Feds Give Medical Marijuana A Big Thumbs Down

[bobandtorey]

By ANDREA ISOM

WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com

 

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WJBK) - When it comes to marijuana, if you missed the mass memo, Charlie Langton will tell you what it said.

 

"Marijuana is illegal under federal law and the feds are going to prosecute anybody," he explained.

 

That goes for medical marijuana, too, no matter what the law says here in Michigan.

 

"Finally, we have progress between our state attorney general and the U.S. government," said Royal Oak City Commissioner Charles Semchena.

 

"I'm really angry at the attorney general for the State of Michigan because he has really abdicated his throne. He's got a responsibility to enforce Michigan law ... and he's going against that," said Steve Greene, a caregiver and patient.

 

Some folks call the state's medical marijuana cards are a cop out and just another way for criminals to commit more crimes.

 

"There's a lot of drug dealers that use this law to protect them from criminal prosecution. They're selling large quantities of drugs to kids and others in our community that have no business claiming they have medical disabilities that need to be treated by marijuana," Semchena said.

 

"Absolutely need it. I'm an HIV patient. I will lose my medicine, I will lose my dinner without this ability to keep the nausea away, to keep wasting syndrome away," Greene said. "I'm also a sick person and I need this medication to stay alive."

 

"If marijuana has medical uses, then it should be approved through the traditional methods, not through a ballot campaign that was based on deceit and lies," said Semchena.

 

So, what happens to all these pot places popping up all over the place, dispensaries and cultivation clinics? Does that mean the feds can come in and shut these places down?

 

"They always could and they never said they wouldn't," Semchena said.

 

"It's just good industry. These are jobs we need in this state. We desperately need these jobs in Michigan," Greene said.

 

"They should open up legal businesses, not illegal businesses," said Semchena.

 

"In Michigan the marijuana laws are crazy. Nobody can understand them and there are a lot of other states just like Michigan. We need Congress to come in and say once and for all marijuana is good for medical purposes. That's the law. We're not going to prosecute you. Go on your merry way," said Langton.

 

Greene said he and others will fight this. They are going to put pressure on lawmakers to do that for which what the people voted.

 

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/feds-give-medical-marijuana-a-big-thumbs-down-20110708-wpms

 

 

[trix]

What a joke... I hate MI, HATE IT

 

Trix

[CedarSpringsCG]

Don't hate Michigan. Hate the politicians and ignorant people with political agenda.

 

I am in MI, and therefore I feel I am a part of MI, and I hate that you hate me

[Guest knucklehead bob]

Don't hate Michigan. Hate the politicians and ignorant people with political agenda.

 

I am in MI, and therefore I feel I am a part of MI, and I hate that you hate me

 

Ditto

[bobandtorey]

They are trying to make us all look bad in the press and it will never be over for all the sick people that need MMJ

be carefully out here and stay safe

[+EdwardGlen]

Can't help but feel these past few days with all this coming from the feds is a last ditch effort, kamikaze mission, to try and disrupt the MM community and movement while trying to keep public opinion in their favor. Recent polling shows 50% + of the general American population is in favor of legalizing cannabis and regulate it like alcohol.

 

You tell a lie long enough and a lot of the general public that is ill informed about cannabis to begin with starts to believe the 'reefer madness' all over again.

 

The war on cannabis is turning in our favor, slowly but its turning.

 

One of the biggest hurdles they'll have to clear is convincing the nation that spending $50 Billion tax payer dollars a year is a good thing in this economy.

 

And to really facilitate the progress of cannabis republicans need to be removed from office and prevented from holding office.

 

If they want to put us in jail at least we can do is put them on the unemployment line...

[bobandtorey]

Can't help but feel these past few days with all this coming from the feds is a last ditch effort, kamikaze mission, to try and disrupt the MM community and movement while trying to keep public opinion in their favor. Recent polling shows 50% + of the general American population is in favor of legalizing cannabis and regulate it like alcohol.

 

You tell a lie long enough and a lot of the general public that is ill informed about cannabis to begin with starts to believe the 'reefer madness' all over again.

 

The war on cannabis is turning in our favor, slowly but its turning.

 

One of the biggest hurdles they'll have to clear is convincing the nation that spending $50 Billion tax payer dollars a year is a good thing in this economy.

 

And to really facilitate the progress of cannabis republicans need to be removed from office and prevented from holding office.

 

If they want to put us in jail at least we can do is put them on the unemployment line...

