Lawmaker Announces Plans To Tighten Michigan's Medical Marijuana Law

[+EdwardGlen]

Caregivers should be joining forces because they are working to put you all out to pasture

 

 

Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves.

- William Shakespeare

 

 

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/06/lawmaker_announces_plans_to_ti.html

 

With medical marijuana dispensaries cropping up across the state and local governments confused about their own authority to limit or regulate them, lawmakers announced today an eight-bill package of restrictions to the 2008 voter-approved law.

 

Rep. John Walsh, R-Livonia, said the law as it stands right now is “filled with loopholes and unclear language.”

 

Attorney General Bill Schuette called the dispensaries, nearly a dozen located blocks from the Capitol, for-profit “drug houses” that are “out of control.” He said voters never intended to approve the defacto legalization of marijuana.

 

The package requires “traditional” physician-patient relationships. Doctors would have had to have been treating the underlying medical condition of a patient before approving an application for a marijuana registry card. Walsh said tens of thousands of Michigan residents are obtaining registry cards from a relatively small group of physicians after only cursory exams or no exams at all.

 

Registration cards would have to include the patient’s photograph. A patient’s marijuana could only be transported in a sealed case or in the trunk of a car. Storage and cultivation of marijuana would have comply with local zoning laws.

 

A separate attorney general’s opinion released Tuesday said nothing in the law, which allows a patient to grow or store up to 12 plants in a secure, locked facility accessed only by the patient, allows the collective farming or storage of the drug. As the law restricts “caregivers” from providing the drug to more than five registrants, Walsh said nothing in the statute would appear to authorize dispensaries.

 

Gov. Rick Snyder said he supports the legislative review and said “we’ll take that up in terms of our agenda probably in the fall or next year. We’ve got a set of priorities right now that we’d like done ahead of that.”

 

Securing legislative passage for the change won’t be easy. Because the medical marijuana law was a voter-approved citizen initiative, it takes a three-fourths vote of the Legislature to amend it. Walsh said five of the eight bills in his package would require such a supermajority. But he said he'd be spending the summer working with advocacy groups on the issue.

 

Contact Peter Luke at (517) 487-8888 ext. 235 or e-mail him at pluke@boothmichigan.com.

 

Related topics: medical marijuana, Peter Luke, Rick Snyder State of Change

 

**Poster removed reference to dispensary culpability

[cristinew]

why dont they just do one bill why so many.

[Dr. Bob]

The crap attack, toss it at the wall and see what sticks. If they get 1 of 7 it is a victory for them.

 

I've always spoken for standards. The no record mills, more so than the dispensaries, are responsible for this. Without all the signature mills, dispensaries would not have the customers, so there would be fewer of them.

 

One thing that bothers me is the requirement of the certifying physician to be the patient's treating physician. Sure, it would get rid of my certification practice. So what???? I am a trained internist and can easily change the focus of my practice and make as much, if not more money. My concern is for the patients. Of 30,000 active physicians in this state, only 2200 have written even one certification. Of that 2200, 55 have written more than 70%. Take those out and WHERE WILL PATIENTS BE CERTIFIED???? Primary care doctors are not allowed, for the most part, by their hospitals and employers to write certifications. The atmosphere of fear created by the likes of the DEA and the AG keep most of the rest under check. The mills give those of us that remain a bad name.

 

Bottom line folks, we clean up our act and get rid of these postcard mailing, no record mills; those that abuse the law; and work to make this respectable, or instead of fixing the Act we will lose the Act. We need to stop making their job of overcoming the will of the voters easy.

 

Dr. Bob

[peanutbutter]

"They" will use any excuse at all to take the law away from us.

 

That is NOT our fault.

[+EdwardGlen]

The crap attack, toss it at the wall and see what sticks. If they get 1 of 7 it is a victory for them.

 

I've always spoken for standards. The no record mills, more so than the dispensaries, are responsible for this. Without all the signature mills, dispensaries would not have the customers, so there would be fewer of them.

