The Fight From Both Sides.

[Mr. Brooks]

Millions of people suffer from chronic pain everyday; and we all have our own tips and tricks to how to cope or eliminate the pain if only just for a bit. But what would you do if you were constantly getting harassed because your remedy was widely misrepresented? Medical Marihuana is the one of the main focuses of our community today. I will express my views and opinions on the subject and hopefully help some of you understand that the Medical Marihuana move is a step in the right direction.

First let me start by addressing recent local activity. I am very disappointed in local communities that are just recently setting local ordinances for an Act that was passed over two years ago. Why wouldn’t we address the issues once the act is passed? I thought our local governments had a handle on our communities, what are our tax dollars going toward during this township meeting? When a new act is passed shouldn’t it be a priority to address it, and create any necessary ordinances to prevent confusion and ‘gray areas’? Secondly the Act clearly states that this is only for Medical purposes therefore any documents related and filed with that state should be covered in the HIPAA Act. We cannot keep interpreting laws and acts to satisfy our needs.

There are arguments on why Medical Marihuana should not be legal for any reason, such as; it’s a “gateway drug”, it will increase crime, and vehicular accident. The fact is marihuana is addictive, as is morphine patches, vicodin, oxy-codeine, Valium, etc, all drugs used for pain and relaxation. In no way does it even compare to be as dangerous as heroin, cocaine etc. and is absurd to place them in the same category. Marihuana is almost impossible to overdose on, you would need to smoke 40,000 times as much marihuana needed to get you stoned, in order to be life threatening. In the two years that Medical Marihuana has been legal, there has yet to be any reports of increased accidents or crime rates directly related to medical marihuana.

The fact of the matter is that if it is for medical purposes only, who are we to tell someone that they can’t use it. The problem that many of patients are running into is that after taking pain meds for so long, it no longer has an effect, so doctors raise the dosage or give them stronger prescriptions. But when you’re on these kinds of narcotics you can’t function, you’re too doped up to accomplish anything (including employment and driving). With Medical Marihuana there are different strains, some give you the pain relief as well energy to help you function, while others may ease the pain and help you sleep at night. Yes there are some that just produce a mental ‘high’ those can be used to help with depression as well as post traumatic stress that a lot of our military member suffer from coming back from overseas. I have seen people with cancer who use it to help them eat during chemo treatments, as well as disabled Marines injured in Iraq use it to help them function during day just so they can play with their children without being in pain, or nausea from morphine patches. You don’t really know how good this program is until you see it first hand.

Like any other substance that is regulated, it’s going to be abuse. It’s disgusting to see doctors signing forms to make a quick dollar, just so people can smoke it legally. Shame on all of those that do misuse the program, this act was set in place to help those who really do NEED it. The majority of people that I have seen in this program are in one way or another receiving state benefits because of their condition, they don’t have a lot of money and you have ‘dispensaries’ and/or ‘caregivers’ charging over $300 for an ounce of Medical Marihuana for their service and/or time. Yes the patients can grow their own medicine but again many of these ‘legit’ patients are disabled one way or another. Can we show a little sympathy for these people? So not only are we judging them for the pain relief they choose but now there are those that want to take the majority of their money too. There is a lot of misuse and corruption in the program. It is taking its toll on innocent families that are obviously already having a difficult time. There abuse in the program all the way around but we cannot take it upon our selves to interpret laws and acts to justify our actions.

I personally am not a fan of marihuana but I cannot and will not prevent someone from using it for medical purposes. I will however research into ways to use medical marihuana to relieve pain without smoking it, such as the ‘medibles’, lotions, and teas. The amazing thing about marihuana is that you don’t have to smoke it to get the benefits; this will also prevent “contact highs”. We need the support of local communities as well as authorities; there are people that are involved in this program to help people. This cant be a decision solely based on your personal opinion, there has to be a middle ground for those that have fought for this issue to even be brought to the ballot.

In recent activity the issue of dispensaries has came up. I personally feel that dispensaries are not in any community’s best interest right now. Simply because it has no way of being monitored except by local authorities. In order to make this a successful program it should have the same concept as the health department with restaurants. Each facility should be registered/licensed have guidelines to follow and has semi-annual evaluations. The state should also provide a program for dispensaries to validate Medical ID cards. These are the issues we should have addressed when this Act was initiated. As a community we need to step up and whether we support the Act or not, help construct a foundation and enforce it.

[Nameless_Hero]

Mr Brooks,

 

I respect your humbleness in the matter and unlike some, at least you are willing to look at some of the benefits this medicine has to offer. However, alcohol has no benefits to your physical or mental health, and as of 2007, there were over 32 thousand alcohol related deaths (http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html). So how many college students, high school students go into the liquor store and buy booze with a fake ID, or use someone else's?? Why isn't every store owner calling "A Registry Identification System" to verify that? I mean at least the state is doing something about it by allowing liquor sales 5 hours earlier on Sundays. So when 63% of voters already passed it then why should it goto the ballot? Because a supermajority in Lansing is going to be impossible for you guys? Like I said, thank you for at least realizing some positives about the act, but right now I believe Michigan has several more priorities than Marijuana to tackle after the election rather than figuring out how to make profits off of marijuana for the state. IMHO

 

Edit: those deaths were in this state alone