GreenSurfer
Well-Known Member
October 10, 2008
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]California shows why medical marijuana is dangerous[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
By Bill Schuette and Daniel Michael [/FONT]
Detroit Free Press
A decade ago, voters in California approved a proposal to legalize marijuana smoking for so-called medical purposes. Today, even the proposals most vocal supporters admit the California law has resulted in chaos, pot dealers in storefronts and millions of dollars being dumped into the criminal black market.
Proposal 1 on the Nov. 4 ballot in Michigan is just like the California law. While its stated intent, to help people in serious pain, is well meaning, Proposal 1s vague language, careless loopholes and dangerous consequences place Michigan communities and kids at risk. Michigan voters should reject it.
Proposal 1 allows one person to grow and provide marijuana for a number of other people, as long as the marijuana is kept in a locked facility.
What happens when that locked facility is your neighbors garage or a strip mall storefront, as they have in California? Maybe you think this cant happen in Michigan, but consider this: In North Hollywood, there are now more pot shops than Starbucks stores, and last week a security guard was gunned down outside a Los Angeles pot shop.
Everyday, diligent parents and teachers fight a difficult battle to protect teens from drugs and their influences. Law enforcement officials in California point to their states marijuana law as a cause for the dramatic increase in drug use among high school students. Thats a major reason why groups such as the Michigan Sheriffs Association and the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police are opposed to Proposal 1.
For doctors and hospitals, those on the front lines of medical care, Proposal 1 is bad medicine. For one thing, Proposal 1 doesnt require a prescription. It not only relies on but promotes smoking as a delivery mechanism. And, Proposal 1 could result in costly lawsuits over such things as whether doctors and hospitals must allow patients to smoke marijuana in a doctors office or hospital room, despite every other law banning smoking.
The Michigan State Medical Society, the Michigan Health and Hospital Association and the Michigan Osteopathic Association all oppose Proposal 1 because smoking marijuana is not the answer to the important scientific questions surrounding the effective care of patients.
A legal analysis of Proposal 1 outlines a situation where the worker next to you on the assembly line or the driver of a delivery van could smoke marijuana on the job and your employer could do nothing about it. In fact, if that delivery van driver, or any other driver under the influence of medical marijuana for that matter, hits another car and injures someone, Proposal 1 may allow marijuana use as a defense in court.
Lastly, Proposal 1 would leave the regulation of a medical marijuana program up to Lansing to figure out. With Michigan facing such tough economic times, taxpayers cant afford a new government bureaucracy to keep track of marijuana users.
Proposal 1 is many things, but above all else it is a law of unintended consequences. The dangerous implications of its flaws and loopholes have brought together Michigans doctors, hospitals, sheriffs, police chiefs, prosecutors, family groups, and taxpayer advocates to urge voters to say No to Proposal 1.
Californias medical marijuana proposal brought chaos; Michigans proposal brings an opportunity to learn from Californias mistake.
Judge Bill Schuette is a member of the Michigan Court of Appeals. Dr. Daniel Michael is a Detroit neurosurgeon and speaker of the Michigan State Medical Societys House of Delegates.
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]California shows why medical marijuana is dangerous[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]
By Bill Schuette and Daniel Michael [/FONT]
Detroit Free Press
A decade ago, voters in California approved a proposal to legalize marijuana smoking for so-called medical purposes. Today, even the proposals most vocal supporters admit the California law has resulted in chaos, pot dealers in storefronts and millions of dollars being dumped into the criminal black market.
Proposal 1 on the Nov. 4 ballot in Michigan is just like the California law. While its stated intent, to help people in serious pain, is well meaning, Proposal 1s vague language, careless loopholes and dangerous consequences place Michigan communities and kids at risk. Michigan voters should reject it.
Proposal 1 allows one person to grow and provide marijuana for a number of other people, as long as the marijuana is kept in a locked facility.
What happens when that locked facility is your neighbors garage or a strip mall storefront, as they have in California? Maybe you think this cant happen in Michigan, but consider this: In North Hollywood, there are now more pot shops than Starbucks stores, and last week a security guard was gunned down outside a Los Angeles pot shop.
Everyday, diligent parents and teachers fight a difficult battle to protect teens from drugs and their influences. Law enforcement officials in California point to their states marijuana law as a cause for the dramatic increase in drug use among high school students. Thats a major reason why groups such as the Michigan Sheriffs Association and the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police are opposed to Proposal 1.
For doctors and hospitals, those on the front lines of medical care, Proposal 1 is bad medicine. For one thing, Proposal 1 doesnt require a prescription. It not only relies on but promotes smoking as a delivery mechanism. And, Proposal 1 could result in costly lawsuits over such things as whether doctors and hospitals must allow patients to smoke marijuana in a doctors office or hospital room, despite every other law banning smoking.
The Michigan State Medical Society, the Michigan Health and Hospital Association and the Michigan Osteopathic Association all oppose Proposal 1 because smoking marijuana is not the answer to the important scientific questions surrounding the effective care of patients.
A legal analysis of Proposal 1 outlines a situation where the worker next to you on the assembly line or the driver of a delivery van could smoke marijuana on the job and your employer could do nothing about it. In fact, if that delivery van driver, or any other driver under the influence of medical marijuana for that matter, hits another car and injures someone, Proposal 1 may allow marijuana use as a defense in court.
Lastly, Proposal 1 would leave the regulation of a medical marijuana program up to Lansing to figure out. With Michigan facing such tough economic times, taxpayers cant afford a new government bureaucracy to keep track of marijuana users.
Proposal 1 is many things, but above all else it is a law of unintended consequences. The dangerous implications of its flaws and loopholes have brought together Michigans doctors, hospitals, sheriffs, police chiefs, prosecutors, family groups, and taxpayer advocates to urge voters to say No to Proposal 1.
Californias medical marijuana proposal brought chaos; Michigans proposal brings an opportunity to learn from Californias mistake.
Judge Bill Schuette is a member of the Michigan Court of Appeals. Dr. Daniel Michael is a Detroit neurosurgeon and speaker of the Michigan State Medical Societys House of Delegates.
, in this shitty recesion were in making it legal and taxing it would be the best idea the state has had sence they started the automobile industrie... Michigan needs this, if they started selling weed like they do alchahol, make comercials an shit that say ya know "smoke responsible" then I don't see why it wouldn't be ok, I mean how the fuck can alchahol be legal but not weed? Weed is so much more healthier compared to alchahol. LEAGALISE IT!
