both illegal and trumped by
federal laws, according to an article in the Associated Press. Though
his decision is by no means binding outside of Dearborn, the decision
sheds light on a growing dissatisfaction with the law.

But just in case anyone was worried that Somers was wrong and that
federal law didn't trump state law, on April 12, Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) agents raided a medical marijuana facility in
Walled Lake, Mich. Caregivers of America is a marijuana dispensary, a
facility patients can go to find caregivers to grow pot for them. It's
also a head shop.

Though the dispensary was a part of a major four-location bust of one
of the people associated with Caregivers of America, the raid clearly
shows us once again that federal law supersedes state law.

By many accounts, the Caregivers of America were perfectly law-abiding
under Michigan law. So even when people are perfectly law-abiding
Michigan citizens, there's still federal law to worry about.

If you have a medical marijuana card, you could go to a dispensary for
your medicine needs -- but right now, the legality of dispensaries
under state law are still being debated. Even if it's decided they are
legal, they aren't under federal law, so there's always the chance
their caregiver (or dealer, depending on which lens we're viewing this
through) could get busted while trying to grow their much-needed
medicine. They could grow it themselves, but you'd probably have trouble.

There's one loophole which does benefit the medical marijuana
cardholder ---- in their great wisdom, someone forgot to put something
in there about taxation. As such, everyone's pretty sure you don't
have to pay tax on medical marijuana.

People who have the medical card are supposed to have serious medical
conditions and many might not be experienced with buying marijuana
illegally or growing it. If they wanted to turn to the Michigan
Medical Marihuana Program (MMMP), the organization which registers
patients with cards, for help with growing marijuana, buying seeds or
finding a caregiver, the MMMP would refuse them.

According to the MMMP FAQ page, "The MMMP is not a resource for the
growing process and does not have information to give to patients." As
such, the MMMP forces patients to go to the Internet, to dealers or to
pseudo-legal dispensaries for their marijuana growing or buying needs.

Imagine you get perscribed Adderrall or Prozac and then are told that
your doctor cannot tell you where to get it or where to go to find the
answers to your questions. This would not only be irresponsible, it
would border on outright denying treatment.

In fact, the MMMP and the law is so out of touch with the reality of
the situation, they don't even spell marijuana with a "j." Instead,
they spell it with an "h." In the MMMP's FAQ page, the reason for the
"h" is this: "Marihuana is one of two acceptable spellings in the
dictionary." It goes on to say the spelling is consistent with
previous wording in Michigan laws.

Let's get real here for a moment. The state believes that "marihuana"
is a very powerful and much-needed medicine for some patients.
Meanwhile, everyone is pretending that marijuana is a terrible thing
for someone to do unless they have a serious condition. Everyone acts
as though they have not smoked the product themselves. Many of us --
I'd venture to say most -- have tried pot at least once.

This law needs clarification. People who need this as medicine need to
know how to procure it. They need to know what protection they have
under the law. It's outrageous that the loopholes and greyness of this
law have been allowed to continue.