cannabisnews.com: MMJ: Michigan Voters May Be Asked To Legalize MMJ: Michigan Voters May Be Asked To Legalize Posted by CN Staff on December 19, 2007 at 06:43:21 PT By Chris Andrews, Lansing State Journal Source: Lansing State Journal Michigan -- Lynn Allen is in a great deal of pain. And he thinks marijuana would ease it. The 51-year-old Williamston man was born with hemophilia and infected with HIV and hepatitis C more than 20 years ago.His greatest pain comes from arthritis related to his hemophilia. He must use a wheel- chair to get around. He takes narcotics that help with pain, but they have side effects, including constipation and memory problems. Unless it's legal, he won't use marijuana. "I had children in the home, and I didn't want to set a bad example for them," Allen said. "They've since gone off to college, but I just don't think it's a good idea to break the law."Michigan voters will probably decide next November whether to allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana based on the recommendation of a physician.Supporters have turned in nearly half a million petition signatures to the Secretary of State's Office - they need 304,000 valid signatures to get the issue on the ballot.But opponents question the medicinal value of marijuana and the sincerity of the effort. Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth is among them."There's plenty of pain medication out there," Wriggelsworth said. "I don't think anybody's concern is about ill people. It's just a way for people who have a predisposition to use drugs to try to get them legalized."Local Ordinances Twelve states allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. In Michigan, five cities - Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale, Flint and Traverse City - have ordinances to do so, although use and possession are illegal under both state and federal law.Under the Michigan proposal, seriously ill patients could legally use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.The measure specifically lists treatment for such things as HIV, cancer and Alzheimer's, as well as for less specific "severe and chronic pain."Patients would register with the state and have an ID card to help police know they have the right to use marijuana.Those who are registered would have the right to grow up to 12 marijuana plants.They could not be prosecuted for buying marijuana, although it would still be a crime for someone to sell it.The medical community is divided on the issue. Supporters include the California, New York and Rhode Island medical societies, the American Public Health Association and the American Academy of HIV Medicine.White House Against It The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy opposes it, as does the Michigan State Medical Society except in research.Some Michigan residents use marijuana to help with pain despite the fact that it is against the law."You find it primarily used for people who are going through chemotherapy and have a difficult time keeping anything down, people with muscular pain such as multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, people who are in serious pain and that have life-threatening illnesses," said Dianne Byrum, a former legislator whose political consulting firm is leading the drive.Byrum says other states with medical marijuana laws have seen up to one half of 1 percent of the population take advantage of the law. In Michigan, that would be about 50,000 people.But Dr. Michael Chafty, a pain-management specialist who serves on the Michigan State Medical Society's board of directors, said more well-controlled studies are needed."Many of the people who think that marijuana is their only option don't understand the options that currently exist in pain management," he said. "There are a lot of other options that are very adequate, if not superior, to marijuana." Lawmaker OpposedIn theory, the Legislature could enact the marijuana law, eliminating the need for sending it to the voters. But that's not likely to happen, said Senate Majority Floor Leader Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt."These folks are trying to pull the wool over people's eyes," Cropsey said. "They'll get a couple of very sympathetic examples out there, but when it comes right down to it, they are just plain trying to legalize marijuana eventually."Complete Title: Marijuana as Medicine? Michigan Voters May Be Asked in November To Legalize Drug for Patients in PainSource: Lansing State Journal (MI)Author: Chris Andrews, Lansing State JournalPublished: December 19, 2007Copyright: 2007 Lansing State JournalWebsite: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/Contact: http://www.lsj.com/contactus/ltr_editor.htmlRelated Articles & Web Site:Stop Arresting Patientshttp://www.stoparrestingpatients.org/Michigan Closer To Medical Marijuana Votehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23495.shtmlMMJ Question May Be Headed To Nov. '08 Ballothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23494.shtmlPetition Drive Can Put Issue Where It Belongs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread23062.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #35 posted by FoM on December 20, 2007 at 07:35:33 PT dongenero I love it too. When a person does drugs and then stops can they be honest then? I think that many of us have done drugs and have stopped but what have we learned from our experience and how does it relate to society in general? In all honesty I would trust a reformed drug user before a person who never experienced drugs. They fear us. [ Post Comment ] Comment #34 posted by dongenero on December 20, 2007 at 07:16:53 PT Obama quote He's quite right, and the truth of his statement is the reason for much of the the fear prohibitionists have of cannabis.........."....it could at least help you laugh at the world's ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bullshit and cheap moralism."I love that statement! [ Post Comment ] Comment #33 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 21:00:24 PT Good video, Goneposthole. Thanks. [ Post Comment ] Comment #32 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 20:12:49 PT LaGuardia I first heard him speak at the 2004 DNC and I thought someday this young man will be the President. I didn't follow his career or anything but he left a strong impression in my mind. He was a Constitutional Law Professor so he knows a lot about the Constitution. He might not be perfect but he is in tune.Excerpt: I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory. I had discovered that it didn't make any difference whether you smoked reefer in the white classmate's sparkling new van, or in the dorm room of some brother you'd met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids who had dropped out of school and now spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl. You might just be bored, or alone. Everybody was welcome into the club of disaffection. And if the high didn't solve whatever it was that was getting you down, it could at least help you laugh at the world's ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bullshit and cheap moralism. http://www.issues2000.org/Domestic/Barack_Obama_Drugs.