PETITION TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA IN STATE WON'T SOLVE PROBLEM

ADRIAN, Mich. - Michigan's attempt to legalize medical marijuana has
created widespread confusion, as two more cases before the state
Supreme Court illustrate, and ongoing conflict with federal law. So
backers of a new Michigan proposal to legalize marijuana outright
should refocus their efforts at the root of the problem.

By now, virtually everyone concedes Michigan's 2008 ballot initiative
legalizing medical marijuana was well-intentioned but had serious
problems. To name just a few were vagueness over how patients could be
certified, how caregivers could legally obtain plants and the issue of
dispensaries.

The thorniest issue, though, is the state law's defiance of the
federal government's ban on marijuana. Even with state legalization
extended only to medical patients with certain illnesses, federal
authorities have conducted raids and seized medical records, and
Michiganders have ended up sentenced to time in federal prisons.
Expanding state permission to grow, sell and use marijuana to hundreds
of times more people will only expand the number of federal cases
against Michigan residents.

To be clear, we believe the federal war on marijuana has been a
mistake in terms of money spent, lives lost and power given to illegal
drug cartels that flout the prohibition. Although we do not endorse
the use of marijuana, just as we do not endorse smoking cigarettes, we
believe it's time to end the federal ban and to implement a process of
regulation, both medically and commercially. A Gallup poll in October
showed that a record 50 percent of Americans now feel the same way.

That can't happen, however, until the federal ban ends. Passing
conflicting state laws won't work. The U.S. Supreme Court already
addressed precisely that issue, with marijuana, in its 2005 case
Gonzales vs. Raich. It ruled 6-3 that state law is no defense against
the federal ban, even for home-grown marijuana used for medical purposes.

That's not to say the latest petition drive doesn't have some appeal.
For one thing, it eventually could help push Congress to do what it's
failed to for decades. For another, it would end the state's current
sham in which healthy residents obtain bogus certification without any
medical need. We also applaud the efforts of supporters seeking to
make a bad situation better.

Passing a state initiative that would put even more residents in
violation of federal law, though, is irresponsible. It would be little
different than telling state residents they don't need a license to
fly an airplane, or anything else that the federal government
prohibits. It might mean less effort by local officials pursuing
marijuana - although federal-local operations might occur - yet it
would certainly mean state money wasted on a federal court battle
that's already been lost. In the end, it would result in more people
who thought they'd obeyed the law finding themselves in federal court
facing federal prison sentences.

A better route for ending the ban is to pressure Congress. Sen. Carl
Levin is a longtime member and Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Rep. Tim
Walberg both are up for election. If they truly believe in
respectively, compassion for the ill in Stabenow's case or limited
federal government in Walberg's, then they ought to support the ban
repeal already introduced by Reps. Barney Frank and Ron Paul or
introduce a different version themselves.

Trying to fix a federally based problem through further defiance at
the state level may feel satisfying but, in the end, will not fix a
federal prohibition that has been a nationwide failure.