Michigan's medical marijuana laws have become clouded in thick smoke that darn near require citizens authorized to use, sell, or grow it to apply to law school dually majoring in criminal law, and police enforcement to navigate through the law-fog to understand what the heck is going on.
Voters approved the use of marijuana for medical reasons in 2008. Since then, communities have enacted a blizzard of ordinances to regulate, ban, limit, or simply stall for time by constructing pot dispensary moratoriums.
"Carded" citizens have been arrested, marijuana dispensaries raided, and people fired from jobs for positive drug tests for pot due to the conflicting, knee-jerk enacted laws.
Joseph Casias is authorized to use medical marijuana because he has cancer in his back. Wal-Mart in Battle Creek fired him in 2009 for a positive drug test showing pot. He is fighting for his cause in court, and 'Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Peter O'Connell wrote in a September opinion that the law is susceptible to multiple interpretations and that reading it "carelessly or out of context could result in jail or prison time for many of our citizens." He urged state officials to clear up contradictions and vague areas in the voter-approved law,' myFoxdetroit.com reported.
We have advocates of medical marijuana, and patiients saying they are within the laws, and police saying, no, no, no, no, you got it all wrong dudes. Therefore, you, and your horse are going to jail.
Of course, when it comes to laws, "interpretation" is the whole key, and when you have various communities, and police departments doing their own interpreting, maybe even using Ouigi boards, the only thing that has occurred to date is complete, and creative chaos.
The legal system is now starting to feel the effects of these gray areas of the law, many creatively produced, and "Courts face a rash of medical marijuana cases, with the law raising so many questions one state appeals court judge described reading it as a "maze," reported myFoxdetroit.com.
Person's authorized to use, grow, and/or sell marijuana in Michigan currently need a stack of law books, and 83 county maps with their extra-hurry-up enacted marijuana ordinances included, just to navigate through the state either on foot, by car, cab, bus, or boat in order to "maybe" not get arrested.
According to myFoxdetroit.com, "Michigan's more than 45,000 licensed medical marijuana patients can possess up to 2 1/2 ounces of usable marijuana and have up to 12 plants kept in an enclosed, locked facility -- or have a registered caregiver grow the drug for them."
Michigan isn't the only state with medical marijuana laws. Fourteen states have like statutes, and at least 3 also have authorities running around like headless chickens, likes raids in California, what doctors can recommend marijuana in Colorado, and New Jersey now boxing over regulations regarding pot.
Who gets screwed in the end while all this chaos is going down? The law-abiding citizens who need this medication for various medical conditions like Crohn's disease, cancer, AIDS, and other serious problems that do not respond to conventional medications. And the caregivers who grow the pot, and those running dispensaries also take hits.
"The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the southeast Michigan cities of Livonia, Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills and joined a lawsuit against the west Michigan city of Wyoming over policies it says effectively ban the use of medical marijuana," reported myFoxdetroit.com.
Apparently a spokesman for the new incoming Republican House Speaker, Jase Bolger indicated that the confusion will have to be addressed in the 2011-12 legislative sessions.
Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. In this case, let the medical marijuana user, grower, seller beware in Michigan.
In the meantime, stay home if you even had a dream about medical marijuana while in Michigan, or you might get arrested.
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