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #31 posted by LaGuardia on December 19, 2007 at 19:52:07 PT Obama I think that Obama may be more on our side than he is willing to commit to during the election, due to the flack that he could get because of his "youthful indiscretions" if he seems too pro marijuana. I like Edwards too, but I stopped relying on his candidacy for potential salvation several months ago. Either of the two would do, IMO.Hilary, on the other hand, I do not trust. [ Post Comment ] Comment #30 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 18:59:32 PT goneposthole Thanks! That was good. Merry Christmas! [ Post Comment ] Comment #29 posted by goneposthole on December 19, 2007 at 18:49:38 PT Worry Be Gone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh_BF5h9j2wMerry Christmas [ Post Comment ] Comment #28 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 17:59:36 PT Hope Maybe I am not giving Elizabeth enough credit. Maybe this has been something she has dealt with for years and she has come to accept it. People in France aren't uptight like our country is I don't think. [ Post Comment ] Comment #27 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 17:54:29 PT Yep That's what was the saddest about it to me, too, when I first heard about it. It really is sad. I hope he didn't do it... for her sake. [ Post Comment ] Comment #26 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 17:34:57 PT Hope I am not upset about an affair because that can happen but it's his wife that is loved by many people who have seen her courage fighting a terminal disease. That's what is bothering me. It's Elizabeth and how it affects her and their children. [ Post Comment ] Comment #25 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 17:07:48 PT Yes... I heard about this scandal but without the child, some time ago. I was just thinking a day or two ago, "I wonder how he got away with that".Maybe he is innocent. I hope so. [ Post Comment ] Comment #24 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 17:06:06 PT :0) Outed! An Enquirer reader! http://www.nationalenquirer.com/john_edwards_love_child/celebrity/64426 [ Post Comment ] Comment #23 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 17:04:23 PT Maybe he's innocent... but then again... he might not be. But he does claim to be.Of course you'd rather not say. You're reading the National Enquirer!:0) [ Post Comment ] Comment #22 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 17:01:38 PT Hope I watched CBS News tonight and they interview many of the candidates from both parties about this question. Most all of them didn't think it was important as far as running the country and mentioned different Presidents that had affairs and a poll they took said over 60 some percent didn't care. [ Post Comment ] Comment #21 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 16:56:03 PT Hope I guess I am really surprised because I never heard anything before today. [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 16:52:40 PT Sounds like a case of Mr. Romance maybe coming back to haunt him again.He got through the last one. I was surprised at that. [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 15:22:26 PT potpal I'd rather not say. If you haven't heard I think you will soon from what I've read. [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by potpal on December 19, 2007 at 15:17:20 PT what are you reading I'm hearing otherwise...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-nichanian/new-ia-poll-edwards-lead_b_77469.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 14:17:49 PT potpal If what I have been reading turns out to be true it will be over for Edwards and it has me very upset. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by potpal on December 19, 2007 at 14:15:16 PT edwards on medical cannabis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiNdGQVewqY [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 11:46:59 PT Fight_4_Freedom Thank you. That's a very nice video. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 10:35:30 PT fight_4_freedom Very nice. I wish that we will have a new beginning for our future and for all the people of the world. I want unity not division. Love can help fix so much. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by fight_4_freedom on December 19, 2007 at 10:34:53 PT: Some good comments on the article can be found here. http://forums.lsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=36785 [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by fight_4_freedom on December 19, 2007 at 10:17:19 PT: Little inspiration from a really awesome classic song. And a really inspirational video.Some day...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfm1eb5qArA [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 09:59:30 PT What about jail, indeed? Jail. Prison. Shackles. Fines.For a plant? Crazy times.Confused and deluded hot collar moralists. They are deluded into thinking that it's somehow ok for them to punish people for having or using a plant with true cruelty and mercilessness. They have to be seriously deluding themselves, or allowing themselves to be seriously deluded, to do the things, or even sanction the things, like what the state in the name of the "people", does to people over marijuana... a plant... a non poisonous... non lethal plant. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by Hope on December 19, 2007 at 09:46:17 PT Sam Comment 1 Aye! [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 09:45:09 PT Sam I sure agree with you. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on December 19, 2007 at 09:43:04 PT one more thought I'm glad that MPP is running med MJ referendums in Maine, Oregon, Arizona, and Michigan next year. As opposed to South Dakota last year, where it lost for the first time ever.Personally, with SD being a Republican stronghold, why mess with it? I think in all likelihood the govt there probably fixed the election. Much better to knock off all the "liberal" states first and then go to work on the tough ones. