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4B The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009 - The Michigan Daily 51B
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n the afternoon of Aug. 11, Domin-
ick's was as bustling as could be
expected on a sunny summer's day.
With barely a table available on the back
patio, the tin of friendly chatter and the
tinkling of sangria-filled jars created a
lighthearted atmosphere. But tucked
away in the far back, a much more seri-
ous conversation was going on. There,
people from all walks of life had come
together to discuss their one unifying
factor: the desire to treat themselves or
others with medical marijuana.
While from the outside seeming like
a casual gathering like any other taking
place on the patio, this meeting of the
Michigan Marijuana Patient Collective
was anything but carefree. Nearly all of
the 30 or so participants suffered from
a debilitating condition, from leukemia
to chronic migraines. Some people were
so ill they said they barely leave their
homes except for doctor appointments.
But for registered patients, such meet-
ings are one of the only available means
to figure out how to get marijuana.
Michigan took a progressive step
when voters approved the Michigan
Compassionate Care Initiative last
November. But in some crucial ways,
the program is out of touch with needs
of the patients it serves. Michigan isn't
alone - out of the 13 states that admin-
ister medical marijuana programs, only
California provides a means for dispens-
ing to patients through cannabis phar-
macies. Dennis Hayes, an Ann Arbor
lawyer who specializes in drug law, said
that states declined to operate dispensa-
ry systems to avoid being direct suppli-
ers in the face of federal laws prohibiting
marijuana.
"One of the problems is that the state
can't encourage people to act collective-
ly," Hayes said. "The reason is no state
can publicly endorse breaking a federal
law."
But chances that the War on Drugs
will heat back up and target medical
marijuana are slim to none. Following
California's example, states could - and
many people say, should - provide guid-
ance for marijuana patients who, by vir-
tue of being approved for the program,
have serious conditions that make extra
help all the more valuable.
As it stands right now, the Michigan
Medical Marijuana Program presents
a catch-22 for patients: You can smoke
weed, but it's up to you to figure out how.
Vague regulations governing the pro-
gram also induce anxiety for patients
who are afraid that in trying to get their
medicine, they'll run afoul of state drug
laws.
EELING LIKE A CRIMINAL
Even though marijuana is now legal
for thousands of people in Michigan,
registered patients are still skittish
about speaking outright about it. All
patients and caregivers interviewed for
this story asked that their full names not
be printed so as not to draw attention to
their activities.
Several people talked about how
smoking marijuana still feels illicit even
with a registered patient card in pocket.
The same people who passed around lit
pipes at the Dominick's meeting were
unwilling to be identified as marijuana
smokers to the outside world. Some cited
the stigma attached to the vilified sub-
stance.
"We're from the Reagan Drug War
era," a patient named Kirk said. "This is
crazy."
But besides a residual feeling of guilt
surrounding marijuana, there are other
more tangible threats dogging patients
and caregivers. The Michigan Medi-
cal Marijuana Program has only been
operational since April, which means
the nuances of the law are not yet well
known by both patients and law enforc-
ers. A patient couple in Madison Heights
ranintotrouble in March whenthe police
raided their house and confiscated 21
plants, The Detroit News reported. The
two had been approved by a physician
as patients but were waiting to receive
their cards in the mail. A judge later dis-
missed the charges and derided the new
marijuana law for its lack of clarity, say-
ing it was the "worst piece of legislation
(he) has ever seen in (his) life."
The problem comes down to the law's
guidelines, which initially seem clear
but become confusing when applied to
the transfer of marijuana from caregiver
to patient. The law stipulates that a care-
giver may possess up to 2.5 ounces of
usable marijuana and 12 plants for each
of up to five patients. A patient who has
authorized a caregiver to grow mari-
juana may possess 2.5 ounces of usable
product. But does that mean that 5 ounc-
es can be held in the name of one patient,
or just 2.5?
It may seem like splitting hairs, but
patients feel like they need to be as care-
ful as possible. They do live in a state
that has a long history of throwing the
book at marijuana offenders. Ann Arbor
lawyer Dennis Hayes knows just how
bent against marijuana the courts can
be. Hayes has worked on drug law since
1972, when he helped create Ann Arbor's
infamous pot law - which instituted a
small fine as the maximum punishment
for marijuana possession in the city. He
represented defendants in drug cases
until the '90s, when he stopped taking
those cases out of frustration toward the
war on drugs.
