cannabisnews.com: House Republicans, AG Seek To Clarify MI MMJ Law

cannabisnews.com: House Republicans, AG Seek To Clarify MI MMJ Law
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House Republicans, AG Seek To Clarify MI MMJ Law
Posted by CN Staff on June 28, 2011 at 09:57:33 PT
By Karen Bouffard, Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Source: Detroit News
Lansing -- The legalities behind Michigan's medical marijuana law would be more clearly defined under an eight-bill legislative package unveiled by House Republicans this morning. Rep. John Walsh, R-Livonia, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, prosecutors and other lawmakers have said new laws are needed to end what they called "chaos" surrounding implementation of the 2008 ballot initiative that legalized the use of marijuana by seriously ill patients.
Walsh outlined problems that occurred as communities have struggled with the proliferation of dispensaries in their communities. He said the law has been unevenly enforced by prosecutors, law enforcement and judges. "Confusion reigns," Walsh said. "It's exposing law-abiding citizens to uncertainty, and causing our taxpayers money." Schuette also today issued an opinion on the storage of marijuana plants. Under current law, patients legally can grow up to 12 plants, and caregivers with permits are allowed to grow up to 12 plants for each of five patients. Schuette issued an opinion that caregivers must store plants for each of their five patients in separate locked storage facilities. Snipped Complete Article: http://drugsense.org/url/CdRjKCbU Source: Detroit News (MI)Author: Karen Bouffard, Detroit News Lansing BureauPublished: June 28, 2011Copyright: 2011 The Detroit News Contact: letters detnews.com Website: http://www.detnews.com/ Cannabis News Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #24 posted by Hope on June 30, 2011 at 15:30:18 PT
Yes, Dongenero.
And in the next paragraph of their statement of "Proofs" and "Reasons" that are just lies, they jump from "Implicated", which they already got away with, and move right on to "Caused".
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Comment #23 posted by dongenero on June 30, 2011 at 15:01:07 PT
Representative's "form letters"
runruff is right. These are just rubber-stamp responses we receive. I've received them from my "Representative" for a decade now.I think the specific content of our letters may be less important than just inundating them with a high volume of letters supporting change. What they can't deny is a mountain of letters on their desk or a crashed email server.
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Comment #22 posted by Hope on June 30, 2011 at 14:59:08 PT
"Like last night's burrito!"
Only considerably more deadly.What were they thinking? Purposely allowing illegal guns to be sold that they knew were likely to be sent to Mexico?Purposely? "Fast and Furious"? Why? Certainly not for the reasons they gave. They could only "track" them as they claimed to intend to do, to the border. Then the so called "Tracking" was over. Were they trying to back up some sort of political lies? For exactly what purpose? Racheting up the Drug War? Several different people have very different opinions. Trying to undermine Mexico comes to mind. Getting more into Mexico's business and getting bigger budgets because things are getting more violent. Increase hysteria over people's rights to purchase and own guns? NRA believes that's what it was about. There are a lot of different ideas, but no one thinks they were trying to do the right thing. They couldn't be that stupid. I know people can do stupid things and government is gifted at it, but this smells of a cunning political plan somewhere along the line. They wanted those guns to cause bad, bad things to happen... and they did... only through a whistle blower, their complicity was unveiled.
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Comment #21 posted by dongenero on June 30, 2011 at 14:41:44 PT
Hope #13
"The drug has been implicated in a high percentage of automobile crashes and workplace accidents." The way this happens is; an automobile accident or workplace accident happens which results in drug testing. Depending on the form of drug testing, it may provide a 90+ day history of your usage. What the test finds is inactive metabolites of the THC your body processed 3 months ago. The INACTIVE metabolites are stored in fat cells and slowly broken down and released in your blood, urine or hair via blood flow over time.So this assertion by Representative Ross is a convenient misrepresentation. The joint you shared 3 months ago is now implicated in the accident 3 months later. Nefarious and dishonest by any measure. Welcome to America and the life of a good percentage of the upstanding workforce trying to make a living and maintain some level of common privacy and decency. This started largely with Reagan and the uptick in the War of Drugs with federal workers and naturally spread over to any private companies with govt. contracts then, pretty much any business that could afford it. Then they wanted to try it on school children.It's your freedom and privacy slowly being taken.
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Comment #20 posted by afterburner on June 30, 2011 at 13:19:13 PT
Just sent a letter to John Conyers, Jr.
