Here we go

These BOZO'S have no clue:
"Abuse " depends on a steady supply. If their is no material to draw a habit of use from there simply is NO ABUSE that is running wild like they claim they are trying to avoid
In most areas there is a shortage of steady safe access....Besides we can self regulate very well thank you very much !

So Cut The Carp about looking out for the good of the people.Mr. State Rep.

The people have spoken now step aside and allow those in need access to their medicine.

Makes ya want to run right out and vote for him again doesn't it?

Oh don't get me wrong the Illegal's have a bunch of cannabis .But true grown for MED Grade cannabis is not totally in place yet in many communities.

Good ,cost effective, clean, reliable cannabis medicine needs to be our goal on a national level.

I feel evryone in need should have the oppertunity to have their card...I also feel that anyone who can grow should,

I would like to see growers try other strains outside of their known Cloned and known strains since longevity will depend on fresh seed grown crops as well as time passes.

Personally I would love to see some nice clean cheap old school cannabis make a come back..
Does anyone remember the 60's& 70's

HOW?
By rousing everyone who can or knows how to simply grow something.

If our so called leaders see cannabis everywhere and find that the world as they know it has not fallen off it's axes because of the cannabis culture .Well you get the idea.

GROW OUT AMERICA
Not just Michigan...
This needs to be a national agenda for the sake of all.

If the good old boys on the state level want to keep playing games maybe we need a special national election.

Nothing of this magnitude has come our way in recent times. We need to make our voice heard nationwide! Get involved...Join The MMMA and your local compassion Club...
"Grass Roots" is the only way.Education Is the Key!
brothermike

the problem is, they have all the time in the world to keep bringing these things up. this is their job, to sit there and think of how they can ask us what we want and demand, and then try to figure out how to make it as difficult as possible to get it

Do these morons not get it? The people are tired of government regulation of marijuana.

We are the voters, we have spoken.

We can petition again and vote again.

When will they learn they can't beat the majority?

I sincerely hope that someone with knowledge of policy and lawmaking from within the MMMA is taking a serious look at this. Also a unified message would seem to me to be key. Also this issue needs to be Front page here at the MMMA and at the top. Everyone needs to know ASAP. An email campaign should be launched to all members as well.

Reading Wayne Kuipers response he gives away his strategy quite clearly. At the end of his email he says;

"Once again, I appreciate hearing your input as I expect these bills will be amended as they move through the legislative process."

It is obvious to me that he has made the language far to restrictive on purpose. Then he can negotiate for terms that will appear to be a compromise. However there is no doubt that the real motive is to make it more difficult to obtain medical cannabis.

The second proposed bill here about penalty for violating the rules seems to me to be to be a distraction and if it should become part of the bill it would be sacrificed in the name of compromise as well.

They do not care at all about 10 facilities etc... They are only seeking to get a foot in the door for control of the rules and regulations.

I have little doubt that the Police and Sheriff's are behind this. Anyway they can stop medical marijuana they will.

So our emails question specifics of the bill could have a detrimental affect in that it may send the wrong message to lawmakers that the bill may be acceptable if it is amended. The whole thing needs to be squashed as quickly and loudly as possible.

Please let me know what the MMMA plans as a response.

Initiative or referendum law; effective date, veto, amendment and repeal.

Any law submitted to the people by either initiative or referendum petition and approved by a majority of the votes cast thereon at any election shall take effect 10 days after the date of the official declaration of the vote. No law initiated or adopted by the people shall be subject to the veto power of the governor, and no law adopted by the people at the polls under the initiative provisions of this section shall be amended or repealed, except by a vote of the electors unless otherwise provided in the initiative measure or by three-fourths of the members elected to and serving in each house of the legislature. Laws approved by the people under the referendum provision of this section may be amended by the legislature at any subsequent session thereof. If two or more measures approved by the electors at the same election conflict, that receiving the highest affirmative vote shall prevail.

I still think we need to get a bill written up with the provisions added we want from like RHode Island and start circulating that bill in the Judiciary committee alongside this proposed bill. I don;t expect it to pass, but we will then be ready in a mere 18 months from now with solid legislation sitting on the hill and hopefully some rep's willing to push it through a committee.. :-)

I put this under Proactive vs Reactive.

We shouldn't be sitting back waiting for Kingpinn to get drug through the courts over what a proper enclosure is, we should define it ourselves and get that ammendment sitting in Lansing. We shouldn;t wait to see if plants have rights, we should define it. We shouldn;t wait for patient/patient transfers, we should ammend it, we shouldn;t wait for dispensaries, we should confer and make our own ammendment and add it to the others. We shouldn't wait about what are 'reasonable amounts, we should add seedlings up to 12 as 'unusable' cannabis like they are in Rhode Island, get a bill formed with all these values we will hold dear and have it sitting in Lansing for consideration. Whether now, 18 months from now, we NEEED this ready and available. How about an ammendment stating that a patient shall always have the right to grow? Yea, ...

