Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2009
Subject: #399 Medicinal Marijuana Is Legal In Michigan
MEDICINAL MARIJUANA IS LEGAL IN MICHIGAN
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #399 – Monday, 6 April 2009
Today over a million folks living in Michigan became eligible to apply
for permission to use medicinal marijuana. It is the first day that
the state Bureau of Health Professions at the Michigan Department of
Community Health will accept applications.
Michigan becomes the second largest state and the first in the
heartland to have a medicinal marijuana program.
Called the Michigan Medical Marihuana Program (MMMP) by the state,
application forms and details are on line at http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-27417_51869—,00.html
In a vote last November, 63 percent of the state’s voters said yes to
medical marijuana. The initiative won in every single county in the
state.
Many police in the state are not happy. George Basar, president of the
Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police http://www.michiganpolicechiefs.org/
, predicts the law will ignite widespread marijuana abuse as stated in
this article http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n353/a02.html
Others are accepting the new reality. For example, the Genesee County
Prosecutor David Leyton met Friday with advocates as shown in this
article http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n388/a04.html
We are starting to see calls for improvements in the law like this
editorial calling for better ways for patients to obtain their
medicine http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n385/a02.html
The Constitution of Michigan states that “no law adopted by the people
at the polls under the initiative provisions of this section shall be
amended or repealed, except by a vote of the electors unless otherwise
provided in the initiative measure or by three-fourths of the members
elected to and serving in each house of the legislature.” The law
does not provide for change by the state legislature. Perhaps in the
future the three-fourths needed will vote to improved the law as the
above editorial asks. Any change which would undermine the law is not
likely.
Michigan’s law sends a strong message to elected and appointed
officials at all levels of government that marijuana is medicine – a
message you may help send, also.
Most news clippings about the law and the various issues involved may
be accessed at http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Michigan+Medical+Marijuana
In Michigan the people have spoken.
It will be interesting to see how the press covers the issue in
Michigan in the months ahead just as it is in the other states with
medicinal marijuana laws.
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Prepared by: Richard Lake, Senior Editor www.mapinc.org