 

One thing that bothers me is the requirement of the certifying physician to be the patient's treating physician. Sure, it would get rid of my certification practice. So what???? I am a trained internist and can easily change the focus of my practice and make as much, if not more money. My concern is for the patients. Of 30,000 active physicians in this state, only 2200 have written even one certification. Of that 2200, 55 have written more than 70%. Take those out and WHERE WILL PATIENTS BE CERTIFIED???? Primary care doctors are not allowed, for the most part, by their hospitals and employers to write certifications. The atmosphere of fear created by the likes of the DEA and the AG keep most of the rest under check. The mills give those of us that remain a bad name.

 

Bottom line folks, we clean up our act and get rid of these postcard mailing, no record mills; those that abuse the law; and work to make this respectable, or instead of fixing the Act we will lose the Act. We need to stop making their job of overcoming the will of the voters easy.

 

Dr. Bob

 

Dr.Bob Sir from I know personally know, and what I've seen, the card mills are in cahoots with the vast majority of dispensaries.

 

I also for-see 'debilitating condition" to be interpreted sooner than later as being disabled by federal Social Security standards, or state definition and unable to work.

 

Meaning, all patients who are not disabled to the point of being unable to work will not be eligible for this state run program.

 

Until we can get rid of these over reaching republican neocons we have to deal with them.

[Dr. Bob]

"They" will use any excuse at all to take the law away from us.

 

That is NOT our fault.

 

 

I agree completely. So why make their 'job' easier by giving them one? Why go to no record "clinics" or marketing companies that don't require records, don't do follow ups, and in some cases don't even have a doctor to see the patient? I've given this advice before, and still people put their cards and safety/privacy at risk by going to these 'clinics'. Now our entire Act stands to risk losing the 'hearts and minds' of the general public because of these people. Was having your postman, the garbage man, and anyone else that could see a bright green card showing your name, address and status as an MMJ patient 'worth' the $50 bucks you saved going to these 'clinics'? That is a private question for you to answer for yourself. But risking the Act by identifying it with these types of people affects more than just your safety, it affects everyone's rights and safety under the Act.

 

When I was in the Army, I treated patients in a tent. Most would not call me a 'tent doctor'. The location is not what matters, it is how you do it. But even though I am a good doctor, and make good decisions based on records and the needs of the patients, if I do marijuana certifications I am open to being called a 'hotel doctor', even if the patient is seen in my brick and mortar clinic. I'm viewed as a lessor form of a doc, one more concerned with money than my patient, because of the actions of these 'clinics' and marketing companies. We need to get rid of them, and the only way to do that, and by extension protect the Act, is to stop going to them. If they don't require records of everyone, or have a different price for record vs no record certifications, or don't have a doctor, they cannot protect you or the Act. Let them fade away, go bankrupt or move on to something else that causes less damage.

 

The safety and reputation of the Act is in your hands. Get good, record based, certifications. Stay in your limits. Keep your medication and medicating private, and build our numbers. Put a solidly qualified card holder on every jury, that is the best protection we have as court decisions will destroy the law faster than the legislature or even the AG can.

 

Dr. Bob

[Dr. Bob]

Dr.Bob Sir from I know personally know, and what I've seen, the card mills are in cahoots with the vast majority of dispensaries.

 

I also for-see 'debilitating condition" to be interpreted sooner than later as being disabled by federal Social Security standards, or state definition and unable to work.

 

Meaning, all patients who are not disabled to the point of being unable to work will not be eligible for this state run program.

 

Until we can get rid of these over reaching republican neocons we have to deal with them.

 

I am not going to disagree. But I think that while every field (medicine, dispensaries, etc) has their share of 'bad apples' I think that the majority of the problems come from those more concerned with marketing and and financial return than they are with patients. There are good doctors that care and believe in what they are doing, and the same can be said about some dispensary owners, but when the only concern is money it can only lead to problems. I don't fault a business that wants to have a profit margin and be successful, but to treat patients as replaceable sources of income rather than suffering human beings that need and deserve our help puts us in the company of big pharma and the faceless corporations that prey on all of us if we let them.

