APPLY BALANCE IN MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS

Protect Legal Access While Adopting Reasonable Rules

One thing is clear as the state and its communities adapt to life
after voters approved medical marijuana: It's time to reduce the
hyperbole and restore rational discussion about the legal use of the
drug.

That's true from the state Legislature, where multiple bills would
shape (some would argue narrow) the rules governing access to medical
marijuana, to the city of Lansing, where discussion of regulating
dispensaries has grown heated.

First, consider that discussions and disagreements are a natural part
of the process of adjusting to the new reality in which a large
majority of the state's voters made it clear they support access to
marijuana for its legitimate medical uses.

This is not the time or place for the pro and con arguments about
legalization of recreational marijuana. This is the time to craft
thoughtful and logical rules about medical marijuana.

At the state level, some of the many bills make sense. There is no
need, for example, to create social clubs or bars for medical
marijuana patients to come together in using the drug. People don't
gather for their daily dose of blood pressure medication; nor should
they for their medical marijuana. Banning those businesses makes sense.

Both the state and the city are considering rules to keep such
buildings 1,000 feet from schools, day cares, churches, etc. That
concern rings less true, given that some pharmacies are within that
range of such locations. Prescription drugs, after all, are a growing
category of drug abuse and illicit drug sales, yet there is no effort
to force pharmacies to move.

A pending state bill to create a database of medical marijuana card
holders available for law enforcement has arguments on both sides.
There is some safety for card holders if, for example, officers at a
traffic stop know that they are legal registered users vs. illicit
recreational users. But using that data to target registered users
should be prohibited.

A bill to block legal marijuana users from suing under the marijuana
law should not pass. Legal users need that remedy available as the
state goes through this transitional time.

As for Lansing, a moratorium on new dispensaries is set to expire on
Friday. A proposed ordinance, which ties rigorous safety and security
requirements to a license, met heated opposition. Citizens should hope
the thoughtful minds that crafted the proposal will prevail in passing
the well-reasoned ordinance.