The Status Of Medical Marijuana In Michigan

[bobandtorey]

- Despite repeated requests by Supreme Court justices and local governments for the Michigan legislature to enact clearer laws regulating the state's medical marijuana industry, the public awaits progress.

Lack of clarity isn't merely a problem for patients, caregivers or growers, but for the legal system itself. The Michigan Supreme Court has spent countless hours

 

adjudicating a total of eight cases involving medical marijuana since the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMMA) was passed in 2008.

In early 2013, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that dispensaries are not authorized under the MMMA, therefore patients must work with a specific caregiver, to whom

 

they're registered, to receive their medical marijuana. Later that year, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that MMMA prohibits medical marijuana to be sold in edible

 

form, or other non-smokeable forms, despite desperate pleas from adult patients and parents of child patients, who cannot tolerate a dose of medical marijuana to be

 

administered by smoking.

 

In another ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously decided in February 2014 that municipalities are barred from creating any local ordinance that prohibits medical

 

marijuana, forcing Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, among other municipalities, which had prohibited medical marijuana use, to revise their ordinances. The ruling came

 

as a result of three cases involving attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), including Robert Lott vs. City of Birmingham. The ruling also made clear that

 

municipalities may not "use federal law as an excuse to disregard the MMMA."

Currently sitting stagnant in committee in the Michigan Senate is a package of three bills, approved by the House in October, that outlines increased regulations pertaining to the monitoring and patient accessibility of medical marijuana. The next stage rests in the hands of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge), who selects which bills are discussed.

Sponsored by Rep. Lisa Lyons (R-Alto), House Bill 4210 amends the MMMA to allow for other forms of marijuana to be permitted for patients, including "edibles," like brownies, or other marijuana-infused products.

"I know there's validity to stopping seizures with kids. I've seen the results of medical marijuana, talked to a lot of doctors who are firmly convinced there's a use for it," said Senate Majority Floor Leader Mike Kowall (R-White Lake). "But the purity, the security, has to be tightened up."

House Bill 4827, which would create the Marijuana Tracking Act, sponsored by Rep. Klint Kesto (R-Commerce Township), would create a seed-to-sale tracking system

 

and may help address the purity issue. Kowall compared the bill's proposed structure to what is used in Colorado. "In Denver, they track it from seed to sale, and the

 

minute they put the seed in the ground, it's given a number. They put a post into a planter, a plastic stake with a number on it, and as the plant starts to grow, they put a

 

zip-tie around the plant itself, so it can't come off," Kowall said. "That plant goes to one entity that processes it. Once it's processed, the number follows that right through

 

to use, so if something happens, it can track it back to where it came from, to who handled it."

 

http://www.downtownpublications.com/Articles-features-c-2016-03-31-222984.112113-The-status-of-medical-marijuana-in-Michigan.html

[AmishRnot4ganja]

These efforts to curtail the use of marijuana make me chuckle. If you are going to treat marijuana like nuclear waste, let's first determine if marijuana is as dangerous as nuclear waste.

 

The vast majority of scientists agree that marijuana is an innocuous, safe substance when used in the manner that most people use it.

 

SO WHY, WHY, WHY,DO YOU STUPID, IMBICILIC NINCOMPOOPS KEEP WANTING

TO TREAT MARIJUANA LIKE IT IS A DANGEROUS SUBSTANCE???

 

You idiots need to have the clown paint slapped off your grinning, moronic faces.

 

Excuse my bad attitude, but this bullschit has gone on long enough. Get over it already, dipschits.

Edited April 2, 2016 by AmishRnot4ganja

[Indigro]

So municipalities cant use fed law to trump the mma, but the ag can instruct the msp to enforce fed law over it?

 

And btw, the seed to sale tracking isn't as tight as kowall believes. Each plant's yield can be fudged, right down to a total loss due to disease or infestation. Then it gets compressed and shipped... Where did it gooooo??? Lol. It's kind of like homeland security or tsa... All show w very little actual tangible benefit/doesnt do what they claim it will.

[Wild Bill]

It makes perfect sense. After all, mankind has always had complete control over nature. Why should this be any different?

[bobandtorey]

I do agree to all the post 

i think Mr.  kowall believes what he was told and the ones that signs his check or maybe people like Kowall thinks he may turn into a rock if he looks at it i remember one time i was in Court supporting someone waiting in the Halfway when a Leo brought in some evidence of cannabis and all the Leo's thought it was  some kind of Amtrax because the weed was like powder dried