 

Dr. Bob

[peanutbutter]

I agree completely. So why make their 'job' easier by giving them one? Why go to no record "clinics" or marketing companies that don't require records, don't do follow ups, and in some cases don't even have a doctor to see the patient? I've given this advice before, and still people put their cards and safety/privacy at risk by going to these 'clinics'. Now our entire Act stands to risk losing the 'hearts and minds' of the general public because of these people. Was having your postman, the garbage man, and anyone else that could see a bright green card showing your name, address and status as an MMJ patient 'worth' the $50 bucks you saved going to these 'clinics'? That is a private question for you to answer for yourself. But risking the Act by identifying it with these types of people affects more than just your safety, it affects everyone's rights and safety under the Act.

 

When I was in the Army, I treated patients in a tent. Most would not call me a 'tent doctor'. The location is not what matters, it is how you do it. But even though I am a good doctor, and make good decisions based on records and the needs of the patients, if I do marijuana certifications I am open to being called a 'hotel doctor', even if the patient is seen in my brick and mortar clinic. I'm viewed as a lessor form of a doc, one more concerned with money than my patient, because of the actions of these 'clinics' and marketing companies. We need to get rid of them, and the only way to do that, and by extension protect the Act, is to stop going to them. If they don't require records of everyone, or have a different price for record vs no record certifications, or don't have a doctor, they cannot protect you or the Act. Let them fade away, go bankrupt or move on to something else that causes less damage.

 

The safety and reputation of the Act is in your hands. Get good, record based, certifications. Stay in your limits. Keep your medication and medicating private, and build our numbers. Put a solidly qualified card holder on every jury, that is the best protection we have as court decisions will destroy the law faster than the legislature or even the AG can.

 

Dr. Bob

 

No reason is needed .. They intend to attack no matter what.

[peanutbutter]

Please understand. I'm not trying to be critical.

 

I believe the attacks are completely unrelated to anything that we might do.

 

What we do might allow an opening. One among many.

[bobandtorey]

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/michigan-lawmakers-seek-medical-marijuana-changes-20110628-wpms

[Dr. Bob]

Please understand. I'm not trying to be critical.

 

I believe the attacks are completely unrelated to anything that we might do.

 

What we do might allow an opening. One among many.

 

PB, that is the whole point, it is an opening we can control and close.

 

DB

[bobandtorey]

I agree completely. So why make their 'job' easier by giving them one? Why go to no record "clinics" or marketing companies that don't require records, don't do follow ups, and in some cases don't even have a doctor to see the patient? I've given this advice before, and still people put their cards and safety/privacy at risk by going to these 'clinics'. Now our entire Act stands to risk losing the 'hearts and minds' of the general public because of these people. Was having your postman, the garbage man, and anyone else that could see a bright green card showing your name, address and status as an MMJ patient 'worth' the $50 bucks you saved going to these 'clinics'? That is a private question for you to answer for yourself. But risking the Act by identifying it with these types of people affects more than just your safety, it affects everyone's rights and safety under the Act.

 

When I was in the Army, I treated patients in a tent. Most would not call me a 'tent doctor'. The location is not what matters, it is how you do it. But even though I am a good doctor, and make good decisions based on records and the needs of the patients, if I do marijuana certifications I am open to being called a 'hotel doctor', even if the patient is seen in my brick and mortar clinic. I'm viewed as a lessor form of a doc, one more concerned with money than my patient, because of the actions of these 'clinics' and marketing companies. We need to get rid of them, and the only way to do that, and by extension protect the Act, is to stop going to them. If they don't require records of everyone, or have a different price for record vs no record certifications, or don't have a doctor, they cannot protect you or the Act. Let them fade away, go bankrupt or move on to something else that causes less damage.

 

The safety and reputation of the Act is in your hands. Get good, record based, certifications. Stay in your limits. Keep your medication and medicating private, and build our numbers. Put a solidly qualified card holder on every jury, that is the best protection we have as court decisions will destroy the law faster than the legislature or even the AG can.

