What are they smoking? That’s what Detroit-based Cannabis Counsel lawyer Matthew Abel is asking of the Michigan Senate Judiciary Committee, who is meeting next week to discuss a package of bills which would amend the public health code so that medical marijuana must be dispensed by pharmacists, and to classify medical marijuana as a schedule 2 controlled substance.
“It seems that if the legislature ever passed these bills, they would be in conflict with the medical marijuana statute,” Abel said. “So they’d need a 3/4 vote to supercede the law, and you know that they can’t even get 3/4 of the legislature to agree on lunch, let alone this.”
Southfield-based lawyer Michael Komorn, who also serves as the treasurer for the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said the bills are similar to bills introduced last year; last year, the bills which also would have allowed for 10 marijuana growing facilities to be affiliated with a pharmacy, got no traction.
This year’s incarnation of the bills would essentially make all production of medical marijuana illegal, though use would still be protected by law, Komorn said.
“It’s like the stamp act, arcane and without any understanding of what really is going on with patient needs,” Komorn said. “Bottom line, this is an attempt ot repeal the Michigan medical marijuana act.”
It’s impossible, Abel said, to require dispensing of medical marijuana through pharmacies.
“They don’t have a supply, and no way to get it. There’s just no way for them to do it,” Abel said.
Still, he’s resting easy with the idea that the bills are going nowhere, and are really more about grandstanding for political popularity than they are about the Michigan medical marijuana law.
The committee will take up the bills Jan. 19, 1 p.m., in room 210 in the Farnum building in Lansing.
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Law Blogger Note: The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act is the subject of a post in the electronic criminal lawyer blog.
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