If some legislators in Lansing get their way, the Medical Marijuana program will be a ready-made list for Law Enforcement to do a protective sweep of a patient’s home and property. If you get into your car, your medicine must be stored in the trunk like a concealed weapon. If you don’t have a trunk, the medicine must be inaccessible to the driver. Failure to comply will net you up to 93 days in jail for a misdemeanor and, a $500 fine plus court costs. All revenue generated in this manner will go toward a fund to benefit neighborhood public libraries at the expense of Medical Marijuana patients.
House Bill 4856 was supported by three-fourths of the Michigan House of Representatives voting to approve this and three other bills that supposedly “clarifies” the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act of 2008. This bill is being supported by defense lawyers and prosecutors as a cash cow for legal professionals and financially un-stable counties in the State of Michigan. This would encourage cities like Detroit to convert empty Detroit Public School buildings into makeshift prisons for the warehousing of “pot criminals”. The makeup of these prisons will be mostly White citizens of Michigan because there is a complaint that there are too many people of color in the corrections system now.
There is too much room for abuse of citizens in Michigan with this bill and, to infer that driving under the influence of alcohol vs. driving under the influence of Marijuana is different when there is no standard of measurement to compare the two. A suggestion for the test is to select a sample of 6 State Troopers who don’t use Marijuana and 6 patents that use Marijuana legally in Michigan. They would be all given the same obstacle course to drive with a State Car to see how they perform before and after drinking and, before and after smoking a Marijuana cigarette.
Results will be tabulated and compared to set a standard measure for being under the influence. This is the only way to resolve the impairment issue.
This bill was dastardly designed to circumvent the Michigan Medical Marijuana law by increasing the opportunity for Law Enforcement to conduct additional searches and seizures of property, thereby increasing the case load of judges and prosecutors. Along with the additional work for the defense attorneys, this bill is like a jobs stimulus package for the legal community at the expense of Michigan Medical Marijuana patients. However, there is a way to stop this madness and the way to do it is constantly call and email Senators in Lansing MI and urge them to vote NO on HB4856. Additionally, send an email to Governor Rick Snyder and ask him to veto this bill because of your concerns. We participants in the Michigan Medical Marijuana program must rise to the occasion and defeat this bill.