Should Michigan Make Medical Marijuana Legal?

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Proposal 1 is a modest and careful initiative, which will help some of the most seriously ill Michiganders while instituting appropriate safeguards to prevent abuse.

It will, for instance, create registry identification cards, so that law enforcement officials will be able to easily tell who is a registered patient, and will establish penalties for false statements and fraudulent ID cards. It will also keep commonsense restrictions on the medical use of marijuana, including prohibitions on public use of marijuana and driving under the influence.

Unlike California’s medical marijuana law, which opponents routinely cite, Proposal 1 doesn’t establish or permit marijuana dispensaries. In fact, like the other states that have passed similar laws since California’s, Proposal 1 incorporates these experiences by putting into place tough safeguards like the registry and ID card system. This will be a tightly regulated system, operating under the auspices of the Department of Community Health, and will not result in increased availability of marijuana or increased non-medical use.

This last point is borne out by the available data: According to official surveys, no state with a medical marijuana law has seen an increase in teen marijuana use, and in most cases teen use has gone down since the passage of those laws. There is simply no evidence for the claim that protecting the seriously ill from arrest somehow makes the children of our communities more susceptible to illegal drug use.

It is harsh, uncompassionate laws that criminalize patients for following their doctors’ recommendations that send the “wrong message” to kids. By passing Proposal 1, we would be sending a far better message – there is a difference between using and misusing medication, and we need to show as much compassion as possible to those who are suffering and in need.