Researching Medical Marijuana leads to more questions

Submitted by Heritage Newspapers' Austen Smith

When Michigan residents in 2008 voted in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, allowing for the growing and distribution of medicinal marijuana for patients with debilitating ailments, it's safe to say there were very few people, if any, throughout the state legislature who had a clear idea of how this "law" would shape up and how it would be regulated.

Nearly two years later, state lawmakers and local governments are nowhere closer to getting a handle on this voter referendum act and how the impact of distribution is affecting local communities - if anything, they are further away.

For the past two weeks, I have been researching the controversial topic of medical marijuana dispensaries and caregivers and how local government is regulating this "budding" business enterprise, starting with a live chat that had more than 30 participants. I have talked with medical marijuana advocates and activists, I have talked with an area lawyer familiar with the act and how it is affecting local government and I have even talked with a representative from the state Department of Community Health in order to clear up some cursory questions I had.

And you know what? I have gone from slightly confused to downright clueless. This experience so far has been a good example of "The more you know, the less you understand."

And it is the understanding part which I am really trying to get after, but of course understanding this convoluted and highly vague act has been elusive at best. Here are some "facts" I have dug up so far in my research:

- The 2008 Michigan Medical Mari(h)uana Act is a law that isn't a law. Because marijuana is still a Schedule 1 narcotic according to the federal government and, more importantly, the Drug Enforcement Administration, using medical marijuana is still illegal. However, if you get arrested for a marijuana-related crime and you are a registered patient then your lawyers can use the MMMA as a defense.

- Subsequently the Medical Mari(h)uana Program, a department under Community Health, established soon after the voter referendum act was approved, basically serves one function - to approve licenses for caregivers and medical marijuana patients. Beyond that they are helpless. So if you got busted and are a medical marijuana patient, calling the state for legal advice or anything else will not help you in the least. In addition, the MMMA and MMP are "silent" on a number of legal issues such as the No. 1 concern affecting local communities in medical marijuana dispensaries.

- Speaking of the dispensary issue, the MMMA is also silent on the concept of profit. According to the act, a caregiver (a designated person who is allowed to grow up to 12 plants per patient, for a maximum of five patients) is only allowed to accept compensation from his or her patients enough to cover expenses for the raw materials used in growing and cultivating the plants. But, some forward-thinking people in Washtenaw County have started collective caregiver facilities called "dispensaries" in which they are legitimate business ventures and there are more around the area than you think. I think the obvious question here is, if caregivers are only allowed to break even on the production, than how are the dispensaries paying for things such as property taxes, business licensing and administrative fees in order to stay open. When I asked the Department of Community Health rep this very question, he very bluntly stated, "I have no idea."

So, from what I can gather, we have a law that really isn't a law and legal medical marijuana that really isn't legal. Does that sound about right?

These, unfortunately, are just some of the issues that scratch the surface of this act. And so far we have seen several tug-of-war situations between local government and business entrepreneurs wanting to open medical marijuana dispensaries such as in the Village of Dexter and Ann Arbor.

What I am looking for now is for more stakeholders involved in this mess to please come forward and speak up whether you are for medical marijuana dispensaries, against them or indifferent. Feel free to e-mail me at asmith@heritage.com, or post a comment to our Facebook page.

A busy, sociable Labor Daay weekend

The following was submitted by The View staff reporter Jerry LaVaute:

Three Picnics in Three Days

My labor day weekends are historically relaxing affairs for my wife and me – a time to get some chores done, and maybe a little grilling outdoors – watch a little college football – you know.

But coincidence reigned this last weekend when we were invited to three separate, consecutive picnics on Saturday, Sunday and Monday over the long weekend.

It was surprising, and a little tiring, but fun.

On Saturday, we were invited to my son Matthew’s house for hamburgers and Italian sausage, which were served at the halftime of the Notre Dame-Purdue game.

It was a good visit – my son and his wife and their son Noah seem to be living happy lives, and I’m happy for them. And Noah – what a charmer. A visit with him is a guaranteed delight.

On Sunday, we were invited to Mary Anne and Bill Emerson’s home for a picnic, which was with a few members of their family, including in-laws.

We ate hamburgers and Italian sausage shortly after arriving (are you beginning to see a pattern here?), and retired to the screened porch, where we chatted with each other for a couple hours in very pleasant, relaxing circumstances.

On Monday, we were invited to Frank and Susan Bellomo’s home, who reside on Belleville Lake.

We chatted with each other in their kitchen before embarking on a tour of the lake in a pontoon boat.

Surprisingly, it began to sprinkle a bit, and the folks that were in the front of the boat with me moved rearward to avoid the rain.

I moved to the near edge of the cover, which shielded me from the rain as we headed eastward, but when Frank turned the boat around and we pointed toward the west, I began to be pelted by the rain and moved to what probably was the last remaining corner of the boat that was shielded from the rain.

The rainfall ebbed after 20 minutes, and the rest of our sojourn was completed in the sunlight. On balance, it was a pleasant trip.

When we returned to shore, dinner was prepared and we ate – you guessed it! – hamburgers and Italian sausage, and several other delightful dishes.

All in all, it was a busy weekend – I was dragging a bit after I returned to work on Tuesday – but I had a good time, and am thankful to my hosts for a Labor Day weekend that was fun, sociable and exciting.

Whitewater on Milan Dam Story

The following was submitted by The View staff reporter Jerry LaVaute:

I was reminded this last weekend about the ongoing importance of stepping back from an almost-completed story, and doing my best to look at it through the eyes of someone less familiar with the story, say an editor or a reader.

The example was a story I did on how the Milan city council recently approved over $800,000 to repair and replace the dam retaining wall that runs next to city hall, east of the dam itself on Ford Lake.

My editor used just the word “dam” in the headline for the online story, and I received two e-mails from city officials concerned that readers of the Milan News-Leader might think that the dam itself was being replaced.

I received these e-mails a few minutes before I planned to leave the house with my wife. I hurriedly changed a couple things about the story, and sent the updated story to my editor with a request to use the phrase “dam retaining wall” instead of the word “dam” in the headline.

The next day, I sent a note to the two officials to explain what I’d done, and they were satisfied, and thanked me. One of them said that it was otherwise a good story.

Describing technical subjects requires added attention. The reporter’s job is to take what may be a complex story, or a story that may be described in an unnecessarily complicated way, and make sense of it to readers.

I take pride in my ability to do that, and count on 31 years of making sense of Ford engineering design proposals to the layman, in this case Ford’s senior management, to quickly convey what’s going on physically, the better to get to the cost discussion quickly and efficiently.

I still take pride in that today, but I was reminded recently that it requires ongoing vigilance.