COURT SHOWS NEED TO FIX STATE POT LAW

Is it really so difficult to fix a state law? Lansing has had more
than two years to iron out the bugs in Michigan's Medical Marihuana
Act, but state lawmakers have failed to deliver.

A majority of Michigan's voters approved the law in 2008 with the best
intentions. With the drug's ability to ease chronic pain or reverse
the effects of glaucoma and other medical conditions, making it
legally available for those purposes made good sense.

But the law's lack of clarity -- who could sell marijuana, where the
drug could be sold and who was eligible to buy it -- was a disservice
to the people who legitimately need it and an indictment of state
lawmakers who should have fixed those problems.

Last week, the Michigan Court of Appeals weighed in. The panel ruled
dispensaries in which patients sell marijuana to other patients cannot
operate.

That effectively closes hundreds of Compassionate Care Centers and
similar businesses that sprung up after the Michigan Medical Marihuana
Act became law. It also leaves marijuana users without a legal source.

Now that the appellate court confirmed the law doesn't work, the
Legislature should revamp it.

A package of eight bills Republican lawmakers introduced this month
clearly meet law enforcement concerns. Patient-to-patient sales of the
drug would be outlawed; police could access the state's medical
marijuana patient registry; dispensaries would be subject to zoning
guidelines; and a physician only could prescribe the drug to patients
who are part of his or her practice.

Of those reforms, the zoning regulations have the most promise. The
prescription requirements and sharing the marijuana patient registry
with law enforcement could raise patient privacy concerns protected by
the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The medical marijuana law is supposed to make it legal and easy for
patients to acquire the drug. This new legislation does little to meet
that need.

Limited legalization of marijuana does come with the risk of criminal
activity, and the law's reforms should ensure the use of medical
marijuana has reasonable safeguards.

There also must be reasonable guidelines to allow patients to obtain
marijuana.

The law's drawbacks have been well-known for some time. State
lawmakers must come up with reforms that clarify the law without
penalizing the people it was created to help.