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.
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.
Oh my stars and garters! The poor police officers! It is so confusing when you can’t just lock up every person you find with weed. Now they have to actually investigate the situation. Now they can’t slap the cuffs on a cancer patient or throw the AIDS patient in the back of the squad car. They have to verify paperwork and legal status of patients. Why, it’s so confusing they just might not bust anybody for marijuana; that’ll show us!
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.
Not every idiot employing logical fallacies becomes a police officer or a narcotics detective, but every cop who opposes medical marijuana starts with idiotic logical fallacies. Det. Racine suffers from post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning – the idea that if B follows A, A must’ve caused B. All hard drug users started with pot, therefore, pot leads to hard drug use. But actually, statistics show that the first mind-altering substance any cocaine or heroin user ever started with was alcohol. So, drinking beer leads to heroin addiction, right, Det. Racine? Time to repeal the 21st Amendment, right, Det. Racine?
95.9 million American adults have tried marijuana. 2 million adults used cocaine last month. 133,000 adults used heroin last month. That means I could find you 721 American adults who have tried marijuana, and in that group there would be 15 current cocaine users and 1 current heroin user. That’s not a gateway; that’s a ten-inch hole cut in a chain-link fence guarded by a psychotic pit bull.
For comparison’s sake: based on these numbers, about 2% of the people who have tried marijuana are using cocaine. It is about as likely that a college football player will become a pro football player. About 0.14% of the people who have tried marijuana are using heroin. It is a little more likely than the chance of a high school football player making it to the pros (0.09%). But even that’s not a perfect analogy, because at least there is some causal relationship between playing high school football and playing pro football. The only characteristic marijuana shares with heroin and cocaine is illegality.
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.
Really? I’d love to see those statistics and the definition of “drugs” and “driving under the influence”. If the roads are already so full of drugged-up drivers, how is the medical marijuana law – which exempts people who are likely already using marijuana – going to make that any worse? It sounds to me that by freeing up the time you’d spend busting sick people, the law is actually giving you more time to catch impaired drivers 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.
Strange, how that medical marijuana law was written to protect the sick and dying people who use medical marijuana, instead of making law enforcement’s job easy. I’m also wondering how I’m any safer if the brake mechanic is having a beer on his lunch hour – that’s perfectly legal and he doesn’t even need a doctor’s recommendation. This law doesn’t allow brake mechanics to puff away their lunch hour any more than legal beer allows them to drink away the afternoon.
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.
So, Det. Racine, what you’re saying is that the doctors of Michigan are so incompetent they can be fooled 90% of the time. People in Michigan using medical marijuana must have their conditions confirmed by a doctor. That means exams and a bunch of medical documentation. Often the primary care physician won’t recommend medical marijuana, because of restrictions by their insurance plans or clinics or hospitals. That means many, if not most patients must see a second doctor at a medical marijuana clinic to get their card.
What Det. Racine and other law enforcement mean when they say a medical marijuana law is going to be “abused” is that people who don’t outwardly appear desperately ill or wheelchair bound — people Det. Racine thinks are healthy enough to wear handcuffs and sit in the squad car — will be protected from arrest. Det. Racine is upset that he doesn’t get to make the medical determination as to whether someone deserves medical marijuana. Det. Racine and his ilk are steamin’ mad that some people in Michigan will smoke marijuana and not be punished for it. They cannot separate “pot smoker” from “criminal” and “pot” from “crime” anymore than you can convince neo Nazis that people of all colors are equals and cats not to chase mice.
Steve, save your breath. You are trying to reason with a moron.
peace and good luck
You sir, are a pompous self righteous ass . If everyone thought like you we would be bowing before the queen of england. And in your little world (or box), you proclaim we are breaking the law and whining.
This may be over your head, but I suggest you read the law and try to understand it before you make stupid comments about things you know nothing about.
Have a great day and try to do somethimg nice for someone as a change.
Hey, I am a current law student at Eastern Mich. I am kinda getting pushed into a city council spot. I hate the way medical marijuana is being handled here. I also back education and animals. Should I go for office or not?
The state police are a nightmare for medical marijuana patients..
Learn your facts. Fight for your rights. You only know a little of what happens and do not know how to defend yourself. Quit bashing and show you are responsible. It appears you all blame the cops. No…… They do their jobs and make a living for their family. Bind together and bring your belief and passion of freedom to the law maker. They have been brain washed. Do not blame the messenger. Blame the law maker and get your people to vote.
