Politicians Thoughts On Medical Marijuana

[+ProPlayer420]

Its obvious they are not reading the letters we send them.

 

During the reporting for a recent Michigan medical marijuana series, state senators and representatives said some interesting things that didn’t make it into our other stories. Here are a few of their quotes.

 

On the law itself:

 

“I think there are many legitimate cases and there obviously was support in the general public to pass the law in the first place.”

 

— State Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8th District)

 

“I think the goal was for those who are sick to have marijuana available. … (For) someone who’s sick to be smoking marijuana, I think it does more harm than good.”

 

— State Rep. Robert Constan (D-16th District)

 

“The law was passed to help people that want to medicate themselves. I don’t think it’s been done very well right now.”

 

— State Rep. Andrew Kandrevas (D-13th- District)

 

On full-scale legalization:

 

“I think usage over the past couple years has demonstrated many people are seeing this as an enabler for legalizing marijuana in general. I don’t think that’s what the voters voted for.”

 

— State Sen. Patrick Colbeck (R-7th District)

 

“The general issue of the legalization of marijuana is separate (from current issues concerning the medical law) and I’m not focused on that.”

 

— Hopgood

 

On the confusion surrounding the law’s interpretation and execution:

 

“The people that have benefitted from this should be left alone and we should find a means of getting beyond some of these gray areas without really penalizing those who have chosen to follow a legal process.”

 

— State Rep. Douglas Geiss (D-22nd District)

 

“We’re going to have a tough time trying to clarify because we have the voter-initiated law and there’s still the federal issue of the legality of marijuana.”

 

— Hopgood

 

“There are confidentiality issues. Law enforcement isn’t able to know who is a caretaker and a patient.”