Saginaw Escapade

Medical Marijuana:
I’m for legalization — or more accurately, decriminalization — of drugs, which includes marijuana. Michigan supported proposal 1. On its face, this law was written with holes, but the more I think about it, I like it the way it is.

The law basically says: Here’s a car, keys are totally illegal, but if you somehow get a key, you can drive the car and we won’t arrest you.
The law says if you fit the criteria, you may possess up to 2.5 ounces, grow up to 12 plants, and your caretaker may do the same. Plants must be locked up.
The Michigan Department of Community Health will have 120 days, until April 4, to outline the law within the parameters established by the proposal, an initiative of the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care. I spoke to the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) and they are a little confused themselves. They are working on establishing the rules in order for a patient to get a medical marijuana card. That is it. Once you have a card you can legally possess, but no one is going to help you possess, so ultimately you have to go to a drug dealer or someone willing to illegally sell you seeds.

It just seems weird that they would write the law this way. In essence, with the knowledge that the patient may only obtain seeds or cannabis from someone who is selling it illegally, they are promoting the illegal act of the dealer. I actually have no problem that they haven’t made it officially “legal,” I just wish they would make it not illegal to sell marijuana.

Because it was passed as a citizen proposal, it must be put into legislation, and legislators would have to go through the normal voting and legislation process to amend it.

Unless patients already have a means to obtain marijuana on their own, they are going to leave the MDCH pretty confused, when they are given a card and a prescription by a doctor, but no where to fill it.

The reason the government cannot offer seeds or marijuana is because they cannot participate in an act that is illegal, which possession of a schedule 1 substance, marijuana, is. So the only way to create legal dealers is to incorporate that into the law, stating that certain people may possess certain quantities for the purpose of providing it to patients, or else the presumption is that the medicine will be obtained on the black market.

I actually like the black-market better; it’s true capitalism without government getting it all muddled. There’s enough pot out there from safe sources. Ask around and you’ll find it. We don’t need clinics that distribute it.

California has Co-ops. A Co-op is allowed to keep 8 ounces on hand for each patient in their registry. They will service anyone that has a doctor’s letter or prescription, even without the card. The card is only good to the patient in the case that they are caught by the police, and then the card would allow them to have 8 ounces on their persons.

If California, the distributors allow patients to get as much or as little as they want at a time, up to 8 ounces as allowed by law. They claim to sell their product for higher prices than on the black market, so they say that takes away any opportunity for the patient to sell it and make profit, though it also means they make more, even though they also have more overhead business expenses.

Distributors in California have been raided by the DEA, because even though they comply with state law, they do not comply with federal. Some of these people are doing decent amounts of time in federal penitentiaries for it, so it’s risky for them even though the state government mandates them. I expect DEA raids will perpetually diminish, however.

Anyway, in a perfect world, marijuana would be legal to possess or sell by anyone without government intervention, but I supposed I like this law better than California’s.

sidenote: In the language for the proposal they spelled marijuana “marihuana”. What’s that about