Mi Lawmaker Wants To Allow Marijuana Dispensaries

[abe supercro]

The wider acceptance of commercial space grows, with the possibility of multiple caregivers will inevitably lead to a glut in the mm market, mostly benefitting these better capitalized medical entrepreneurs. Furthermore, it is my opinion that all owners of proposed requisition centers will be racing to get 'bigger' grows up and running to predominately -if not completely- supply all meds for their outlet. Happened in Colorado. Caregivers there scrape by, but not the "requisition center" owners. This won't happen overnight, but it will feel like it when we all look back.

 

How many tax dollars are garnered from individual caregivers? Most likely not enough... Then they must be some of the first to go (or be reduced) along w farmers markets. Rocket Science, I'm tellin' ya... 

[abe supercro]

I went to a popular Ypsi weedmart (provision center) and they were selling a few types of auto-trimmed outdoor (I do know how to tell) but the funny thing was the outdoor harvest hadn't arrived yet. So if you think these centers won't be buying last years out-of-state CA and CO herb for 100/125 per ounce, think again. It's already happening. Wonder if Third Coast, in clear conscious, would deny this has ever occurred?

[Timmahh]

I'm not so sure you understand either the Kuipers or the MACC Bills. What you are saying doesn't make sense. There's nothing in the MACC Bill that would limit massive grows. You left the door wide open.

 

Preach on Brother Rest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Timmahh]

Somebody was obviously dumb enough to include it in the bills, right?

 

 

 

 

You sure are good at answering questions with questions.

 

So lets try again...

 

 

WHY DID YOUI ADD COMMERCIAL GROWS TO THE BILL??????

where is that confounded "Like Button"?

 

Oh there it is just below the textbox.

T

[CGorganic]

Farmers markets for the win. No large scale commercial grows needed.

[Estimated Prophet]

Has anyone ever met with Mike Callton?

Is he someone that can help us change minds in the house, or is he just another spineless pig paid for by MI dispensary stakeholders?

Truth?

[Restorium2]

Mike Callton ® Quote;

 

“Obviously, 62 percent of voters, whatever, wanted some form of compassionate care for people,"

 

Whatever, Mike? You say you voted no on the Act. Why stick your nose into something that you don't like Mike? To mess it up?

[cristinew]

If all the people want farmers markets please lobby for them, but you can bet there will be standards to uphold so the garbage is not sold at them

Edited May 3, 2012 by cristinew

[cristinew]

Mike Callton put this bill forward to make it look like they are working with patients.. as his statement says he is opposed

[restlesslegs]

If all the people want farmers markers please lobby for them, but you can bet there will be standards to uphold so the garbage is not sold at them

 

I've never heard of "garbage" being sold at the Farmers markets but sure have heard that about the dispensaries.

[restlesslegs]

Has anyone ever met with Mike Callton?

Is he someone that can help us change minds in the house, or is he just another spineless pig paid for by MI dispensary stakeholders?

Truth?

 

Think you answered your own question.

[+washtenaut]

here is an earier thread on his 'opinion piece' in the lansing state journal. Maybe he's gotten educated during all those meetings

 

http://michiganmedic...-state-journal/

 

 

Medical Marijuana: Party Drug or Real Medicine by Rep Mike Callton

 

In a past column, I wrote of the various interest groups that have been lobbying me since I took office. One of the interest groups to approach me is a medical marijuana advocacy organization.

 

The use of medical marijuana is an issue that has been heavily debated since the electorate of Michigan voted to legalize it in November 2008. From medical marijuana patients to local law enforcement officers, everyone has an opinion - and many people just want to know the standards and rules that apply to this new law.

 

I won't argue that this needs to be addressed by state and local officials. I am currently working with my colleagues in the House to clarify the medical marijuana laws, eliminating confusion to ensure only those truly in need of medical marijuana have access to it. Clarifying this law is a matter of public safety and it is important that we look carefully at how it is being implemented.

 

In the meantime, I'd like to bring up a different viewpoint, one that hasn't been discussed. My thought is this: if medical marijuana wants to be thought of as a serious drug, it needs to act like one. I have a patient who showed me a medical marijuana candy sucker. She bought it - legally and with a prescription - for $5. Whenever she starts feeling back pain, she just sucks on the sucker for a while. She told me that at the place where she purchased the sucker, you can also buy medical marijuana Rice Krispies Treats and brownies.

 

Of growing popularity in Michigan is a social outing known as the medical marijuana bar. People get together and smoke or otherwise legally consume their medicine, and then leave the group and drive home. This is not only dangerous and reckless, but does little to improve the image of medical marijuana as an actual medicine. I don't know of anyone who gathers in groups to down their Lipitor, or makes popping their antibiotics a can't-miss social event. I am the sponsor of a bill in the Legislature that would make medical marijuana bars illegal.