 

Dr. Bob

 

Put a solidly qualified card holder on every jury,

 

 

the last case i was at you can not be on a jury and have a card thats what the judge says she ask every one of the jury if they had one

[pic book]

My doc in Southfield required records. He charged $99 to certify, and required records of everyone. If your records (in his opinion) didn't show you qualified under the MMMA, he said 'sorry,' and refunded the $99. If he thot the records from your primary care physician did qualify you, he then briefly examined and questioned you. During my stint as a dispensary (Chamberlain consignment dispensary) owner/operator in Detroit (for a whole 27 days), half a dozen folks came in carrying cards they bragged had cost $400 to get after they'd been turned down by the $99 doctor whose cards I was displaying. All those who'd paid the $400 for a no-exam, no record card were already current vendors to other dispensaries and had come in to ask about placing meds with me. I know, this is too small a sample and time frame to draw any conclusions from, but this was my experience March 1--26 this year.

[pic book]

Put a solidly qualified card holder on every jury,

 

 

the last case i was at you can not be on a jury and have a card thats what the judge says she ask every one of the jury if they had one

As Dr. Bob says, there are 'bad apples' among doctors, and I would add, and judges too.

[Dr. Bob]

With around less than 1% of the population having cards, they can be choosy. We need to change that, but do it right.

 

Dr. Bob

[+Annnie]

Caregivers should be joining forces because they are working to put you all out to pasture

 

 

Thieves for their robbery have authority When judges steal themselves.

- William Shakespeare

 

 

http://www.mlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/06/lawmaker_announces_plans_to_ti.html

 

With medical marijuana dispensaries cropping up across the state and local governments confused about their own authority to limit or regulate them, lawmakers announced today an eight-bill package of restrictions to the 2008 voter-approved law.

 

Rep. John Walsh, R-Livonia, said the law as it stands right now is “filled with loopholes and unclear language.”

 

Attorney General Bill Schuette called the dispensaries, nearly a dozen located blocks from the Capitol, for-profit “drug houses” that are “out of control.” He said voters never intended to approve the defacto legalization of marijuana.

 

The package requires “traditional” physician-patient relationships. Doctors would have had to have been treating the underlying medical condition of a patient before approving an application for a marijuana registry card. Walsh said tens of thousands of Michigan residents are obtaining registry cards from a relatively small group of physicians after only cursory exams or no exams at all.

 

Registration cards would have to include the patient’s photograph. A patient’s marijuana could only be transported in a sealed case or in the trunk of a car. Storage and cultivation of marijuana would have comply with local zoning laws.

 

A separate attorney general’s opinion released Tuesday said nothing in the law, which allows a patient to grow or store up to 12 plants in a secure, locked facility accessed only by the patient, allows the collective farming or storage of the drug. As the law restricts “caregivers” from providing the drug to more than five registrants, Walsh said nothing in the statute would appear to authorize dispensaries.

 

Gov. Rick Snyder said he supports the legislative review and said “we’ll take that up in terms of our agenda probably in the fall or next year. We’ve got a set of priorities right now that we’d like done ahead of that.”

 

Securing legislative passage for the change won’t be easy. Because the medical marijuana law was a voter-approved citizen initiative, it takes a three-fourths vote of the Legislature to amend it. Walsh said five of the eight bills in his package would require such a supermajority. But he said he'd be spending the summer working with advocacy groups on the issue.

 

Contact Peter Luke at (517) 487-8888 ext. 235 or e-mail him at pluke@boothmichigan.com.

 

Related topics: medical marijuana, Peter Luke, Rick Snyder State of Change

 

**Poster removed reference to dispensary culpability

Ok.. at this point i not only thing caregivers should be joining together.. to fight this.. AND IN MY OPINION.. fund this fight.. Every single person who is involved with MM needs to join together.. and YES i mean every single person.. You dont like this Dr.. who cares.. I dont like that dispensary.. who cares.. NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR DIVIDE!! We must, All 100000 of us come together or we are screwed.. It is not the time to say we need to exclude ppl who arent up to our standard.. We must all hold hands to ward off this Chitstorm.