I am just some guy and honestly don;t know where to start exceptmaybe contact the MPP guys about this. It can;t possibly be that hard to copy and paste most of that language from Rhode Islands legislation or other states legislation. Form it, stick it in the current dam bill and find a kind soul in Lansing to present it for us. :)

We are and will continue to fall behind in the PROACTIVE approach. It is obvious we are far behind just by the fact Kuipers legislation is already sitting there, regardless if it will pass.

I want to be the guy IN the Capitol pushing our legislation through, not the guy standing outside protesting legislation i do not want like Kuipers.

Yes, by all means,let's leave this debate to professionals who are familiar w/ medical marijuana. Which eliminates about 98% of doctors and politicians and includes many "lobbyists and activists."

Any substantial changes to voter approved Initiated Law 1 of 2008 such as squeezing out caregivers in favor of a 10 mega grower monopoly requires a 3/4 vote of both the MI House and Senate which is a very high bar indeed. Never know but it seems pretty unlikely.

If they truly cared about having some control over manufacture and distribution, they'd figure out how to regulate (and tax) dispensaries and cooperatives.

We absolutely need to keep the pressure on and let them know that any attempts to water down or steal our hard won victory will come at a very high price. To them.

looks like kuipers Bill completly elimenates
the caregivers..............am i right?????.

thats against the MMM Act............am i right?????

"Dr. William R. Morrone, assistant director of Family Medicine at Synergy Medical Education Alliance in Saginaw, said the measures are worth a debate involving professionals who know the issues, such as physicians, and not just a dialog between lobbyists and activists."

These are the same physicians that we, the patients, have been trying to educate about the many uses of cannabis. You go to your doctor, ask him what he knows about cannabis based treatment, he cringes under the examining table. There are very few doctors out there that know jack poop about cannabis...and we're supposed to think they have our best interest in mind...I think not! These fools don't have an inkling of an idea what the issues are.

Please folks, write (a handwritten letter is more effective) to your state rep and senator, let them know that this is madness, utter madness!!!

Peace...j.b.

.... we need to inform them of what the Status quo is, Mairjuana is the number one cash crop grown in the United States and we still import more. This bullshit is laughable. Half of the high school kids say they can get it easily. But this dipweed thinks that a bill will change all of that. VV

Saginaw Township lawmaker proposes bills to regulate medical marijuana use
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2009/05/saginaw_township_law...
by Barrie Barber | The Saginaw News
Sunday May 31, 2009, 9:23 AM

A Great Lakes Bay Region state senator wants to set sentencing guidelines for people who violate regulations for using medical marijuana.

State Sen. Roger N. Kahn, a Saginaw Township Republican, plans to sponsor legislation under which violators would face up to two years in prison and pay up to a $25,000 fine.

The legislation, part of a three-bill package, is set for introduction next week.

"The people have spoken out about having medical marijuana available, but there's some issues here" that need clarification, said Kahn, a cardiologist and sponsor of the sentencing guidelines.

The bills would protect medical patients, primary caregivers, doctors and pharmacists who strictly follow medical marijuana laws.

Among other things, the proposals would require dispensing marijuana as a controlled substance under the public health code and protect doctors for writing prescriptions and pharmacists for selling it to qualified patients.

Marijuana patients would have to use the substance grown at and sold through a state-licensed growing facility, the legislation says. Patients could obtain marijuana only with a prescription from a doctor and dispensed by a pharmacist.

The state would allow no more than 10 growing facilities and give each a one-year license. An application and license fee would cost $2,500.

In November, voters OK'd a statewide ballot initiative legalizing the medicinal use of marijuana. The state Department of Community Health issues cards to approved users and caregivers. The law allows approved individuals to grow and use the substance, but it doesn't provide a way to legally procure the plants or seeds.

Federal law does not allow licensed medical practitioners to prescribe marijuana because it's specified as a "Schedule 1" drug. While users must have a doctor's recommendation to obtain a card, physicians aren't required to sign off on registration requests.

"We're all extremely interested in making sure the average person who needs the product isn't liable for heavy penalties, but those that abuse it will have to face them," said state Rep. Kenneth B. Horn, a Frankenmuth Republican. "The bills clear up confusion. They're worth taking a look at."

State Rep. Andy Coulouris, a Saginaw Democrat, declined comment because he had not seen the legislation.

