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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

    No stems, no seeds, no sticks... some of that real sticky-icky-icky


    By Nick, Section News
    Posted on Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 07:48:39 AM EST
    Tags: cigaweed, ballot initiative, sticky, medical marijuana, chronic, green, leaf, stems and sticks, nickel, dime (all tags)

    Cosmic karma and a comeuppance twenty-six years in the making?  I don't know.  Take the news that Jay Cutler is likely forcing a trade with the fact that my blackberry just died and that today we all have to put up with incessant shouts of APRIL FOOLS DAY and a guy could be forgiven for thinking the universe was out to play its own little practical joke.  

    Mix it all together and I don't know WHAT you've got, but I know that I'VE got a pounding headache.  

    Darn it all if it didn't arrive a few days early, too.  If today were Saturday maybe I could have used my frustration as a crutch, toddled on down to one state office or another and picked up an ID to grow my own marijuana.  

    OK, so I'm not going to toke, myself, but its awfully reassuring to know the neighbors down the block can.  We think.  (If its legal, that should cut down on the police patrols on my street.)  See, the ballot proposal approved last fall by Michigan voters wasn't particularly clear about, well, anything.  The Detroit News reports that health and law enforcement officials are sort of... hazy... (RIMSHOT) on the law's implications.  Here is what we know:

    Step one: issuing picture ID cards for those on the marijuana registry; they should begin arriving by the end of April. The cards cost $100 each and will allow patients to legally possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana or grow 12 marijuana plants in a locked, enclosed area.

    Caregivers, who can supply marijuana to a maximum of five patients, will also have to pay $100 for ID cards under a program the state hopes will be self-supporting and require no taxpayer dollars.

    One thing the state won't do is provide the marijuana or even tell patients how to acquire it on their own.

    And possession of marijuana remains a federal crime...

    Confusion over the details has already started to manifest itself in metro Detroit, though, where Madison Heights police raided a man's home and confiscated twenty-one of his plants.  Sure, technically you're only supposed to have twelve of them, but, and I'm going out on a limb here, I find it entirely plausible that the poor guy simply inverted the number while he was planting the stuff, surrounded by a thick green fog.

    And I'm guessing it was some potent tree.  Even the police who coordinated the drug raid seem confused and disoriented well after the fact, tell-tale signs of exposure to the leaf.  The Ivory Tower:

    ...At this point, police can't say whether the plants were legal or if the man was over the limit.

    "We don't know what the rules are," Madison Heights Police Chief Kevin Sagan said. "This is a new situation for all of us."

    Don't feel bad, Chief.  Seems to be going around.

    Its only been five months since the law was approved by voters.  I'm no expert but, frankly, I think the mark of any good marijuana-related ballot proposal is whether or not it can confuse everybody in a three-hundred mile radius for half a year after the fact.  Not like anyone ever argued that sticky promoted rational thought.

    Now what did I do with that Pac CD...

    < The Latest in Stem Cell Research . . . Say Again? | Wednesday in the Sphere: April 1 >


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    Display: Sort:
    The medical marijuana thing.. (none / 0) (#1)
    by jgillmanjr on Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 08:59:57 AM EST
    Just goes to show how the federal government is pissing all over the 10th Amendment.

    Of course it's not like the rat bastards in the SCOTUS are working to stop that, either.

    Something is not Right here (none / 0) (#2)
    by AdrienneKH on Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 10:49:30 AM EST
    This is ridiculous. I do think that marijuana should be decriminalized and if it can help people with illnesses, that's dandy. How can we pass something as "hazy" as this? They should take their time in deciding the best way to go about legalizing it- it definitely is not worth jumping the gun on.

    I saw this stuff coming (none / 0) (#4)
    by Chris Arndt on Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 01:24:49 PM EST
    This is why I voted no on the Proposal 1 last year.  I may be for Medical Marijuana but  also am in favor of clear, good laws.  Prop 1 was so poorly worded... it's just bad law.  I hate this kind of complicated shite.

    If we could achieve our goals without the local constabulary being utterly confused about what the hell is going on then that would be a lot more ideal.

    The whole point of a good medical marijuana law is to set clear limitations on the local and state law enforcement on what they can and cannot do to patients/users.  This law did not limit the police's powers adequately and clearly.

    That is why I voted No on it and why I thought everyone should... this will make it more difficult to get good protections on patients' rights in the future.
    http://apologiesdemanded.blogspot.com

    No stems, seeds, sticks (none / 0) (#5)
    by dsheill on Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 07:13:40 PM EST
    I agree with Arndt. Ballot initiatives are especially sloppy in application because there is no legislative intent to back up what was meant. Further, because they have to craft this thing real carefully so as not to step on the federal government's jurisdiction, you have an almost incoherent law. We need to get the feds out of policing (i.e. 10th Amendment powers) period. Getting rid of the DEA would be a good start. Only then can we have "good laws" with repsect to narcotics.

    Good stuff (none / 0) (#6)
    by chetly on Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 11:15:09 PM EST
    It may be bad law, but it sure as heck is some good stuff.

    (set pun=off)


    Chetly Zarko
    Outside Lansing & Oakland Politics

    Good Stuff (none / 0) (#7)
    by dsheill on Thu Apr 02, 2009 at 07:24:43 PM EST
    You got me there Chet.

    The Laws for Marijuana Use and Poss are a Joke (none / 0) (#8)
    by Doug Powers on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 08:25:34 AM EST
    If the legislature in Michigan were to get a clue they would see that the people in Michigan are ready for positive change for legalization of marijuana use and small possession amounts.  

    Yes there needs to be laws on use while driving, not unlike alcohol.  However, for our laws to treat use as something that is worse than alcohol or for tobacco for that matter is a travesty.  Ohio and Alaska have it right.  Why doesn't Michigan?  Because our government is as backward as the full time legislature that still remains here.  

    Get rid of laws that are victimless.  Lets see where that takes us...We might be surprised.

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