[jeff from bad axe]

I agree we need to all stand together and fight.We must win in the courtroom.

They will take away the will of the people.The senate,house,AG,and gov want us to fail.

We need to fill courthouses.

[+Annnie]

I agree we need to all stand together and fight.We must win in the courtroom.

They will take away the will of the people.The senate,house,AG,and gov want us to fail.

We need to fill courthouses.

Amen.. It is fully up to us to report all hearings time date place.. we have to do this folks.. Database of ALL courtcases and the results??

[+Silverblue]

SENDING OUT AN S.O.S.!

 

We need ALL our allies to work with us! I wish I could attend those court dates. We MUST be there for eachother! We are all we have!

 

Sb

[Gates]

Folks, You haven't seen the worst of it yet. There are laws coming that will take out 90% of of you, patient or caregiver. We will either survive the assuaklt or it will be all over. We need to work the courtroom, but we must also fight Lansing. Laws are going to be submitted that will make us all criminals. Sept. 7th is crucial. We need thousands or we are finished. You look back at our history of accuracy and we have been on the money. I'm telling you, absolutely, that if you sit at home on the 7th of Sept., by January most of you will be smoking brick, be operating illegally, or be in the court system.

 

I know for a fact there's a lot worse coming. Work as hard as you can to get the word out. All we have to do is execute. We are working on a PR campaign as well as other strategies. This is going to be a fight. Prepare! Thanks, bb

 

What is on Sept. 7th?

[+EdwardGlen]

You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned 70, or given up all hope of the Presidency.

- Wendell Phillips

 

That tradition has to stop...

 

An unacceptable number of corporate controlled and lobbyist paid off politicians have perverted our system of government to the point we have become, America Inc., and politicians are on special.

 

America's integrity and long standing tradition of, one person one vote, the very foundation of democracy, has been intentionally undermined to benefit a wealthy few with out concern to the collateral damage left behind to the nation.

 

I think the American people are becoming more aware of whats happening. More and more conservative talk radio and cable TV shows are losing viewers and the younger generation (I can't believe I just used that) are relying on social media and other forms of communication to get the truth, or get to the truth.

[Captain Obvious]

personally unless the mmma gets some tv air time warning cardholders that unless they show up in lansing our law will vanish. newspaper ads, billboards, signs on power poles, signs in peoples yards like they use during election times, radio air time... hell, use carrier pigons! all plugs must be pulled to win this. maybe a website separate from the mmma site explaining everything that's going on and what is at risk if cardholders dont show up on the 7th, then advertise the hell out of that site. i sure hope your new PR person is better then the last one, we have to have thousands show up in lansing, hundreds will do nothing for us. the main focus right now has got to be getting cardholders at the next rally on sept 7th. so now we only have less then 9 weeks to accomplish this. Brother Bb you need to tell us what we as mmma members can do to achieve this goal, we shouldnt be asked to help, we need to be told to help or most will be sitting home on the 7th watching the springer show. let me know what i can do brother, i have your back as well as all of my brethren mmma members. we cannot stall on this, we only have a short time to put something together so lets do it now! :sword: :sword: :sword:

 

In Reality we need a Hundred Thousand to make a difference.

 

The $$$ Machine wont give up its cash cow so easily

[MORE COWBELL]

personally unless the mmma gets some tv air time warning cardholders that unless they show up in lansing our law will vanish. newspaper ads, billboards, signs on power poles, signs in peoples yards like they use during election times, radio air time... hell, use carrier pigons! all plugs must be pulled to win this. maybe a website separate from the mmma site explaining everything that's going on and what is at risk if cardholders dont show up on the 7th, then advertise the hell out of that site. i sure hope your new PR person is better then the last one, we have to have thousands show up in lansing,

yep you are right Q-Tip!