Marijuana Policy Project

ESCANABA - A law enforcement official from the Upper Peninsula Substance Abuse Enforcement Team called Michigan's newly-legalized medical marijuana law "a nightmare."

Det. Lt. Jeff Racine of UPSET discussed the new law and its implications for police agencies and county prosecutors. He said the law is ambiguous and has a lot of loopholes.

"The problem with these new laws is they are not fully understood," Racine said. "It's going to be a nightmare for law enforcement because there are so many loopholes."

Racine said the confusion may cause officers to get to the point where they may not enforce what law is left regarding marijuana, for fear of litigation.

"People said this would be like a small step towards the complete legalization of marijuana. This is more like a major jump towards legalizing it," he said.

Racine also said there is not a lot of talk about some of the negative side effects or the fact, he said, that marijuana is a gateway drug.

"Not every person who smokes marijuana becomes a crack smoker or a heroin user, but every person who does the hard stuff started with marijuana," he explained.

Racine said statistics show us that there are 10 times more people driving vehicles under the influence of drugs than there are drunks on the road.

"The way the law was written, it is written in favor of the user and against law enforcement. Do you want the brakes changed on your car by a guy who smoked marijuana on his lunch hour? A very large percentage of people are going to abuse this law," he said.

Racine also said it's likely many people will try to cloak themselves in the law wrongfully.

"Probably 90 percent of the medical defenses are going to be false, and that's a low guess," he said.