 

The opinion I shared with the medical marijuana lobbyist is simple. As a health care provider, I took an oath to help relieve the suffering of people. If medical marijuana is a drug that helps cancer patients regain their appetite, comforts patients with glaucoma, or alleviates the suffering for someone with chronic debilitating pain, I'm fine with that. But it's time for medical marijuana to decide if it wants to be taken seriously as a medicine, or if it still wants to be the life of the party. If you want to promote a drug that helps people in need, you need to earn some level of respect for that drug.

 

If medical marijuana is a medicine, not just a street drug, there should be a dosage prescribed, like with all other drugs. The potency should be measured for safety. The process for manufacturing marijuana should be uniform, and there should be case studies performed to determine all the medical conditions it can improve. Best medical practices should be defined, as they exist for all other prescription medications.

 

Let's raise the bar for medical marijuana, and treat it like a real medicine, if in fact it wants to be one.

 

Mike Callton is the State Representative for the 87th House District. He can be reached at (517) 373-0842 or mikecallton@house.mi.gov

 

 

 

following is one of the replies I posted in the LSJ at the time

 

Representative Callton,

 

Patients are very worried that all of these new legislative changes will undermine the intent of the law – to provide affordable access to this medicine for the sick and suffering. We do not have much of a voice in the lawmaking bodies because most patients are sick or disabled and so have very little money for activism or lobbyists to further our cause.

 

Many of the patients that I speak with are afraid that our legislature – you – are aiming to take away the right of patients to grow medicine in favor of the marijuana business interests and a dispensary model. There is a strong belief that legislators such as yourself want to make the current law unworkable so that you can step in and ‘save the day’ for patients by granting permits to large scale, state sanctioned, growers and dispensaries. That is not what the patients want or need.

 

Also, there is already a law that prohibits driving a car if one is ‘impaired’. Why is it necessary to create a new law to prohibit patients from gathering in a social support group simply because some one may use poor judgement, overmedicate, and then drive?

 

Simply ingesting some medicine does not mean that one is automatically then too impaired to drive. If our society can find a way to let users of every other over-the-counter and prescription medication drive as long as they aren’t impaired and allows users of alcohol to drive as long as they are not impaired, certainly users of medical marijuana should be allowed to drive as long as they aren’t impaired.

 

These patients just want to be left alone to use a doctor recommended medicine that allows them a better quality of life than they have been able to find using pharmaceutical medications. Please listen to the patients and not the lobbyists on these issues. Thank you.

[Celliach]

 

I've never heard of "garbage" being sold at the Farmers markets but sure have heard that about the dispensaries.

I've heard it about both, mostly from advocates of one of the models. i.e. dispensary people say bad things about Cgs at FMs and CGS at FMS say bad tings about dispensary people.

 

It is what it is.

[restlesslegs]

The lady that had the sucker is his point that she is not taking the med part of MM seriously? Or that if you can eat your med that makes it to be a party drug? We are responsible for what we put in our bodies, in what form we take it, how much we need. We already have the other meds given to us in what they feel is the appropriate amounts and what time we should use them. We know our bodies better then anyone else, how we react to a med, the best way to use or take it, how much we need, and when we need it. This is one drug they have not a control over Yet. His statement is like saying we are a bunch of drug users who have no sense of what is good for us and we need our hands held and diapers changed by someone who knows our bodies better then we do because we are not responsible about the use of MM.

[Restorium2]

I have talked with him a couple of times, once on Planet Green Trees where everyone can hear what he had to say.

 

Most recently I spoke to him at length about HB 4834, and I believe he was responsible for having it amended to remove the edit to 6(g). However, he also brought up the White Pine Mine during that same conversation, asking me what I thought of it. We talked about the Feds for a while after that.

 

I believe all options are still on the table with him. He needs more education.

Was he drooling uncontrollably?

 

He is obviously a huge commercial grow interest. He is most definitely not a medical cannabis patient advocate. All you have to do is read his quotes about making sure less patients are in the program after he fixes it. No BS, he said that. That is his intent. Anything he touchs turns to crap, count on it.

[restlesslegs]

I've heard it about both, mostly from advocates of one of the models. i.e. dispensary people say bad things about Cgs at FMs and CGS at FMS say bad tings about dispensary people.

 

It is what it is.

