MARIJUANA DEBATE HEATS UP IN FERNDALE

FERNDALE -- Police Chief Michael Kitchen is against a proposed city
ballot issue to legalize marijuana use for medical use and says he
will campaign against it.

"I'll be speaking out," Kitchen said. "There is no such thing as
medical marijuana. It's a myth and the American Medical Association
and other groups say cannibus is a dangerous drug and a public health
concern."

However, other medical organizations such as the New England Journal
of Medicine and the American Nurses Association support legalizing
marijuana for medical use.

The city clerk has certified petitions submitted by 19-year-old
resident Donal O'Leary III, seeking to put the question on the
November ballot.

O'Leary, a University of Michigan student, has worked with Tim Beck,
who worked successfully to pass a medical marijuana initiative in
Detroit last year. Ann Arbor also has an ordinance allowing use of
marijuana with a physician's prescription.

"It will help the people in Ferndale who use marijuana as medicine for
anything from AIDS to cancer," O'Leary said. "I know Ferndale
residents who use marijuana as medicine, but have to be very quiet
about it because it is illegal."

O'Leary is chairman of the Ferndale Coalition for Compassionate Care.
O'Leary would not identify the private investor who funded his
petition drive and he hopes to get more funding now that the petitions
are certified.

The City Council is expected to verify the petitions and discuss the
issue at its 7:30 p.m. meeting Monday at City Hall. Since O'Leary has
collected enough signatures from residents to get the issue on the
ballot, the City Council is expected to forward the proposed ballot
language to the Michigan Attorney General's office, which has to
approve the language, according to Mayor Robert Porter.

State and federal law prohibits the sale and use of marijuana. Ten
states have laws that allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for
illnesses like glaucoma or the side effects of treatments for AIDS and
other diseases.

But the U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled that federal law enforcement
officers are not precluded from arresting marijuana users covered
under the state medical marijuana laws.

O'Leary argues that a local medical marijuana ordinance would allow
police to ignore medical marijuana users even though state law
prohibits any marijuana use.

"The local police can choose to enforce either the state law or local
ordinance on a particular issue like this," he said.

Porter, however, said city police are sworn to uphold the laws of the
city, state and federal government.

"Even if you approve marijuana for medical use it will still be
illegal for the person who needs it to buy or sell it," Porter said.
"The problem would be that you're still supporting drug dealers
because there is no legal source for marijuana."