cannabisnews.com: AG Schuette Looks To Crackdown on Pot ‘Profiteers’
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AG Schuette Looks To Crackdown on Pot ‘Profiteers’
Posted by CN Staff on October 05, 2011 at 10:05:34 PT
By Chad Selweski, Daily Tribune Staff Writer
Source: Daily Tribune
Michigan -- Over the past three decades, Bill Schuette has served as a state senator, the Michigan agricultural director, a congressman and a state appeals court judge. But he probably never envisioned that the latter stage of his career would be spent as the chief weed killer of Michigan.As the state attorney general, Schuette has led the charge to shut down the hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries that have blossomed over the past two years in Michigan. A mass shutdown followed a state Court of Appeals ruling in August out of Mount Pleasant that agreed with the AG’s claim that Michigan’s medical marijuana law does not allow for commercial sales of cannabis.
Dispensaries that remain open after the precedent-setting court decision, Schuette warned, do so at their own peril and risk criminal prosecution.Schuette, a Midland Republican, said he’s convinced the profiteers who seek to make money off of weed sales, and the longtime liberal activists who want to legalize marijuana, have hijacked the state’s medical marijuana law, taking advantage of numerous ambiguous loopholes.Though the 2008 voter-initiated ballot proposal passed by landslide proportion, the state’s top lawman said the plan has morphed into something that goes far beyond helping cancer patients and the terminally ill deal with pain and nausea by smoking pot.“The proposal was designed, sold and packaged to help those who had a terminal illness, those in the painful final stages of their life,” said Schuette, 57. “It got hijacked by those who want to legalize marijuana and by the profiteers.”After taking office on Jan. 1, the AG has waged a nine-month battle against the medical marijuana law — the murky version implemented in a haphazard manner across the state.In a June 28 Attorney General’s opinion piece, Schuette declared that the new law limits medicinary concerns to 12 marijuana plants, grown by a patient or by a certified health caregiver and locked away in a theft-proof area. Earlier this year, he sided with federal law enforcement authorities who sought access to medical marijuana records in conjunction with a criminal investigation in the Lansing area.Until recently, Schuette faced a fledgling recall campaign to remove him from office because of his staunch opposition to freely distributing cannabis for medical reasons.In August, the AG allied himself with Grand Traverse County prosecutors who seek to convict a medical marijuana user of impaired driving.Supporters of the new law said that driving under the influence is not a legitimate concern, but Schuette’s office responds with Michigan State Police statistics that show in 2009 marijuana was the leading drug cited in Michigan cases in which drug-induced driving was detected by police.“The last thing you want to do is have people stoned behind the wheel. That risks lives,” Schuette said.Meanwhile, pot legalization advocates, the American Civil Liberties Union and those who backed the 2008 ballot proposal, or have since witnessed its sweeping possibilities have targeted the AG as an enemy.Critics said the large package of bills in Lansing that are backed by Schuette to restrict the 2008 law would limit medical marijuana usage in numerous ways. To revise a voter-approved initiative, a daunting three-fourths majority is needed in the state House and Senate.Liberal columnist Larry Gabriel from the Detroit-based Metro Times predicted that the AG intends to define the law so narrowly that “you practically have to have a foot in the grave to qualify for relief.”In fact, Schuette seems to have few answers for an unexpected development created by the pot law in which about 95 percent of the 105,000 people holding a state-issued cannabis card are not terminally ill but instead suffer from chronic pain because of a wide variety of illnesses and injuries.Schuette insists that the pot access allowed by the statute has spread far too widely, addressing all types of pain sufferers. But he declines to establish a specific threshold in law for those who are not faced with cancer or impending death.The AG is convinced that “unscrupulous characters” have manipulated the new pot-sale system to “line their own pockets.” Schuette said he repeatedly hears feedback from constituents who are dismayed by the outcome of the 2008 vote.“I have people all the time who come up and say to me, ‘Hey, Bill, I didn’t vote for pot shops on every corner,” he said. “I voted to help people cope with debilitating diseases and to help them with their pain management in the final stages of life.”Source: Daily Tribune, The (Royal Oak, MI)Author: Chad Selweski, Daily Tribune Staff WriterPublished: October 5, 2011Copyright: 2011 The Daily TribuneContact: editor dailytribune.comWebsite: http://www.dailytribune.com/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/aMln0yH6CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #7 posted by Vincent on October 06, 2011 at 14:36:29 PT:
AG Schuette
“I have people all the time who come up and say to me, ‘Hey, Bill, I didn’t vote for pot shops on every corner,” he said. “I voted to help people cope with debilitating diseases and to help them with their pain management in the final stages of life.”And who the hell does this lowlife think he's kidding? He has NO "friends" that voted for the Medical Marijuana Bill. Scumbags like this live in a vacuum. 
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Comment #6 posted by ekim on October 06, 2011 at 11:33:53 PT
from drugwarrant.com
http://www.detnews.com/article/20110927/METRO01/109270407/Romulus-cops-charged-with-misusing-drug-funds-suspended-without-pay
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Comment #5 posted by afterburner on October 06, 2011 at 09:08:56 PT
Paul Pot
"Prohibition is dying. ... The end of prohibition is going to hit them like a tsunami." Yes.Prohibition is dying. The end of prohibition is going to hit them like a salami.Payback. The end of prohibition is going to hit them like a butter sock (see iCarly).
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on October 05, 2011 at 20:28:11 PT
Steve Jobs R.I.P.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/steve-jobs-and-the-idea-of-letting-go/2011/10/05/gIQAWxNqOL_story.html
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Comment #3 posted by Paul Pot on October 05, 2011 at 20:18:11 PT:
Prohibition is dying.
Prohibition is dying. Why can't clever idiots like the AG see it coming. The end of prohibition is going to hit them like a tsunami.
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on October 05, 2011 at 17:21:29 PT
Steve Jobs has passed away ...
Right now, if you tune into CNBC it says Marijuana USA but they pay tribute to Steve Jobs.Dear Steve,This is so ironic, marijana could have saved you!After today, life will not be the same again, for you have passed away.You are the reason I came to America so many years ago.
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Comment #1 posted by CropReport on October 05, 2011 at 13:06:50 PT
Follow The Money
It probably means nothing that Schuette took money from the booze lobby in his 2010 campaign. MICHIGAN BEER & WINE WHOLESALERS ASSOCIATION gave him $20,000. $23,300 if you count the execs from that industry. Only 9 donors gave him more than that.Michigan needs to rewrite their laws to allow for lawful sales. But this guy will probably ignore the will of the people regardless.
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