Dr. William R. Morrone, assistant director of Family Medicine at Synergy Medical Education Alliance in Saginaw, said the measures are worth a debate involving professionals who know the issues, such as physicians, and not just a dialog between lobbyists and activists.

The key is balancing access to those who need medical marijuana while reducing the risk of abuse, he said.

"We have to make sure when we make these laws that we don't punish people who are seeking legitimate pain management, but we cannot ignore people who will abuse those laws to make money illegally off the system," said Morrone, also medical director of Hospice of Michigan in Saginaw Township.

"Sen. Kahn is trying to focus on making sure the law is not abused and to reduce the risk that increasing marijuana access has in society, period," Morrone said.

As of Thursday, the state has issued 1,188 patient cards out of 2,144 applications. It also has issued 403 caregiver cards, the state Department of Community Health said.

The Saginaw News could not immediately contact a member of the Tri-City Chapter of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association for comment on the proposed legislation.

You would think the Senator Krapper would know, being at the level of government that Krapper claims to be, that as metioned above mj is a schedule 1 drug. A Doctor cannot legally prescribe nor can a pharmacy distribute do to that classification.
To change the Feds scheduling of mj would take changing international treaty since the Controlled Substance Act 1970.
Dont see that happening anytime soon.
Perhaps Krapper is aware of that fact and wishes the entire program quashed. Sorry Krapper, the people have spoken an' we're not gonna shut-up. Looks to me like the Senator is pining for a new job. I could use a laborer in a month or so, manicuring gets so tedious. ; )

This guy is seriously deranged. Hey how many suppliers of asprin are there? F*ckin Tylenol?!?

This government is a dead
And we killed it
It was my indifference, yours?

This guy represents us!!
That means that we let him
we sat by and did not read
sat and figured someone else would inform us

Now is the time to care

Make your voices heard, whatever it takes. Youtube, marches, blogging
calls
letters
media

My god this just makes me sick

I'm not sure but I was told MI had a medical MJ program back in the time frame of 79-80
That's when the goverment gave out shitty weed so the patinets complain so they dumped the program??? Does this smell the same??

If so this azzhole is pulling a fast one for sure.just by having 10 farms grow it sounds like bullshyt.

I know that we can't ask people to vote one way or the other but I'm sure all the members in his district feel the same way as me and will vote against him next election. I will be starting to spend a lot of time in Lansing starting Tuesday. I don't know what term to use maybe lobbying?

Dear Senator Kuipers:

I am writing to express my concern w/ Senate Bills 616-618 sponsored by
Senator Wayne Kuipers. These bills purportedly, *protect(s) the public
and ensure(s) the drug is not abused.* They do nothing of the sort.
Rather, they seriously undermine the protections provided seriously ill
patients and voted into law last Nov. after the MI Legislature failed to
act on their own SB 616-618 directly conflict w/ several provisions in
the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act including restricting the cultivation
of medical marijuana to only 10 growers, requiring inspections of
medical marijuana gardens and giving pharmacists a monopoly on the
distribution of medical marijuana. These bills also will require doctors
to *prescribe* medical marijuana whereas the law itself only
requires a *recommendation.* This is very important since federal
law prohibits doctors from prescribing medical marijuana. Hence, the
Kuipers bill effectively kills the entire MI Medical Marijuana program
in one fell swoop. If this bill is enacted as written it will
effectively take this state backwards to where we were prior to Nov 3,
2008.

Senator Kuipers, I urge you to do the compassionate thing for
Michigan*s vulnerable patients and help quash SB 616-618. I live in
your district and promise you there are a lot of fellow members of the
Michigan Medical Marijuana Association in your district and we will all
make damn sure you are voted out of office! The voters have spoke once already
on this issue and will be heard on election day!

I look forward to your reply.

Dear Mr. Higgins:

Thank you for your email with regard to the Michigan Medical Marijuana
Act and Senate Bills 616-618. I appreciate the time that you have taken
to share your concerns with me.

Please know that these bills do nothing to ban the use and cultivation
of marijuana for specified medical conditions as provided for in
Proposal 1. Rather, these bills would provide some oversight on entities
growing and dispensing medical marijuana to help ensure that it is not
done so for illegal purposes.

Once again, I appreciate hearing your input as I expect these bills
will be amended as they move through the legislative process.

Sincerely,

Wayne Kuipers
State Senator
30th District

It sounds to me like he is going after the caregivers!

This would basically wipe out THCF from MI and the others. Who knows if the polls will be in epic proportion in the future.

What a worthless piece of crap.

