Clarifying the confusion of State Attorney General Bill Schuette regarding the Michigan Medical Marijuana Law.

By Richard C. Clement


Happy holidays from the Medical Marijuana community to you reading this article. The end of the year is a joyous time for some families and for others a time to reflect.  Over the years activists, military personnel, and elected officials are constantly reminded of the fact that freedom is not free. People from many backgrounds have sacrificed so much to allow people the right to vote that it is a right that constantly needs to be guarded and protected.  This is forcing us to focus on the current state of affairs with the current executive director of the Office of Attorney General for the State of Michigan and the voter supported Michigan Medical Marijuana program.

Recall Bill Schuette

Recently Attorney General Bill Schuette sponsored 4 seminars on “Clearing the Air: Implementing and Enforcing Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Law” in 4 different Michigan cities. The seminar was a fast paced demonstration of  ‘experts’ who gave law enforcement and elected officials instructions on how to sabotage and ignore many parts of the law.  From the lead off presenter Celeste Clarkston, this seminar had more fraudulent statements than the best con artist incarcerated with the Michigan Department of Corrections.  Starting with the god-awful 3 and 4 month turnaround time for processing patient applications, this program is being horribly mis-managed.

According to Ms. Clarkston this programs receives 400 to 800 applications per day. On some days up to 2000 applications a day are received in the MMJ office.  All processing is done in house by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Medical Marijuana Staff with just a day shift of employees.  The excuse of a broken printer is un-acceptable and needs to be addressed with a maintenance contract to a vendor with possibly TWO printers running 24/7 5 days a week. To correct this problem the Department must operate an afternoon and evening shift to have all applications processed and cards in hand within the 20 day timeframe as required by law.  The Department of Treasury processes 10 times more applications in the form of tax returns and has a much superior turnaround.  Maybe Treasury Director Andy Dillon needs to consider taking over the processing of applications with his department staff.

The next presenter, Ken Steckler Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor for the Prosecuting Attorneys Association for Michigan, complained loudly about the law being a hornets’ nest where county prosecutors are getting stung like a hornet. His proudest accomplishment is to say that the Court of Appeals has overturned every case regarding Medical Marijuana which is not true.  Many patients have had their cases dismissed as they were following the law and, law enforcement was clearly in the wrong as found by District Court judges throughout the state. Currently Ken works for Attorney General’s office as a consultant for Bill Schuette along with Alan Cropsey an avid marijuana hater to invalidate the people’s law.  Having Alan Cropsey to re-write the Michigan Medical Marijuana law is similar to having the Ku Klux Klan design and re-write Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity legislation.  When Mr. Cropsey is finished with his work, the law will be basically null and void, pending approval by the Michigan House and Senate.

Schuette the Job Killer:

Just Budz on Michigan Ave. Lansing MI

Within the presentation package was a fill in the blank Public & Common Nuisance Complaint for local officials to shut down compassion centers within their jurisdictions.  Some cities have used this document to shut down businesses like Big Daddy’s Compassion Club in Clarkston and other places based on this seminar.  In Lansing Michigan the attorney general used a ruling to shut down places of business so well that Michigan Avenue is looking like a ghost town again.  Mr. Schuette would like to see more storefront churches and other non-revenue generating business on the avenue.  Medical Marijuana businesses on Michigan Avenue generated property taxes, and utility use in the form of paying electric bills and employing people who would be otherwise unemployed. It was evident from this presentation that Bill Schuette is on a personal agenda to eliminate a $12 million dollar program for selfish reasons.   

The Witch Doctor Bill Morrone  (ClIck Here for the Bill Schuette Slide Show Presentation)

For those who decided to stay until the end, the presentation of Dr. Bill Morrone was a 2011 version of Refer Madness without the overt racism.  Dr. Morrone  supplied an impressive presentation of  how Marijuana used with drugs like Oxycodone, Codeine, Morphine, Xanax, Concerta, Valium are a fatal combination.  He continued his propaganda by citing of all people Fidel Castro and what he did to Marijuana users in his country.  Besides his derogatory comments about Michal Moore and President Barack Obama, he cites a study from Columbia University stating that Marijuana users are significantly more likely to be involved in crashes than drivers who do not.  Dr. Morrone’s defining statement to observers is that “Smoking Marijuana and being on  more that 100mg of opioids per day will put you at a higher risk of DEATH from overdosing than NO marijuana and less that 100mg of opiods”.  

Uplifting our Youth and Taxes.

Rev. Jesse Jackson & Free The Weed

The underlying theme of this dog and pony show was to protect the children. If they call this protecting the kids then they would be better off with a pedophile.  We parents have constantly instilled in our children the right to vote and democracy.  This presentation and Attorney General Schuette are using our children as pawns to promote his personal 4F agenda (Find em, Feed em, Fool em, and Forget em).  I don’t blame any shop owner or citizen who does not pay their taxes to the State of Michigan because to give someone your money so that you can get slapped in the face is ludicrous. If we are really concerned about the children, we should quit lying to them regarding cannabis.  I would encourage the community to support any recall effort (Bill Schuette 3.0), ballot initiatives and, constitutional amendments to end prohibition of cannabis in Michigan and America.  The people were not confused when they voted to allow the medical use of Marijuana. In 2008, the Governor, State Senate, and House of Representatives all sat on their confused and sorry behinds while the people got up and voted by a %63 margin to allow for the use of Medical Marijuana.  The presentation is a slap in the face to the voters and a desperate effort by a few selfish politicians who want to promote their biased evangelical agenda to undermine the law for their own self interests.