He's on the committee and Represents Michigan & is co-sponsor. As a Michigan voter I requested his help even though my district has a different Representative.Anybody that wants to send a hardcopy to any of the committee members, please be respectful; some of them are already on our side.
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Comment #19 posted by ekim on June 30, 2011 at 11:46:02 PT
NPR National Public Radio Talk of the nation
at 3:00 today will be doing the show on medical cannabis
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Comment #18 posted by runruff on June 30, 2011 at 11:43:05 PT
"Gone With The Wind".
Like last night's burrito!
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on June 30, 2011 at 10:42:16 PT
And... on top of every other lame thing...
he's apparently involved in the grotesque ATF case, "Fast and Furious". A writer in NRA's American Rifleman magazine had an article about this scandal, the "Fast and Furious" scandal, and he said if the ATF was going to adopt the name of a movie for their project, they should have chosen "Gone With The Wind".
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Comment #16 posted by BGreen on June 30, 2011 at 10:33:07 PT
Republic Dennis Ross re: post 9
Just like every other brain dead Republican, this bozo not only wants to keep caging Americans like animals for the cannabis plant, he also wants to declare war against Mexico for harboring terrorists.It's not too hard to read between the lines, even when they're written in crayon.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on June 30, 2011 at 10:24:54 PT
If possible... Tim
even if it's difficult, politeness disarms. Rudeness calls for defensiveness. If you want to reason with or just chew him out... that's the choice. Hopefully you want to try to reason with him, as practice for being reasonable, if nothing else. It might do him good or whoever else might read it. Do your best and do your best to educate him and if that doesn't work, do your best to get him voted out of office at re election time.
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on June 30, 2011 at 10:19:03 PT
Runruff's right.
Tim, your congressperson may have never seen or heard of your letter or the one he supposedly sent you. An aide probably took care of the whole thing. But it's what you've got to work with. Don't get mad. Try not to be condescending. Do not get overly emotional. Correct him. Politely. He might know of it or someone might pay attention. I can only guess, really.
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on June 30, 2011 at 09:16:38 PT
Answering your congressman's letter....
"Smoking marijuana damages the brain, heart, lungs, and immune system and because it interferes with memory, perception, and judgment."Dis-proven. Look for quotes from studies. Compare to legal drugs. Consider the costs of prosecuting people for something they seem to like... a lot... and that is impressively less harmful than currently legal smoking and drinking. Why persecute and prosecute them? Is that a truly worthy, justifiable expense?"The drug has been implicated in a high percentage of automobile crashes and workplace accidents." That's just not true and Pete over at Drug WarRant can shine a light on that for you. He can explain what the ONDCP did in contorting studies to seem to implicate what they are saying. It's like a shell game the ONDCP is playing on the public. I can't explain it... but it's explained somewhere over a Drug War Rant. There is a rational answer to the irrational fears he's apparently swallowed, hook, line, and sinker." Ending the prohibition on marijuana will invariably increase costs to the taxpayers in the form of court cases and incarceration for drug-related DUI accidents as well as publicly funded drug treatment centers." That's just crazy. Studies... have to find them...indicate that people that use cannabis are actually less prone to accidents than is normal for human beings. "H.R. 2306 does not distinguish between domestically produced marijuana and cross-border trafficked marijuana." Perhaps the congressman could offer an amendment to H.R. 2306.And so forth. Until you've corrected all his mistaken ideas and outright lies to the extent that you wish to.It won't do him any good to show him the truth of the matter because he won't hear it or see it. He will refuse to... but it will do you some good.
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Comment #12 posted by runruff on June 30, 2011 at 09:11:13 PT
You are not hearing from your rep.
These are either form letters or handled by automatons in the ONDCP. Believe me, your rep is not even informed enough on the bad stuff to write such a letter.They take these pea-brains and say, "Here take this Rubik's Cube and go sit in the corner until I correctly respond to these dopers!" Then we will take you on this gambling/sex Junket to Mexico where we own all the Sin.Peel back the curtain and see, you can't make this stuff up!
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on June 30, 2011 at 08:48:59 PT
Tim
Tim, I understand your pain, your anger, and frustration.Do you wish to answer him? We'll help if we can. A line at a time.
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Comment #10 posted by Canis420 on June 30, 2011 at 08:39:40 PT:
Tim
I get the same type of letters (misinformed) from my dinosaurs in office...it is very frustrating. They all seem to have drank the same cool aid.