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by observer on December 19, 2007 at 09:42:39 PT Legalize? What about Jail? (1) Notice the way this article punches the word "LEGALIZE". Notice the way that the concept of jail or prison is studiously avoided. Why, do you suppose, does this main-stream rag use "legalize" like that? Tell me, why do you think that the idea of jailing or imprisoning cannabis users is so carefully avoided in this article? Does this suggest to you something to do? Like, maybe, to emphasize the very things that the MSM media here wants people to forget about? Jail. Jail. Jail. The government is jailing sick people for using a plant! People forget this. Don't let them. (2) "These folks are trying to pull the wool over people's eyes," Cropsey said. "They'll get a couple of very sympathetic examples out there, but when it comes right down to it, they are just plain trying to legalize marijuana eventually."The right-wing looney, Alan Cropsey, is a real piece of work. This rabid jailer has made a career of persecuting pot smokers. State Representative Alan Cropsey has a long history of affiliations with unusual political groups as well. He was an endorser of Lyndon LaRouche's National Anti-Drug Coalition in the late 1970's. This "Coalition" became famous for asserting bizarre conspiracy theories about the Queen of England and others being drug pushers. The blatantly anti-Semitic group was denounced by virtually every conservative group in the U.S. Cropsey defended his affiliation with what was then an abusive cult by telling the Detroit Free Press that "there could be an element of truth" in their conspiracy theories. "I'm not one to reject something like that out of hand."Cropsey, a leader in Lansing for many far right causes, is also a member of the board of the Unification Church's (Moonies) American Freedom Coalition, even though Rev. Sun Myung Moon has denounced democracy and advocates a dictatorial "automatic (sic) theocracy."Russ Bellant: The Religious Right in Michigan Politics Americans for Religious Liberty, 1996 [source: http://www.michiganliberal.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8878 ] [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by fight_4_freedom on December 19, 2007 at 09:24:56 PT: FoM You're right. They will use all the scare tactics in the world to try and get their way. But I do agree this will go a lot smoother after it passes with a Democrat in office. Which I sure hope is going to happen.Sam- Hopefully now, being 8 years after that initiative, a lot of people's opinions have changed about this issue. I know there will be a few politicians that will come out in favor of it. I know some of the local news stations around here seem to favor it. When the Flint initiative was about to be voted on, there was a lot of good coverage of our side. More so than the opposition's. They interviewed Charles Snyder, a well known patient/activist here in Michigan a couple times. We'll see very shortly though. As soon as it is official, the opposition will be coming out of the woodwork. But I agree with you Sam, I believe this will be a big win for the good guys. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by fight_4_freedom on December 19, 2007 at 09:09:11 PT: Just the mention of it puts a smile on my face :) Health care, part-time Legislature proposals may advance 12/19/2007, 10:13 a.m. EST The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A state elections board is considering proposals to mandate universal health care coverage and create a part-time Legislature.The Board of State Canvassers meets later in the day.The board will be asked to approve petition forms for several ballot proposals that are trying to qualify for statewide elections as early as November.The groups also would have to collect hundreds of thousands of voter signatures to qualify for the ballot.One group that already has collected signatures wants to make it legal to use marijuana for medical purposes in Michigan. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on December 19, 2007 at 09:05:50 PT f4f Don't forget, in Maine in 1999 every single major media outlet opposed their med MJ initiative, every major elected official from both parties opposed it, and every state medical organization opposed it, and it still passed easily. And Maine is more Republican than Michigan.The good news is that a few years later, the legislature and governor of Maine passed legislation to expand the medical MJ law. So I think sometimes referendums can encourage the pols to be brave enough to do the right thing too. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on December 19, 2007 at 09:04:34 PT fight_4_freedom I know. It's terrible how they fight. They smear and use things to scare or fire up people who don't understand. That's the dirty politics that drive me up a wall. It really only comes from the right anymore though so since we will have a change in the Party in power in November it should help. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by fight_4_freedom on December 19, 2007 at 08:58:03 PT: They are already spewing out the lies and b.s. when it's not even officially on the ballot yet. Just imagine how bad it's going to get once it is official. But it's ok, we're ready and are striking back with our comments, lte's and editorials. And We Will Prevail. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on December 19, 2007 at 08:35:24 PT my take on this I eagerly look forward to all the negative rhetoric from LEO and Doctors on this. They're all asking for egg on their face. In Michigan this referendum will be a slam dunk.So line up to look bad, prohibitionists! Let's hear your worst. You're going to lose bad, only 10 and a half months till you all LOSE. we're going to vote for personal freedom over all your useless bleatings and lying.I recently saw this very disturbing article on Pennsylvania. What a frightening, backward place. So frustrating to me to see our homeland turning into a police state, in such a short time, since the late 70s really. This serves as a great argument against those who favor any kind of criminal prohibtion on any consensual activity. This sort of stuff will always be present as long as one set of people have power over others. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1465/a07.html?97649http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1463/a06.html?97698 [ Post Comment ] Post Comment