Finding the right prescription for medical marijuana

Posted by The Grand Rapids Press Editorial Board June 07, 2009 00:50AM


Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved a medical marijuana ballot initiative last year. A majority of voters in every county supported the issue, which garnered 63 percent of the ballots cast. The clear intent was to allow people with certain medical conditions to obtain marijuana to relieve suffering. What the law didn't provide, however, was a legal means for approved users to acquire the drug.

Legislation recently introduced in the state Senate takes aim at that glaring hole in the law. It proposes a distribution system for medical marijuana that includes state-licensed growers and prescriptions filled by pharmacists.

Whether it's a good plan is certainly debatable, but at least it's a starting point for discussion. If marijuana is going to be used for medical purposes in Michigan -- as voters wished -- approved users shouldn't have to break the law to obtain it, as is currently the case. State lawmakers and health officials should be diligently trying to create a system under which residents approved to use the drug can get it legally.

Despite passage last November of the medical marijuana initiative, which allows approved patients to possess and grow the drug, it remains illegal in Michigan to buy marijuana or the seeds to grow it. That means residents approved to use medical marijuana, or their caretakers, will have to break the law at some point to acquire it.

The state's medical marijuana law allows people with cancer, HIV, AIDS, glaucoma and other qualifying diseases to use marijuana to relieve their symptoms, if a doctor recommends it. Qualifying patients can apply for a permit allowing them to legally possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana or grow 12 marijuana plants in a locked, enclosed area, or designate a caregiver to do so for them.

The Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) reviews medical marijuana applications and issues picture ID cards to approved users. The MDCH has received more than 2,100 applications since April, and has issued ID cards to more than 1,100 patients and 400 caregivers, who can provide marijuana to up to five patients.

Sens. Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, and Gerald Van Woerkom, R-Norton Shores, have proposed legislation that calls for medical marijuana to be treated the same as other schedule 2 narcotics used for medical purposes. Drugs such as morphine, steroids, Valium and others are illegal without a doctor's prescription and their production and use are regulated by the government. The senators are proposing something similar for medical marijuana in Michigan.

Instead of allowing approved users to grow their own supply, the legislation would license up to 10 marijuana growing facilities statewide. Pharmacists would be required to purchase medical marijuana from those facilities and require a doctor's prescription to distribute it to patients. That could be a stumbling block. Marijuana has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Doctors, by federal law, can't prescribe marijuana for a patient, only recommend it.

Although buying, possessing, growing and selling marijuana is a federal crime, the Obama administration has said federal officials will back off prosecuting medical marijuana users in states where voters have approved the drug for medical purposes. That perhaps opens the door to some incarnation of the distribution system proposed by Mr. Kuipers and Mr. Van Woerkom.

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http://www.mlive.com/opinion/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/06/editorial_find_the_right_presc.html