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Comment #9 posted by Tim on June 30, 2011 at 05:17:36 PT:
Response received from my Congressman
This is the resonse I received from my Congressman, Dennis Ross. It upset me very much to know how misinformed he is regarding the issue, for example - "Smoking marijuana damages the brain, heart, lungs, and immune system and because it interferes with memory, perception, and judgment." "Thank you for contacting me about H.R.2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011. I appreciate your thoughts and concerns on this important issue.Marijuana became federally illegal in 1937, and while I recognize the problems of today's prohibition of the drug, I do not believe that the legalization of marijuana will ever be beneficial to our country's society. Smoking marijuana damages the brain, heart, lungs, and immune system and because it interferes with memory, perception, and judgment. The drug has been implicated in a high percentage of automobile crashes and workplace accidents. Marijuana is a gateway drug that can lead to escalation to stronger drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Ending the prohibition on marijuana will invariably increase costs to the taxpayers in the form of court cases and incarceration for drug-related DUI accidents as well as publicly funded drug treatment centers.H.R. 2306 does not distinguish between domestically produced marijuana and cross-border trafficked marijuana. Even if the bill limited its scope to domestically produced product, enforcement of cross-border drug trafficking would be severely hampered. I believe we must approach international drug trafficking from a national security perspective rather than merely a criminal justice perspective. Our porous borders have facilitated the cross-border importation of narcotics from Mexico and South America. Our borders must be better fortified and protected. Mexican drug cartels have murdered United States citizens, law enforcement officers and border patrol agents. Even now, the committee on which I serve, the Committee on Oversight and Reform, is investigating the sales of firearms to individuals who provided those weapons to Mexican drug cartels - weapons that were used in the commission of crimes on U.S. soil.I believe these Mexican drug cartels should be designated as foreign terrorist organizations, and that there has been a policy of denial that has allowed the cross-border drug trade to flourish and embolden the cartels and drug gangs, endangering U.S. citizens from the Border States to our urban centers. Because of this, I have co-sponsored H.R. 1270, which would direct the Secretary of State to designate as foreign terrorist organizations certain Mexican drug cartels. This is an issue that has expanded beyond individual citizens being arrested and prosecuted for possession of drugs. It is an issue of immediate national security. Giving the cartels a pass with respect to one type of drug will not stop them from continuing their terroristic and violent trafficking activities of other illegal drugs. Anyone who believes otherwise is simply being naļve. We cannot afford to give an inch.Please know that your correspondence is important to me and that I appreciate the benefit of your views. Maintaining open communication is crucial to better representing my constituents. While we may not always agree on everything, my goal as a Member of Congress is to carefully consider everything that comes to my desk before making decisions. Please do not hesitate to contact me with your ideas or concerns in the future.
Sincerely,
(signed)
Dennis A. Ross
Member of Congress"
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Comment #8 posted by afterburner on June 29, 2011 at 11:16:29 PT
You Can Run, but You Can't Hide, Sir Lamar!
paul armentano #1"On Friday, when NORML requested its members to contact Rep. Smith’s office, the Congressman promptly shut off his DC office phone and later closed down his Facebook page."Hail, hail, Paul!
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on June 28, 2011 at 19:17:56 PT
Yes, Paul. I agree with Runruff.
You have devoted a lot of attention and consistently to our efforts for many years. We appreciate you. You've done and are doing a good job.It's so good that this bill has finally been written and introduced. Now we just need some miracles.As fiercely wonderful a thing as this would be for humanity and justice just simply cannot be allowed to not happen.
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Comment #6 posted by dongenero on June 28, 2011 at 12:23:09 PT
Absolutely Paul..this is the most profound yet.
And thanks for your efforts! As your article states:"H.R. 2306 mimics changes enacted by Congress to repeal the federal prohibition of alcohol."How sensible. And this time around, we don't even have to amend the Constitution to do it.
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Comment #5 posted by paul armentano on June 28, 2011 at 12:13:11 PT
Thanks
Thanks runruff for the compliment.Dongero, this bill actually differs quite a bit from any previous federal marijuana bill sponsored by Rep. Frank or anyone else in that it is the first legislation introduced to remove the marijuana plant classification from any schedule of the CSA, thus federally deregulating and federal powers to enforce criminal prohibition for possession or use.
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Comment #4 posted by dongenero on June 28, 2011 at 10:56:01 PT
And certainly a big hand for Barney Frank
He's actually been sponsoring marijuana decrim bills for over a decade.