 

It is not because I like FM's, seriously, I have not heard or read that from patients that use the FM's. I have never been to either personally. I like the whole idea of the FM"s. The fact there is no middle man, that it is patients and caregivers interacting with each other, the prices are lower. It seems to me that is the way the law is meant to be not for people or dispensaries to profit from selling it but for the patients to have excess to products made by caregivers. . I know there is a need for dispensaries and I am not against them but I am against them being able to grow and then sell it and/or to charge such large amounts to patients who many can not afford it but are in need of MM. If they want to regulate something, besides quality, it should be the prices they charge. It should be along the same lines they expect of caregivers, not to profit but to be compensated, big difference.

[Restorium2]

So he did get the memo. Then he should understand he is also putting state employees at risk by pursuing this. Any deviation from the 5 patient limit on distribution will bring the heat down on anyone who touches it. That is the clear position of the feds.

[restlesslegs]

Was he drooling uncontrollably?

 

LOL That struck me as so funny for some reason.

[restlesslegs]

It was a phone conversation, so I can't be sure. His first concern when I mentioned the Feds was the possible seizure or freezing of his campaign accounts were he to accept donations from commercial marijuana interests, so I know he is concerned with that on some level.

 

OMG No kidding he said that? Well at least he didn't make a secret of where his real interest lies, his wallet, his campaign funds! Who owns this politician.

Edited May 3, 2012 by restlesslegs

[GregS]

We are being played for fools. Our lawmakers are an anti majority, and intend to push any and all mj use out the window altogether. They have already gone too far, having written restrictions into the law that strike at the core of the MMA.

 

4834 3,B.ii, permits officers and law enforcement officials to acquire registry information without probable cause. 4851 guts the protections that allow patients and caregivers to freely engage in any and all forms of medical use, and the silly and ridiculous attempt to define a coercive law and call it bona fide is still there as a stupid joke.

 

I will not go into more detail because it is necessary to get to work lobbying. Don't quit.

[restlesslegs]

It is only not having been to either that could make you feel this way.

 

The reality is, over time, all Farmer's Markets turn into dispensaries with middle men and profits.

 

Have you been to them? If so what was your experience.

[Restorium2]

So MACC bought Mike, we know that now. How is Mike going to sell this to his republican friends that didn't get bought? We know what his buddy Kuipers wanted. It's easy to see where this is going.

Edited May 3, 2012 by Restorium2

[jamieuke]

Callton understands the importance of preserving the caregiver system. I think that Zap stated the truth, but did not properly portray him. No one owns him or has contributed anything to him that I know of. he is very much his own person. He is too enamored with the copper mine thing, but remember they are spending HUGE money on lobbying and PR and filling Callton and many others with a bunch of crap about it. Callton does need and will get further education as to why he should stick with 5580 and does not need to look to a massive grow scenario. When the smoke clears from all of the crap, he and several law makers are being told about the U.P idea, I believe that he will continue supporting 5580 instead of any kind of massive commercial grow concept.

 

 

[restlesslegs]

We are being played for fools. Our lawmakers are an anti majority, and intend to push any and all mj use out the window altogether. They have already gone too far, having written restrictions into the law that strike at the core of the MMA.

 

4834 3,B.ii, permits officers and law enforcement officials to acquire registry information without probable cause. 4851 guts the protections that allow patients and caregivers to freely engage in any and all forms of medical use, and the silly and ridiculous attempt to define a coercive law and call it bona fide is still there as a stupid joke.

 

I will not go into more detail because it is necessary to get to work lobbying. Don't quit.

 

Agreed but honestly Greg I feel like it is a losing battle when it comes to what the politicians want and what the public wants. The responses from them are not encouraging. How can we really change it. Many are fighting everyday but it does not seem to be getting us anywhere. Some are such die hards about their believes, minds are like closed traps, that they can not be swayed. Is there really enough of them with open minds to sway the vote our way? I don't want us to give up but the course we have been taking has not been working, as much we would like to think it would it simply is not enough, what can we change about how we are going about this to make a difference?

Edited May 3, 2012 by restlesslegs

[Restorium2]

Callton understands the importance of preserving the caregiver system. I think that Zap stated the truth, but did not properly portray him. No one owns him or has contributed anything to him that I know of. he is very much his own person. He is too enamored with the copper mine thing, but remember they are spending HUGE money on lobbying and PR and filling Callton and many others with a bunch of crap about it. Callton does need and will get further education as to why he should stick with 5580 and does not need to look to a massive grow scenario. When the smoke clears from all of the crap, he and several law makers are being told about the U.P idea, I believe that he will continue supporting 5580 instead of any kind of massive commercial grow concept.

Look here, we know he got money from cannabis interests. Then he slams this bill on the table. What part of that do you think we don't understand?

 

You are saying that MACC didn't give him any money. Someone obviously did or he wouldn't have made that remark. Let's keep it real. This bill is paid for by someone other than medical cannabis patient interests.