It is hard to have a opinion different then so many here but because I love my fellow patients as myself I feel these words must be shared . So many of us are so vulnerable and weak we are willing to give up rights out of fear hoping to avoid confrontation or change . It will occur where ever lines are drawn - we must accept it and politely fight for what is moral and correct .

Rick Jones recently released a draft of Michigan Senate Bill 17 to disallow patient's right to assemble and use their own medicinal Cannabis together in a private setting as a club similar to the Eagles , VFW , Moose , Knights of Columbus , or Fraternal Order of the Police all do with alcohol for recreation .

I never propose to compare medical Cannabis use to recreational alcohol use but how ironic is it that this diametric treatment could exist in any reasoning or code of law in absolute terms . I support their freedoms and I expect them to respect mine . Medicinal Cannabis use on private property with other parties that believe the same is legal now under our State Law . Sharing the cost like in the Fraternal Order of the Police through memberships only makes sense . Any deviation from this is a ploy of the prohibitionist's or their interests to restrict patients and continue decades of discrimination against them .

How repressed do a sub group of our society ( especially cannabis patients who support this restriction ) have to be to even think making it illegal is logical for patients who are suffering severely ..sometimes in the process of dieing and unable to get out without medicating and help ; along with nowhere to go where they can be accepted as ill as they are . Patients that are already so restricted as to where they can use their medicinal cannabis unlike any other medications . Why should they sit alone like prisoners in a cage !

Forget that there are those that can get around easier then others with more opportunities but what decent patient organization would not carry on as the Marines and leave no patient behind especially those alone in isolation . I emphasize many people cannot leave the house without treating hourly where some need assistance also , others just need to be medicated .

If it only takes medicinal cannabis use to help them have the desire to get out , to do more , to focus through suffering , what can it hurt . All of us patients have seen improvement over time from it in many cases . What can it hurt to allow people to assemble in patient clubs with others of similar needs and knowledge pertinent about their conditions to share and through fellowship promote healthier outcomes by example . Patients who have fallen need a place to climb back up Maslow's ladder of self actualization .

We need clubs the sick and injured can use in private as qualified patients , where recreational therapy is available and also healthy inexpensive foods . Let us strive to keep proper balance in these lives - for healing's sake and for the spillover benefit's it will unlock .

All work and no play made Jack a dull boy and suffering with disease , injury and restricted abilities they create often leads to patients struggling more and more to accomplish the same amount of daily activities meeting basic needs of survival with severe pain ( mental and physical ) . Activities these patients were used to completing in the past easily leading to stress , frustration leaving little access or time for recreation or socialization with others and a more rapid decline . Patients loose all balance of work and play in their lives .

Nobody more then patients are aware of how often cannabis use does slow the detrimental effect's of injury/disease on many leading to improved mental and physical health from accompanied increased activity as they respond in less pain and a better mood when experiencing medicinal cannabis effect's . Experiencing them on their own dosing terms of comfort and implementing more activity at their own pace . These items also spur a desire to eat more foods and if they are among a group espousing and providing healthier choices with easy access the results are amazing . This can be accomplished in social clubs . Sitting at home alone using cannabis will not provide all patients need to gain full benefit from medicinal cannabis use .

Suffering is giving patients incentive to use Cannabis after other medications have failed them . Suffering is giving patients who were barely moving motivation to grow their relief or work toward being able to do that if not able and that physical and mental activity with access to proper nutrician and socialization lost previously to illness /injury , heals and or ad's to quality of life .

Patients need more places to use their medicinal Cannabis in a sheltered ( that means with people tolerant , familiar and empathetic toward hidden and visible disability ) point of safety to meet with others hopefully benefiting from the social interaction , support and sharing of ideas on how to recover and maintain health . Believe me patients often have as much or more constructive knowledge then most professionals about healing themselves and Cannabis is bringing many together in fellowship . Legal patients invite law enforcement to stop by to support them just not restrict or discriminate against them . Many cannot stand up to arrest and change in daily , medicinal routines or living environments .

I hate to be so dire as to say shame on people who espouse more restrictive viewpoints but , what is the problem ? Do you not believe in the saftey of what your participating in ? Are you not seeing many using less real dehabilitating medications with severe side effects ? Are you so repressed and afraid from discrimination of the past you feel you must give up rights to authorities who do not like our Act due to guilt ? Where in the act or anywhere else in law or society do we give up these rights to assemble in private ? You are not doing anything wrong why do patients buy into guilt and feel they must concede their God given right to live unmolested in society as the Act provides because some are fighting for more access through enhanced dispensation and change in attitudes . You have the right not to leave your home or drive if you feel unsafe when using cannabis or not to partake at a private club and the converse must also be upheld .

It is fine if you don't think Compassion Clubs should have those activities but to ban assembling and using Cannabis in private clubs for for everyone in every instance is wrong . I can assure you I will support a VFW, Moose , Eagles , or Fraternal Order of the Police type cannabis patient club format and so will many others . I hope we do not see illegal speakeasy type environments develop which are unsafe for patients , would promote more illegal activity and would not be beneficial or in the spirit of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act . The need for social outlets for qualified patients where their medicinal needs are met clearly exists .

It is sad to divide on this point of basic freedoms within our community . Again due to fear and non education of the realities of common sense policy in real world practice .

The whole point of the program was to bring use out in the open to safer enviroments , protect vulnerable patients, end discrimination , and espouse medicinal investigation that wasn't occurring though we know Cannabis has medicinal qualities . Dozens of pages in the 1914 Department of Agricultural Annual Report document it , as well as , thousands of substantiated reports our Government will not recognize nor investigate .

When people get all worried about patients driving it's ridiculous thinking because this is our medicine and we become accustom to it . 6% of the Population has been using Cannabis recreationally and driving all during the drug war and it's prohibition . I have never seen evidence there are anywhere close to 1/20 accidents with people who have Cannabis in their system involved . Throw away the mores of the past they were built on propaganda . You can work , you can drive after you adjust to medicinal Cannabis use just like any other medicinal item . If you feel you can't then it is your individual responsibility to stop use or don't participate . We do not need a blanket zero tolerance law that effects qualified patients . Courts must act in a just matter and follow the Act's guidelines and protections - truth and justice will prevail in time . The evidence of impairment making for dangerous drivers or workers when users are familiar with their own Cannabis dosing is just not there.

People ask how can we fix this situation , all the argument's in our State , the fact some in Goverment want to change our Act and appease the people who are angry saying they didn't expect what is happening ?

You do it with honest expression of needs , and you fight for your rights to be treated the same as any other patient on any other medicinal item because you have the rights their trying to take from you . If your too sick thats OK then you rest and get back into the fight when you can and know that others will carry on for you so nobody has to suffer from discrimination for using medicinal cannabis one day . This is medicinal ,helping and each of you worried and giving up rights to appease those who never will be appeased need not do so . It won't help . You must keep your rights and lead by example being as productive as you can , showing your self worth and this Cannabis community is one of the richest in that regard I have ever witnessed . We are no different then any other user's of medicinal items and have all the same needs .