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August 29, 2008
Michigan medical cannabis initiative likely to pass easily in November election
Posted by Gary Storck
Friday, August 29, 2008
As the November election approaches, the likely passage of a medical cannabis initiative by Michigan voters grows closer each day. And, the proposal has apparently lost a lot of its controversial status as the reality of legal medicinal cannabis nears fruition. This can only help long-suffering Wisconsin patients who have managed to outlive 16 years of Republican domination in the State Assembly. If the WI Assembly changes hands, Wisconsin patients might have something to celebrate for a change come next session.
Below are comments about the Michigan medical cannabis initiative, snipped from a Toledo Blade column by Jack Lessenberry, a member of the journalism faculty at Wayne State University in Detroit and The Blade’s ombudsman, who writes about issues and people in Michigan.
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Source: Toledo Blade click here
Friday, August 29, 2008
(snip)Lost in the glare of that looming battle is another ballot proposal that once would have been enormously controversial, but which sailed onto the ballot seemingly under the radar: Medical Marijuana.
Michigan voters will decide in November whether ill people should be allowed to seek a doctor's approval to not only use, but possess small amounts of the drug and even grow their own plants.
"This is a well-written, well-crafted proposal," said Lance Gable, an assistant professor of law at Wayne State University.
Twelve states have ratified medical marijuana, all of them, however, in either New England or the far West. Michigan would be the first in the Midwest.
Supporters gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures to get it on the ballot, once it was clear the Legislature wouldn't touch it.
Yet even among Republicans, opposition has softened. Some are still like state Rep. Tonya Schuitmaker (R., Allegan County), who denounced the idea and indicated that any legalization would send society down a "slippery slope."
But her neighboring state Rep. Fulton Sheen (R., Plainwell) is just as deeply conservative on most issues. He once opposed medical marijuana but changed his mind after seeing the drug give some relief to his brother, dying of complications from HIV.
Now, "I look at it as a kind of prescription drug for those who are very sick."
With the religious right tied up fighting stem-cell research, don't be surprised if medical marijuana manages to pass.
(snip)
Posted by Gary at August 29, 2008 07:51 PM
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