MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN MICHIGAN IS AN UTTER MESS

When Michiganders passed the Medical Marijuana Law in 2008, I doubt
many could even imagine the impact to our state. In Bay County, 56
percent of the 56,626 voters in the 2008 election, voted for medical
marijuana. First of all, I believe the majority of Bay County
residents are good-hearted people and passed the Michigan Medical
Marijuana law with good intentions. They saw the ads with sick and
dying patients and were willing to do anything to help an ailing
person, never dreaming that the system would be abused. However, the
majority of patients for whom the program was intended are not the
ones who are using/abusing the Michigan Medical Marijuana Program.

A main selling point of the program was to help patients who had
cancer and were sick from chemotherapy. The reality is that very few
users in the MMMP (Michigan Medical Marijuana Program) have cancer,
3,119 users are in the program due to cancer. That is about 1.6
percent of the approved applications. Out of the 192,176 applications
received, 115,461 have been approved, 20,598 have been denied for
being an incomplete application and 56,117 are still waiting to be
reviewed.

The most common condition users in the medical marijuana program
receive recommendations for is "chronic pain." As of Aug. 31, 2010,
purported pain is the diagnosis utilized for 99,304 users in the
program. With pain being very subjective and difficult to gauge, it
opens the plan for a large amount of abuse just with this piece.

Most traditional patients who take medication for pain ask their
physician how long they will have to take the medication. With medical
marijuana users, most want to be involved in the program for the rest
of their lives.

The second most common box checked is muscle spasms, for 31,779
registered users, followed by severe nausea, for 13,617 users and then
cancer for 3,119 users.

The marijuana of today is not the marijuana of the '60s or '70s.
Today's hybrid plants commonly produce three to four times the THC
levels of plants in the past. With the inconsistency of plants and
production, the user never knows what dose or level they are getting.
The doctor is not able to monitor the actual dose a user is
administered. Michigan Department of Community Health indicates that
55 doctors have recommended 71 percent of all the medical marijuana
cards in Michigan, which is 1,490 applications signed per doctor. This
is just a few of the many reasons marijuana is a poor choice of medicine.

The last, but most important victims are the children. Often the drugs
and chemicals are left in reach of kids residing in these homes where
medical marijuana is used and/or grown. Children's respirations are
faster than adults, thus they potentially take in more of this
secondhand smoke, affecting their developing bodies. There are no
regulations restricting the use of this substance around children.

Medical marijuana in Michigan is an utter mess, a mockery of what most
voters intended when they approved the Medical Marijuana Act in 2008.
More drug use results in more crime, which requires more law
enforcement. And getting high is not a victimless crime -- children,
families and communities suffer, increasing costs for social services,
law enforcement and the community.