MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW NEEDS CLARIFICATION, NOT NEW RESTRICTIONS

There's no doubt about it, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act needs
clear rules from Lansing to blow away the haze surrounding it.

But "Dr. Bob," Dr. Robert Townsend of Clare, may be right when he
says a package of eight bills in the Legislature is the wrong way to do it.

Sixty-three percent of Michigan voters in November 2008 approved an
initiative legalizing the medical use of marijuana in Michigan. The
act specified that the state Department of Community Health write
administrative rules making the voters' wishes work.

That has happened only to a limited degree.

The health department did set up a registry so patients could, under
Michigan law, carry cards saying they may legally possess, grow and
use limited amounts of medical marijuana. But neither the act nor the
health department said just how patients could legally get this drug,
except from a registered caregiver, or lawfully obtain the seeds to grow it.

So, we're left with the state, local governments, doctors, police and
patients stumbling around the overly vague law, and a slew of medical
marijuana dispensaries popping up across the state to provide
registered medical marijuana patients with the drug.

These dispensaries exist within the cloud of uncertainty around the
law. Nothing in state law or state rules specifically allows them to
operate. The act only states that a registered caregiver may grow up
to six plants each for up to five patients, and receive compensation
for the cost of the work.

Michigan's medical marijuana patients need clarification on how they
may get their drug. They should not have to rely on a wink from
authorities, who today may ignore dispensaries, and tomorrow raid
them and shut them down.

And they should not be forced into constraints outlined among eight
bills introduced in the Legislature.

One of the proposals would require patients to get their medical
marijuana certification from a "traditional" doctor-patient
relationship. If a patient's doctor refuses to prescribe marijuana,
that provision would shut him off from a drug that voters have OK'd
for medical use. It's why patients seek out professionals like Dr.
Bob, who examine their medical records, see them in person, and will
prescribe what they view as a legitimate treatment for pain and nausea.

What is a "traditional" medical relationship, anyway? Does that count
people who rely on walk-in medical clinics for their medical care?
What about poor people who don't go to any doctor regularly, but may
see one only in an emergency room, when their pain, for example,
becomes unbearable?

It is not Lansing's job to shut any person out of access to a drug
that Michigan voters have legalized for diagnosed conditions.

Dr. Bob warns that some legislators are seeking to take away
patients' access to marijuana.

That should not happen.

But we do encourage lawmakers to better enable all Michiganders to
live with the Medical Marijuana Act.

Define how and where patients may legally get their marijuana, and
the seeds to grow it.

The role of these dispensaries needs to be cleared up. Are they legal or not?

State law should protect doctors who prescribe marijuana from
pressure that their professional associations, affiliated clinics and
hospitals and law enforcement personnel may bring to prevent the practice.

Finally, marijuana growing operations need some very clear rules.
Police all across the state and here in Saginaw County have raided
quite a few because seedlings may be counted as full-fledged plants
or marijuana is found growing in locations that police may not
consider "enclosed" or "secure" enough.

Government, law enforcement, doctors, patients and caregivers need to
know what is right under the law.

Lansing should enable the will of Michigan voters with clear rules,
not bury medical marijuana under an avalanche of unreasonable restrictions.