DENYING ACCESS TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA DENIES A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT

Holland, MI - Voters passed the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMMA)
in 2008, a citizen-initiated ballot initiative, by a wide margin. It
took a bottom-up movement because change isn't coming from the top
down. An overarching governmental system continues to unjustly deprive
ill persons safe access to an herbal medicine verified by science as
being efficacious in treating a variety of ailments with low side
effects. If it were any other medicine, everyone would be outraged and
protest.

Actively depriving someone access to a drug that can improve their
health may not rise to the level of crime but it's certainly a grave
violation of a foundational human medical right. However, when it
comes to this medicine, a widely embraced medical right gets thrown
onto the garbage heap. The federal government not only continues to
deny access to it but also sometimes punishes those who privately use
it for their well-being by stiff fines and imprisonment, even if such
a person were dying.

Appallingly, officials at all levels of government, in the judicial
system and in law enforcement feel no responsibility or guilt
whatsoever as they participate in the overarching system that
perpetuates this violation of a key human right by depriving persons
safe access to this medicine. Therefore, a unique grass-roots movement
has remained the only viable means by which to overthrow this
entrenched injustice. Only as this movement gains support from the
bottom up will things change.

It's true that when voters passed the MMMA, its language didn't
clarify that dispensaries would eventually emerge, to date around 150
of them. But that's not the main point to consider when judging the
emergence of such services. The MMMA doesn't resolve all obstacles
qualifying patients must overcome. Among the MMMA's flaws - which the
Legislature must fix as soon as possible - is the inability of many
patients to gain immediate, dependable access to this medicine.
Because of supply problems, pressure for a supplementary source for
this medicine has built up.

I can't go into details of the legal foundation in the MMMA that
justifies opening a dispensary. But the current law allows for an
interpretation that at least one type of dispensary is indeed lawful,
and one Michigan circuit court judge has so far agreed . To be sure,
the aggressive county prosecutor who filed criminal charges against
owners of such a service organization has appealed the Isabella County
judge's decision. Yet it may take years for such cases to be resolved
or for the Legislature to act in clarifying the law, continuing the
outrageous violation of a basic human rights.

There's another point to consider. Neither the aggressive county
prosecutor mentioned above nor state lawmakers at the forefront of
initiating reform of the current law have an agenda to outright ban
dispensaries. Instead, they want to regulate them. Therefore, later or
sooner, they will be unambiguously lawful. Sooner is far more just,
wouldn't you agree?

We have proposed a tightly regulated and monitored system for
dispensaries that seeks to correct - now -t he shameful denial of a
basic human right by offering a supplementary source for this
medicine, among other crucial services. But some officials argue this
should wait until Michigan's Supreme Court or the Legislature acts.
Really? More of the same, more top down? Our broken state law has been
on the books since 2008. And they want patients to wait who knows how
long?

Anyone who participates in the current unjust overarching system - or
fails to challenge it, including The Sentinel's editorial board,
("Miss: Medical Marijuana Protest," April 16) - ought to search their
conscience and ask themselves, "Am I, in whatever small or large way,
partly contributing to the unjust violation of a foundational human
right?" Will you please join the bottom-up movement - now?

We do agree with one thing The Sentinel editorial stated: " ... in our
view it's legitimate for local governments to make their own rules
regulating dispensaries." That's right, they ought to be allowed,
regulated and monitored by our city, as we have proposed.