 

I agree

[Daddy Nothing]

That article is so thick with doublespeak, it makes me want to puke. Are people really going to be swayed by these incoherent, inconsistent and self contradictory arguments? I hope not...

[wingnut]

The war you’ve known for all these years, Richard Nixon’s Hopeless War on Drugs. It was forty years ago.

This might not be the time or the place, but to be fair to Tricky Dick, he did have a problem with really dangerous drugs in the mid to late sixties. There were something like half a million heroin addicts in New York. He turned that around, though – really. By taking a big risk and trying methadone they got the problem under control. This was a big, big bonus to poor old Dicky at the time. He wasn’t getting a whole hell of a lot of success anywhere else. (darn hippies making him lose Vietnam! Some darn journalists trying to make people think he was a crook!) So here’s this wonderful rush of irrefutable success which was really down to him. Oh, what a mind blast! How could you blame the poor guy for doing whatever he could to stretch that success to cover just about anydamnthing. “Get that goddamn success over here, dammit, and get it over those hippies’ asses! Tell ‘em we nuke their old-fashioned hippy-faggot commie ideas with our good old-fashioned primal urges and need to control – HA – a pox and a war on them – a War on Drugs! “Write this down, Shaffer, dammit: I want a report saying the hippies cohesion is a result of smoking pot. I want them to be shown to be communist infiltrators [infiltrator=terrorist] so that I can perpetuate some goddamn illusion or something. bunny muffin, I don’t know; just kick the hippies in the balls or something. Tell ‘em were going to throw ‘em in jail for making whoopee life if they smoke pot. Yeah, that’ll making whoopee shut ‘em up. Tell ‘em we’re going to war on them and they’re going to lose.”

 

The poor guy had a lot on his mind. It’s a tough job. And, really, he did get America’s real 60′s problem with narcotics under control. OK, so he kind of lost track of the script and got mixed up about some pretty basic things like how you define a crook, and what the difference between cannabis and opiates is and LSD and amphetamines, etc., and maybe he even lost track of the difference between right and wrong sometimes, but… bunny muffin, I don’t know… He kept capitalism alive if it was in danger of somehow being killed off by commie hippies, didn’t he? That’s good, isn’t it?

 

Maybe it’s not so much people, like presidents, that are important, but the processes which are being carried out by events?

 

 

[trix]

Don't hate Michigan. Hate the politicians and ignorant people with political agenda.

 

I am in MI, and therefore I feel I am a part of MI, and I hate that you hate me

 

 

Ditto

 

My apologizes guys, Haven't been up much lately, then the day I drag my azz outta bed I see more bad news about Marijuana.. I'm just about over all of it. I deal with enough fighting on my home front, and now basically this card is worthless and I have to go back to worrying about the cops fkn with me again. just very enraged I guess you could say?

 

I only hate one person in this world and neither of you are that person, so my apologizes again.

 

Well back to the batcave for me..

 

Trix

[purklize]

Maybe it’s not so much people, like presidents, that are important, but the processes which are being carried out by events?

 

Yup!

 

And to respond to the other stuff you said, methadone clinics were a huge step in the right direction, too bad they didn't go further and offer heroin like some European countries do, which works even better (obviously). You get high off both still, but some people relapse because they really just crave the heroin and are back on the street. Safe access and counseling from doctors available on site to help people change their lives in a positive, encouraging way.

 

Don't hate Michigan. Hate the politicians and ignorant people with political agenda.

 

I am in MI, and therefore I feel I am a part of MI, and I hate that you hate me

 

I truly love this state despite how awful the economy is, and how cold and dreary the winters can be... it is my home and will always feel that way. I just hope our state government doesn't manage to drive me away from it.

[MORE COWBELL]

Can't help but feel these past few days with all this coming from the feds is a last ditch effort, kamikaze mission, to try and disrupt the MM community and movement while trying to keep public opinion in their favor. Recent polling shows 50% + of the general American population is in favor of legalizing cannabis and regulate it like alcohol.

 

You tell a lie long enough and a lot of the general public that is ill informed about cannabis to begin with starts to believe the 'reefer madness' all over again.

 

The war on cannabis is turning in our favor, slowly but its turning.

 

One of the biggest hurdles they'll have to clear is convincing the nation that spending $50 Billion tax payer dollars a year is a good thing in this economy.

 

And to really facilitate the progress of cannabis republicans need to be removed from office and prevented from holding office.

 

If they want to put us in jail at least we can do is put them on the unemployment line...

 

 

well said

[Darkmatter]

The wolves are at the door...