Ferndale voters to decide medical marijuana issue — chicagotribune.com
FERNDALE, Mich. - Ferndale voters will get the chance to legalize the sale of marijuana within city limits for medical purposes.

The Detroit News reports the proposal on the Nov. 4 ballot would allow the National Organization for Positive Medicine to obtain a court order to distribute and sell medical marijuana to “sick” patients.

The Daily Tribune of Royal Oak reports the group’s Carl M. Swanson collected enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot in the Detroit suburb.

The proposal isn’t related to a statewide medical marijuana proposal.

Ferndale voters in 2005 approved an ordinance allowing the use of medical marijuana.

Don’t you just love how they put the quotation marks around the word “sick”?

Michigan is voting on statewide medical marijuana this November.  So it will be interesting to see, if that passes and this Ferndale measure passes, whether Ferndale will see the creation of medical marijuana dispensaries.

WOODTV.com & WOOD TV8: Grand Rapids news, weather, sports and video | Mich. court lets police use dogs to sniff outside of home
LANSING, Mich. — Police don’t need to obtain a search warrant before using dogs to sniff outside a house for drugs, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled.

The 2-1 decision released Wednesday was a setback for Jeffrey Jones of Detroit, who was charged after a police dog detected drugs inside his home by sniffing outside the front door. Police used that information to obtain a search warrant to enter the residence, where they found marijuana and a gun.

A Wayne County judge suppressed the evidence and threw out the case, ruling that the dog sniffing was an illegal search similar to using a thermal-imaging device.

The appeals court disagreed.

Judges E. Thomas Fitzgerald and William Murphy, citing U.S. Supreme Court cases, said a canine sniff is not a search as defined under Fourth Amendment law. They also said there is no reasonable expectation of privacy at the entrance to property that is open to the public, including the front porch of a home.

A dissenting judge said the ruling erodes the privacy protections and the sanctity of the home guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.

First of all, it should be noted that drug-sniffing dogs are incredibly unreliable. Second of all, in American justice, we have the right to question our accusers. How exactly do you question a dog?

Another sad erosion of our civil liberties, all in the name of finding out of people are growing a plant in the privacy of their own home, a home our Founders once believed was a man’s castle. We’ve grown accustomed to cameras in every public venue, numerous compulsory demands for our Social Security numbers, and terabytes of personal data instantly accessible on the Internet. Now even our homes aren’t safe from olfactory intrusion by dogs, thermal imaging and sonic imaging that sees right through our walls, and helicopters surveilling our property.

I don’t think that’s what they meant by:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Medical marijuana initiative officially qualifies for Michigan’s 2008 ballot!
When the Michigan Board of Canvassers officially certified the signatures MPP’s campaign committee, the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care (MCCC), submitted last month, the Michigan Legislature had 40 days to act - by either passing the initiative into law itself or sending the question to the voters to decide.

And those 40 days were officially up on Friday, April 11. With the legislature taking no action, the medical marijuana initiative will automatically go onto the November ballot!

The fact that voters will have the opportunity to make Michigan the 13th medical marijuana state is great news for Michigan’s patients. Support for a compassionate law is wide and deep across the state: The most recent polling shows 67% of voters favor medical marijuana access, and five Michigan cities - Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale, Flint, and Traverse City - have already passed local medical marijuana initiatives.

And last year, MCCC activists collected nearly half a million signatures from Michiganders, verified by the Board of Canvassers at a whopping 80.2% validity rate, to get the initiative on the ballot - further evidence of this broad, statewide support.

If you have news and events you’d like mentioned on our Monday Reformer’s Calendar, send your press release by email to stash ‘at’ norml.org.

Tuesday, March 18 - NEW HAMPSHIRE: On Tuesday, March 18, the House of Representatives will vote on House Bill 1623, which seeks to decriminalize marijuana possession. If you have not already done so, please contact your Representative and urge him or her to vote “yes” on HB 1623. Also, if you reside near the New Hampshire State House, you may wish to meet up with other local activists on Tuesday morning to watch the proceedings and show your support for sensible marijuana law reform.

Tuesday, March 18 - CALIFORNIA: Volunteers needed for Drug War Awareness Event at the Santa Clara University School of Law in San Jose, California. From 12pm-1pm, Judge Jim Gray is going to speak on behalf of LEAP. In addition to the speaker event, there will be various reform organizations tabling outside between the law library and one of the main campus buildings. You can help by volunteering to table at the event! If you can help out anytime from 10am-4pm, please contact Lauren Vasquez at lvazquez821 ‘at’ yahoo.com.