This bill will hopefully be crushed. We need to get someone to put up our own legislation. A competing bill to show contrast. Might as well start now. It takes eons to get anything through the legislature. We should make upa bill that adds all the things RHode Island is adding and so on. Be ready. Get it circulating. :-)

I am sure MPP can help us with it?

Well lets give him our replys

This is what I recieved back from the good man that he is.All I can say is REALLY,

you decide

Dear Concerned Citizen:

Thank you for your email with regard to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act and Senate Bills 616-618. I appreciate the time that you have taken to share your concerns with me.

Please know that these bills do nothing to ban the use and cultivation of marijuana for specified medical conditions as provided for in Proposal 1. Rather, these bills would provide some oversight on entities growing and dispensing medical marijuana to help ensure that it is not done so for illegal purposes.

Once again, I appreciate hearing your input as I expect these bills will be amended as they move through the legislative process.

Sincerely,

Wayne Kuipers
State Senator

In answer to my email yesterday he wrote back.......

I agree. Any necessary legislation to implement the voter approved ballot measure providing for medical marijuana should come from a legislator who publically supported the proposal. The Senate legislation appears to be an attempt to limit access to medical marijuana rather than supporting the intent of voters.

Sincerely,

Joel Sheltrown
State Representative
103rd House District

I think it was Brad that told me it is illegal for a doctor to write a prescription for Medical Marijuana. They can only make a recommendation for its use. I can't imagine how many other laws would have to change, how many hospitals would have to re-evaluate their position on the MM act, and how long it would take to build the infrastructure to handle this on a statewide level.

The bill won't work.

Anybody have a number of legal patients so far here in Michigan?

MM deaths last year - zero
Pain killer deaths last year - thousands

I can do that math higher than a kite...LOL

used the form letter and added:

My wife Michele is critically ill with a disease called sarcoidosis. With the use of medical Marijuana she has managed to all but eliminate the use of prescription pain killers and a number of other medications she was dependent on for any quality of life. We would both be happy to talk at length about the positive changes this has made in our lives. There is information, both good and bad, true and false, circulating concerning this issue. If you have questions, we know people with real, sane and truthful answers.

Let's hope there is enough working brains in the state to see this bill for what it is, absolute crap!

I sent my letter to Senator Birkholz. I've made a few calls to the west coast, to some of my 'activist gurus' that I keep in my corner, for just such emergencies.

I always think of what George Carlin said about politicans - if we as a country elect selfish, incompetent, greedy individuals into public office - then we are the ones to blame for the state of our politics, because it is we who elect these selfish, imcompetent, greedy people into elected office. It's the best we got, folks.

Now, it's up to US to change it.

Marijuana is a Schedule 1 narcotic along with Heroin, PCP and LSD... having NO medicinal properties. Getting it changed to a Schedule 2 would require the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT reclassifying it. I doubt very seriously that's going to happen anytime soon. It would amount to the Feds admitting that they have been "blowing it" for all these many years.... This guy is blowing smoke... and it smells like some real shit weed...lol

Also called the Senate office of Senator brown, my districts Senator and left a message about this proposed bill..

Copied scooters revised letter, filled in the appropriate blanks with my state senators name and mailed it off.....

Always dipping in where they shouldn't! Here's a slight modification of Gregs Letter. I hope you don't mind Greg, I thought making sure marihuana was spelled with an H would be best, along with a couple of other changes:

Dear Senator XXXXXXX

I am writing to express my concern with Senate Bills 616-618 sponsored by Senator Wayne Kuipers. These bills purportedly “protect(s) the public and ensure(s) the drug is not abused.” They do nothing of the sort. Rather, they seriously undermine the protections provided seriously ill patients and voted into law by Michigan voters last Nov. after the MI Legislature failed to act on their own.

SB 616-618 is in direct conflict with several provisions in the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act including restricting the cultivation of medical marihuana to only 10 growers, requiring inspections of medical marihuana gardens and giving the pharmaceutical industry a monopoly on the distribution of medical marihuana. These bills will also require doctors to “prescribe” medical marihuana whereas the law itself only requires a “recommendation.” This is very important since federal law prohibits doctors from prescribing medical marihuana. Hence, the Kuipers bill effectively nullifys the entire Michigan Medical Marihuana Program in one fell swoop. If this bill is enacted as written it will effectively take this state backwards to where we were prior to Nov 3, 2008. This attempt to circumvent the will of the people of Michigan should be quashed immediately, as it not only circumvents the will of the people it is an affront to democracy itself.

Senator XXXXXXXX, I urge you to do the compassionate thing for Michigan’s vulnerable patients and help quash SB 616-618. I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Also, notice he wants to regulate mariJuana? Sorry, but we voted for medical mariHuana!

