If you are a medical marijuana user you should be too. If you use any drug you should be.

Okay, the State is well beyond common sense these days and the continuity of laws are becoming intertwined and contradicting themselves.

Here is my story.

Last September i was diagnosed with cancer but had my card before that. I am a vet and with no job or any medical insurance marijuana becomes my medication by choice and economic reasons. We know how expensive medicine can be. After my surgery I was requested to have check-ups every two months. This caused to have to travel I-75 every two months from Petoskey to Ann Arbor and I do it in one day. Round trip it comes to 550 miles.

In early January i made the trip to my doctors appointment and on the way home, 90 miles from home I was pulled over by the Roscommon County Police for having a light out on my license plate. I was not speeding like the guy that passed me right before i got pulled over. As the officer approached the car and I had my paperwork ready for him the first thing he asked me, and he asked me twice, " Do you have any weapons?". That shocked me and of coarse we didn't i answered no with a joking voice when he asked me again with a bit more aggressiveness and firmness in his voice. I answered no again, handed him my paperwork and was then asked to step out of the car. I obliged and went to the back of the vehicle where he made me do a spread and searched me for weapons. I then asked what is going on as i felt i was a suspect of something dealing with weapons.

That is when he said he could smell marijuana and went into asking me if I had used it? I said earlier that day i did. That is when he said i was lying and then asked if he were to search the car would he find anything. I said yes and showed him my card. That did not stop him as there were two passengers in the car also and he went to question them. He removed them from the vehicle and began his search. I could have saved him time but he wanted to do his job. There was another officer with him but I believe he was in training as he did not do anything but repeat the same questions I was already asked. By this time the officer found the marijuana. now i am the only card holder and he asked me if all the marijuana was mine and i said yes. What I did not know was my friend had a pill bottle on him with his name on it with marijuana in it. The cop then, trying to be smarter than smart tried to accuse me since i said that all the marijuana was mine that what was i doing with a pill bottle with my friends name on it. Of coarse i had to deny that it was mine and my friend was arrested on the spot for possession.

Next came me. The police officer performed a sobriety road side check on me. As far as i could tell I passed all the tests, as he did not say where I failed. At the end when he had his black fingered glove 10 inches away from my face my eyes refocused or something as he grabbed the back of my arm and handcuffed me and said i was being arrested for driving under the influence.

So far my trial date has been cancelled and changed twice. This was six months ago and i am going in on June sixth to hear their plea bargain. They are trying to charge me with being intoxicated. I gave my blood that night, lost my license, my plate and felt like I was raped.

The blood test came back showing i had 25 nano grams in my system. The law does not allow 1 nano gram of any schedule one drug in your system when you operate a motor vehicle. If you did not know that if you are a user that at any given time your blood will have 15 to 35 nano grams on a daily basis. So that being they know that if you used and if they take your blood that you will test positive and be above the laws limit.

Well this is all fine and dandy but I have a few issues with the officers and their confusion. I also think the law is over bearing and over reaching to the boundaries of what is right and what is wrong. The reason I am saying this is because i have been pulled over twice since then and yesterday took the cake.

Again i was traveling from Ann Arbor back home after my check up with my doctor. Oh and this was the beginning of the seat belt awareness program. I was shocked that i had not seen any officers patrolling. Any more i shutter when i see them. As i went through Roscommon I saw my first one, the Sheriff. As i traveled north and went into the next county after passing Grayling and came over a rise there was two state cops. There was about 10 cars in the traffic and three were doing at least 80 as they made me look like I was standing still. I thought someone is going to get pulled over. We went about a mile down the road and it was going to be me. I couldn't believe it.

Last week while taking my buddy home and passing an accident where two state cops and one county were just finishing up pulled me over. The same people in the car in January were in the car with me again. This time my buddy had his card. He took my temp paper drivers license, came back said he questioned my tag on my plate and said i was good to go and off we went. He did not question me at all, and if he did he would have found that I had a pipe on me and medicine. And being the stupid fool i am was under the influence at the time as everyone in the car was. We were coming home from Morel Mushroom Hunting. But he did not ask or anything, not even why I had a temp paper license.

But yesterdays encounter was a little different. I had no contraband or paraphernalia. I was being pulled over for a loud muffler. A Harley is louder than my car and so is a semi truck. Anyways that was her reasoning. As i gave her my paperwork she questioned why the paper license. I told her. I then told her that this is getting ridiculous and this was my third stop this year. She came back with my paperwork and then asked me to step out of the car. I did as she asked. I have no fear or do I? That's when she asks," Have you used today?" I said no and that is when she said "Can I ask You a question?" What is your question i say, remember i am not doing anything wrong, "Would I find anything in your car if I looked?" I said no. That's when she said" I can smell marijuana, do you have any in the car and have you been smoking?" Again I said no and said go ahead and check.

That is when I did something really stupid but she asked when i last used and i said yesterday. That is when i told her that I know that she can arrest me for having thc in my system and that more than likely would get a conviction and told her i understand that I can be arrested at that time. I also told her that i knew i was breaking the law knowing i had amounts of thc in my body. I was almost begging her to arrest me for driving with thc in my body. My reason, to get a free comparison of blood samples to use the states evidence against itself and prove that i was not under the influence in January. Well i did not get a ticket for anything and she let me go. So go figure, who knows what the law is? But I can tell you for sure that when you have a cop that will listen to reason take advantage of it as they are your first judge and jury. And if you get a cop that seems to have an agenda, just bend over and don't cop a felony for interrupting him while he does his job.

In conclusion, the law is vague, contradicting and should not be allowed to be treated with such bias. I think the good lord was telling me not to take the plea and plead not guilty, take it to trial and let people say if I was in the wrong. The cop yesterday let me go, what are my odds with a jury?

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