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that "no law adopted by the people at the polls under the initiative provisions of this section shall be amended or repealed, except by a vote of the electors unless otherwise provided in the initiative measure or by three-fourths of the members elected to and serving in each house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

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