Brent in Ky and Pooky 420, please do not worry about the cops who need to make a name and shine their own badge. Be proactive in voting and talking and pressuring your delegates in your state. Look at Ca. The Terminator is fighting for the people even though I disagree on what he does for the Americans. If enough states jump up and there is a loud voice…. What happened to prohibition. We need to be one voice and focus on our constitutional rights. Nothing is won by lying down. Fight… Vote… The cop is only doing his job… Go after their boss. Vote out the ignorant legislature. We have a drug problem in the U.S. It is not weed. Gate way my ass… Propaganda from the capitalist. so The alcohol industry looses. At least we will have a country that will have their livers.
Reaper… I was a cop for 8 years. Did you go to combat? I did. I lost my cop job because I got hurt for your freedom and job. You just attacked a huge part of the voting population. Seems you have unresolved issues. You know why civilians do not like cops. Because of your vengeful un thought comments. You did nothing for the law enforcement community. You would be working for communists if it were not for combat veterans. Laugh at my rant… If you are a cop.. You would realize. People vote. People determine your job status. The people will win if they do not trust you. I did a paper on community policing while in college. You need to go back to the basics and have an fto again till you learn. Call me out. I will defend the people and could make a lot of money doing it. I am an educated former police officer. Bachelors and much le education. Ev Tech. And more. Reaper… You made your image small and I would love to talk to you more and educate you on life.
Please do not judge me. I was a cop for 8 years. I can honestly say I have never wrestled with a person on marijuana. They have always been cooperative. I put my career on hold to volunteer for Iraq. While deployed for 13 months I have been injured in ways I did not think possible. No one has the answers. I was lenient on the weed as I never had confrontation with the people and they have been honest. I know I am not protected from federal law now. I want to learn more . I was injured in Iraq and I have no help with my pain. The V.A. will not help me. They are afraid I will be addicted to the things to help me with pain. They put me on Ibuprofen. I can not move on that weak catch all. Tylenol wrecks my liver but if i drink, I am an alcoholic. I pray I can try Medical Marijuana, so I can learn if it will help me. 1 percent of the us population goes to combat. I am part of it. I need pain relief. I have never consumed marijuana, I hear and believe it can help. I do not even know how it can help me as I never done it. I do have a lot of legal knowledge on Marijuana and how to fight it in court. I would help any one who is a legal user. I am not a lawyer but, I could talk to your lawyer to help. You would be surprised at what the small loopholes actually are.
In pain and tired of it.
I need help
76% of all people know that
I need help my husbands dr. just gave hime the boot because he picked up his information to get his medical marijuana. Anybody know a dr who isnt a jerk. My husbands disabled and broke almost all the bones on his right side of his body, and he cant even get his narcotics and he has been out for 4 days now soon to be five. Please Help.
Thank you
Nikki
Is this sarcasm or just rank ignorance?
All the shit you support besides pot is what started the Nazi finger in the wheel. hang the slave, dump the wine on his stone, while your at it bury those fags there too. yeah womens voting was a bad idea from the get. Good ol america. Fucked itself with twisted bullshit. women in the kitchen, men at work. How it SHOULD be.
Why? Why do we need to put people who use cannabis in jail. Yes, I know it is illegal. So too in our history was harboring runaway slaves, drinking wine, gay sex, whites marrying blacks, abortion, and trying to vote if you’re female. “Violating the law” is a poor excuse; explain to me why we need the law in the first place.
After all, if it’s “not about having weed”, why have the law?
All of you whinners about the police arresting people for violating the law amaze me. It’s not about having weed, it’s about violating the law. We give breaks all the time to people who have “just a little weed”….they are made to dump it out and be on their way. Reading comments from people like you just crushed those breaks. NO MORE BREAKS…..every body with weed goes to jail. Nice going cry babies!
90% of quoted statistics are made up on the spot.
Once again the police are whinning, they are acting like my kids do when they dont get their way. The stomp and say, well Im not doing anything then, its too hard to do it your way! They wouldnt bitch if they had to do something diffrent to bust more drug users, they would embrace it.
Geez, they just know they have lost and are loosing this War on Drugs and its more backlash trying to set things back to the way they were!
I say if the cops they have cant do or dont want to do the job Im sure there are cops all over this nation out of work that would love to have a job, even if they have to look for an ID before they can cuff a marijuana user! I would imagine that is one of the first things people tell them ” Im a medical card holder” would that make things hard? NO!
Or, hell let them not arrest any marijuana users at all, theres a thought!
If checking ID is such a problem, how do they write tickets? Or are they concerned that they might inadvertantly pepper spray or taze someone who isn’t actually committing a crime and thereby open themselves to a lawsuit?
Nicely Put!