Never ending,,,,,,,,,
Lets ring those phones off the hook.

Got the letter out and will be pounding policitians doors next week.
This kind of legislation is absurd.
Clearly there are some hands in pockets on this, ( no other possible explanation) and those hands need to be broken.
If you are sick of policies being made by special interest and deep pockets now is the time to act and let these policitians know they work for you not their handouts!
I know I am raving mad about this, but please remember to be respectful when writing/approaching your respected leaders. Thanks.

I would be almost certian it comes from the pharmacuetical lobbyists.

I want to know who asked this senator to develop this legislation, because it wasn't us and I'm sure it wasn't part of the 63% that voted for it. I'd like to find out where this idea came from and who helped write it. Their concern is clearly not for patients, and apparently, those folks who drafted this are grossly uneducated about the subject.
You can bet I'll be at the capitol next week addressing this !

Thanks for alerting us Greg!
My republican "nitwit" representative is Nancy Cassis and I will be eagerly awaiting her reply to my letter.
I will post both on the website - but someone needs to show me how to do that!
Take care,
Mizerman
p.s. it's time to pick up the phone, write a letter and send e-mails

We have not even gotten the program running 100% yet and they want to amend it with these rules? That's BULL! I'm not even in this guy's constituency am I?

When is this supposed to happen, if it does? With it being a 'new' idea, and unless they come here, no one knows about it, how much time do we have to get the word out?

Dear Senator Gleason:

I am one of your constituents who voted for Proposal 1 in 2008, which has allowed Michigan's seriously ill to grow and use marihuana for medical purposes with a doctor's recemmondation and identification card issued by the Michigan Department of Community Health.

I read today that a bill (Senate Bill 618) has been introduced to the Michigan Senate Judicary Committee that would take the right to grow marihuana away from registered patients and allow big drug companies to manufacture and sell marihuana with a doctor's prescription.

I am voicing my opposition to this bill. Sixty-three percent of Michigan voters passed this initiative in 2008, and the proposal was carried in every single county. The people of Michigan who voted for and benefit from this law asserted their rights as have voters in 12 other states before us.

The overwhelming consensus in the medical marihuana community is that this proposed legislation will be detrimental to the patients protected under it by taking away their right to grow their own marihuana and increasing their costs by purchasing medicine from for-profit corporations.

The Bill is also contradictory to rights given to patients under Initiated Act 1, 2008. The Act specifically disallows legislation that is in conflict with this approved Act. In addition, the new legislation will require a doctor's prescription in order for a patient to use marihuana. Since Marihuana is a Schedule 1 controlled substance at the federal level, it is illegal for doctors to prescribe it. The current Initiated Act #1 of 2008 provides for the State of Michigan to register patients based on a doctor's recommendation - not an illegal prescription.

Please understand that this proposed legislation will:

- Strip patients of rights granted to them through a ballot initiative. 63% of Michigan voters should not have their "yes" vote become obsolete by this proposed Act;

- Prevent low-cost access to medication by current, legal patients; and most importantly

- Reject the will of the people of the State of Michigan by effectively overturning their overwhelming support of the 2008 Proposal 1.

Mr. Gleason, I have supported you in past elections and attended your fundraisers. I have long admired your service to the community and the State - especially your attention to women's rights. Your championing for the "little guy" is appreciated. I hope that you will see the benefit of standing up for the rights of sick and dying patients. I ask that you take the time to consider the predictable effects of this Bill and its nature as contrary to the will of the people of the State of Michigan. I ask that you vote against this Bill and that you speak out against it.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this position. Our medical marihuana Act does have some items that could be refined and improved, but the will of the people should not be rejected in favor of legislating a monopoly on marihuana as medication.

The State of Michigan has more important things to accomplish than overturning the will of the people.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my position.

Greed.

The Muskegon Chronicle is going to run an interview with me next week sometime. Brian Mcvickers is the reporter and I just called him and he plans on adding info about 616-618 to the article. He feels that the way they want to distribute is against Federal law....writing prescriptions and a pharmacy distributing. We need to make the public aware of this....they already voted on this issue. Let's stand strong and make sure our voices are heard!!!!

That lowlife son of a bitch!!! The voters have spoken and he is trying to circumvent the voters will. I have E-mailed him and called his office letting his staff know that in his district the MMMA has a lot of members and we will make damn sure he is voted out of office. Those were my exact words.

I just shot one over to McManus.

We need more of this information revealed to the rest of the 60something% who voted for this Act. Any way we may be able to get some publicity.

The uninformed masses might see pharms and more regulation as a good thing if they are not shown any better.