Mich.: Victory! Medical marijuana rules revised to comply with the law

On February 12, 2009, the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) released revised draft rules to implement Michigan's new medical marijuana law. Each of the 22 problematic areas of the first draft of the rules that MPP asked to be revised were changed! Thanks to all of you who traveled to Lansing to testify at the January 5 public comment hearing and who submitted written comments to the MDCH requesting changes to the rules. Together, we convinced the MDCH to bring the rules in line with the law. The MDCH listened to the concerns of Michigan patients, caregivers, and advocates and changed the rules to reflect them.

With this victory, we are closer than ever to full implementation of the Michigan medical marijuana program. However, these rules cannot go into effect until the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) approves them. Please contact the members of the JCAR to make sure that they approve these draft rules with all due haste. Proposal 1 requires that rules be in place by April 4, but the JCAR should act sooner because patients will not have the full protection of the law until the rules are final and ID cards are available. Please be sure to be respectful and polite in your letters.  

If the JCAR has not approved acceptable rules by April 24, according to Sec. 9(c) of Proposal 1 patients would be able to use their doctors' certifications and a notarized statement in place of a registry identification card to receive protection from arrest. Since a certification is difficult to verify, however, this would needlessly complicate life for both patients and law enforcement.

In other news, MPP has created an educational brochure for Michigan patients with qualifying conditions to use when talking to their doctors about Michigan's medical marijuana law. You can use this brochure to assist you in educating your doctor about Proposal 1 and doctors' protections for writing recommendations. MPP has also created a handout with medical marijuana research about each qualifying condition: check out www.mpp.org/research.

Please pass this message on to other supporters of Proposal 1 so we can ensure that the law is swiftly and faithfully implemented. Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project.