STATE MARIJUANA LAWS NEED TO BE CLARIFIED

A cat unsure of its welcome can creep into its owner's lap at a
quarter-inch per second. Pussyfooting is how we see the moves toward
full legalization of marijuana in Michigan, going back to the 2008
campaign to legalize its medical use.

It seemed an open secret at the time that creeping toward full
legalization was the ultimate goal.

Whatever Michigan residents thought about the initiative they
eventually approved, its intent seemed clear enough: It would permit
individuals with a physician's certification to use marijuana to grow
to a dozen plants for their own use. It would permit them to retain
2.5 ounces of marijuana from their own plants or from a grower, and
permit a grower, a "caregiver," to grow up to 12 plants each for a
maximum of five users.

The resulting enabling law goes no further than that. But its
enforcement and response from a community of users and growers has
made a mishmash of the issue.

The law never envisioned dispensaries. It set out what seemed to be a
very small cottage industry.

So subsequent rulings outlawing dispensaries, or any means of
distribution other than that approved by voters and spelled out in
the statute, seem to us simply to uphold the initiative and the law.

The outcry that has followed rulings outlawing dispensaries predicts
dire consequences for those with various medical conditions and
physicians' certificate, including images of little old ladies being
forced to meet their seller out on a street corner.

The preamble to the enabling act notes that growing and use of
marijuana remain illegal under federal law, but that virtually all
arrests and prosecutions on marijuana charges in Michigan are under
state law. If state laws are lenient, prosecution under federal law
is unlikely.

So perhaps it's time to stop pussyfooting around the issue of
legalizing marijuana in Michigan. Perhaps it's time to have a full
discussion of the pros and cons.

Whatever the result, where marijuana is legal and where it's not need
to be crystal clear.