Friday, March 21 - MICHIGAN: Michigan’s Oakland County NORML is holding an online fundraiser from March 21st through March 30th for Marc Emery, Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams, otherwise known as the BC 3. A group activists and businesses have come together to match your donation dollar for dollar, currently up to $500. We are working on more matching sponsorships to push that amount even higher. For more information check out our website at: www.oaklandnorml.org

Most Southwest Michigan lawmakers oppose medical marijuana - Kalamazoo Gazette - MLive.com
KALAMAZOO — For five years, state Sen. Tom George worked for Hospice of Greater Kalamazoo, sometimes prescribing a synthetic form of marijuana called Marinol to help ease a person’s pain or discomfort.

But George, an anesthesiologist, opposes a ballot proposal that seeks to legalize marijuana use in Michigan for those seriously ill.

State Rep. Fulton Sheen, a conservative Republican, opposed medical-marijuana use until he heard testimony from people who said they got relief from debilitating conditions by using the drug.

He now supports the initiative, which could appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Of southwestern Michigan’s 10 state lawmakers, seven said they oppose legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

“Marijuana is illegal for a reason,” [State Sen. Ron] Jelinek said. “Its legalization, even for medical reasons, would denigrate our society eventually. (Using marijuana) is akin to a self-induced mental illness.”

State Reps. Robert Jones, D-Kalamazoo, and Sheen, R-Plainwell, support the initiative. They said those seriously ill should have marijuana as a treatment option if it helps and is properly regulated.

“The right story needs to be told by the right people,” Jones said. “We can’t be afraid of this as a society. Marijuana is a legitimate treatment for those suffering from serious diseases.”

In the 1990s Sheen’s brother, who had contracted AIDS, was dying. In the final months of his life he smoked marijuana, which helped him to breathe and swallow easier, Sheen said.

“Although I didn’t agree with what he was doing at the time, it helped him,” Sheen said. “But now my mind has been changed.”

Leaders from the Senate and House have said they don’t expect legislative action on the proposal. Gov. Jennifer Granholm opposes it.

The proposal calls for registered medical users to keep the marijuana in a secure, locked location. Users who give or sell their marijuana to those who are not authorized to have it could be subject to stiff fines and possible jail time. Users also would have to register themselves with the state and carry a state-issued ID card indicating they are a registered medical user.

Even with such controls, some lawmakers question how effective enforcement and regulation will be, especially if the number of medical marijuana users increases.

“There are other options out there for very sick people (besides marijuana). By not supporting this, it’s not like we’re denying a dying patient relief,” said [State Rep. Jack] Hoogendyk, who recently announced he will challenge Democratic Sen. Carl Levin in the U.S. Senate.

This story illustrates why it is so important for you to call your elected officials. Those who have family who’ve used medical marijuana seem most supportive of the issue, followed by those who have been contacted by their constituents and those who have testified to the medical efficacy of cannabis. But as you can see, much more needs to be done to convince the reluctant legislators who still fear the “gateway” effect and other reefer madness.

KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN — The atomic explosions off remote islands in the South Pacific seemed to turn night into day.

They also turned Martin Chilcutt into a marijuana user.

Chilcutt said the drug has helped him to ease the pain he says dates back to his exposure to radiation during a 1956 U.S. government project testing nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.

A state ballot proposal could allow voters in November to decide whether Chilcutt’s measures to self-medicate should be legal in Michigan.

The 74-year-old former intelligence officer with the U.S. Naval Air Force has used other medications to help him with his physical and
psychological problems, but marijuana helps “so much better,” he said.

“Sometimes I just want to die,” Chilcutt said. “You can only take intense pain for so long before you’ll do anything to escape it.”

He never intended to put his health at risk.

While part of the testing project, Chilcutt remembers, he donned large goggles and turned his back to protect his eyes as the bombs exploded in the early-morning darkness.

There was no protection, though, from the heavy doses of radiation that spewed from the explosions and reached Chilcutt.

He has battled skin cancer three times, including basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of cancer, with about a million new cases reported in the United States each year. He has been in remission for the past 10 years.

Michigan will be voting on their medical marijuana initiative in November. Should it be passed, Michigan will become the thirteenth medical marijuana state and the first such state in the midwest.

Michigan likely to vote on medical marijuana in November | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press
Michigan patients with chronic or debilitating disease could legally possess and use marijuana under a proposal likely to go before state voters in November.

A state elections panel today certified petitions containing 377,975 signatures backing the plan, well over the 304,000 minimum needed to put the initiative before voters if the Legislature fails to act upon it within the next 40 days.

The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care, the group which circulated the petitions, wants to allow those with serious illnesses to obtain a doctor’s authorization to cultivate up to 12 marijuana plants and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana without fear of prosecution.

About a dozen states nationally allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes under some circumstances.

About? How do you get “about” a dozen?

Anyway, good luck to the activists in Michigan attempting to become “about” the thirteenth medical cannabis state.