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Comment #3 posted by dongenero on June 28, 2011 at 10:49:23 PT
House Republicans, AG Seek To Clarify MI MMJ Law
Clarify = "Put the genie back in the bottle" and resume the war against Americans.
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on June 28, 2011 at 10:31:28 PT
How about a big hand for our friend Paul here?
I always think, "what a great job he does, consistanty".
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Comment #1 posted by paul armentano on June 28, 2011 at 10:15:03 PT
HR 2306 commentary in The Hill
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/168779-let-the-states-decide-their-own-marijuana-policiesLet the states decide their own marijuana policies
By Paul Armentano - 06/28/11 11:40 AM ETLawmakers for the first time have introduced legislation in Congress to end the federal criminalization of the personal use of marijuana.The bipartisan measure -- H.R. 2306, the 'Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011' and sponsored by Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank and Texas Republican Ron Paul along with Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.), and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) -- prohibits the federal government from prosecuting adults who use or possess personal use amounts of marijuana by removing the plant and its primary psychoactive constituent, THC, from the five schedules of the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Under present law, all varieties of the marijuana plant are defined as illicit Schedule I controlled substances, defined as possessing "a high potential for abuse,"and "no currently accepted medical use in treatment." This classification is not supported by either existing science or public opinion.Said Rep. Frank last Thursday upon the bill’s introduction, “Criminally prosecuting adults for making the choice to smoke marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources and an intrusion on personal freedom. I do not advocate urging people to smoke marijuana, neither do I urge them to drink alcoholic beverages or smoke tobacco, but in none of these cases do I think prohibition enforced by criminal sanctions is good public policy.”H.R. 2306 seeks to federally deregulate the personal possession and use of marijuana by adults. It marks the first time that members of Congress have introduced legislation to eliminate the federal criminalization of marijuana since the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.H.R. 2306 mimics changes enacted by Congress to repeal the federal prohibition of alcohol. Passage of this measure would remove the existing conflict between federal law and the laws of those sixteen states that already allow for the limited use of marijuana under a physicians’ supervision. It would also permit state governments that wish to fully legalize and regulate the responsible use, possession, production, and intrastate distribution of marijuana for all adults to be free to do so without federal interference. In recent years, several states — including California, Massachusetts, and Washington — have considered taking such actions either legislatively or via the ballot initiative process, and it is likely that several additional states will be considering this option in 2012, including Colorado, and Washington. The citizens and lawmakers of these states should be free to explore these alternate policies — including medicalization, decriminalization, and/or legalization — without running afoul of the federal law or the whims of the Department of Justice.Of course, just as many states continued to criminalize the sale and consumption of alcohol following the federal government’s lifting of alcohol prohibition, no doubt many — if not most states — would continue, at least initially, to maintain criminal sanctions regarding the use of marijuana. However, there is no justification to have the federal government continue to compel them to do so. Just as state and local governments are now free to enact there own policies regarding the sale and use of alcohol — a mind-altering, toxic substance that causes far greater harm to the user than does marijuana — they should be free to adopt marijuana policies that best reflect the wishes and mores of their citizens.Speaking during an online town hall in January, President Obama acknowledged that the subject of legalizing and regulating marijuana was a “legitimate topic for debate.” Yet last week Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary, boasted that he would not even consider scheduling the measure for a public hearing. On Friday, when NORML requested its members to contact Rep. Smith’s office, the Congressman promptly shut off his DC office phone and later closed down his Facebook page.It’s obvious why marijuana prohibitionists like Rep. Smith will go to such lengths to try and stifle any public discussion of the matter. Over the past 70+ years, the federal criminalization of marijuana has failed to reduce the public’s demand or access to cannabis, and it has imposed enormous fiscal and human costs upon the American people. Further, this policy promotes disrespect for the law and reinforces ethnic and generational divides between the public and law enforcement. Since 1970, police have arrested over 20 million American citizens for marijuana offenses — nearly 90 percent of which were prosecuted for the personal possession of marijuana, not marijuana trafficking or sale. Yet today federal surveys indicate that the public, including America’s young people, have greater access to marijuana — including stronger varieties of marijuana — than ever before. It is time to stop ceding control of the marijuana market to unregulated, criminal entrepreneurs and allow states to enact common sense regulations that seek to govern the adult use of marijuana in a fashion similar to alcohol. After 70 years of failure it is time for an alternative approach. The Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011 is an ideal first step.Paul Armentano is the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), and is the co-author of the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?
http://www.norml.org
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