But as soon as Hayes heard about
the campaign to put medical marijuana
on the 2008 ballot, he came back to the
cause. The tide had turned for medical
marijuana in Michigan, he said. Unlike
less organized attempts to put it on the
ballot, last year's movement had better
leadership and wider support.
"It was very clear when I saw what
was going on with this one that these
people had it together," Hayes said.
The medical marijuana law began as
a grassroots effort, and deciding how
the program will operate has also been
a community affair. Before the medical
marijuana program began, Hayes and
many other advocates attended public
hearings regarding proposed regulation
guidelines. Advocates shut down plans
to record the actions of caregivers and
patients to an extent that could threaten
privacy or incriminate them in the case
of a federal investigation.
"They first proposed that there be
detailed inventories of who got what
pot, when, from whom - very, very
detailed tracking," Hayes said. "I guess
the threshold issue here is that the
state strongly opposed this leg to begin
with."
COMMUNITY IN LIEU OF
PHAR7MACIES
Michigan might not know how to
treat marijuana users as anything but
criminals. Since the state offers little
PHOTOS BY SAM WOLSON/Daily
(ABOVE) Joe, a leukemia patient, travels almost two hours from onia to be treated in the University Hospital. He uses marijuana to ease more moderate pain he generally feels on a daily basis.
(LEFT) To have easier access to hard-to-find-medical marijuana, Joe is building a hydroponics grow room at his home and learning how to cultivate through websites and other sources.
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assistance in obtaining medical mari-
juana, a network of community support
groups has helped patients get their
needed drug.
The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation,
a marijuana advocacy group stationed
in eight medical marijuana states, has
already set up four clinics in Michigan
designed to examine patients and issue
recommendations for medical marijuana
cards. The foundation not only educates
patients about the effects of medical
marijuana, but also advocates the legal-
ization of marijuana for recreational and
industrial use.
Organizations like the Michigan
Medical Marijuana Association main-
tain websites with articles and forums
to educate patients and caregivers. The
Ann Arbor-based Association of Medi-
cal Marijuana Caregivers is currently
establishing a database that will locate
available caregivers within a certaingeo-
graphical area. The locator tool doesn't
yet yield results, but the volunteer effort
to help patients shows a system that is,
in fact, rooted in compassion.
"When you have someone who is
chronically ill, you need to make it easy
on them, not hard, to find their medica-
tion," said Jacqueline Cooke, who vol-
unteers for the Association of Medical
Marijuana Caregivers. "You see a lot of
blogs and a lot of forums with patients
who just have these questions. Your
heart just sort of goes out to them. It's
just so difficult and it shouldn't be dif-
ficult because it's legal."
Hayes, the Ann Arbor lawyer, is also
the co-founder of the Medical Marijua-
na Patient Collective. He said he formed
the group to help patients and caregiv-
ers find each other, learn about growing
techniques and compare experiences.
For patients who were never recreation-
al smokers, medical marijuana commu-
nity meetings are invaluable in figuring
out how to attain their medicine.
At the Dominick's meeting in August,
patients seemed split between people
who had been already using marijuana
to treat their pain previous to the ini-
tiative and people who are just trying it
now.
One marijuana convert at the meet-
ing was a professor at Eastern Michigan
University, who asked to remain anony-
mous to protect her reputation at work.
Suffering from glaucoma, back pain and
chronic headaches, the professor had
been taking so much morphine that it
interfered with her teaching.
"It was such heavy doses," she said.
"It just makes you sick. What would I do
if I even had more pain?"
The professor had never smoked
marijuana except once in high school,
but when a friend suggested she try
marijuana, she found it suited her much
better than the morphine. After being
approved as a patient, she was able to
find a caregiver at a patient meeting who
would grow and harvest marijuana for
her.
Her caregiver, Brenda from Man-
chester, Mich., was also at the Aug. 11
meeting. Sitting with her fiance Randy,
a registered patient she also grows for,
Brenda was on the lookout for prospec-
tive patients. As a caregiver for both
Randy and the EMU professor, Brenda
can legally serve three more patients,
which would allow her to grow 60 plants
in total. She said she is considering mak-
ing her caregiver service a full-time job.
"The more and more people that I
meet, the more that appeals to me," she
said.
PORTR AIT OF A PATIENT
Among the networking patients and
caregivers on the Dominick's patio was
Joe, a leukemia patient at the Univer-
sity Hospital. Joe was different from
the others from the meeting. He wasn't
trying to find a caregiver - he had been
doing that for himself for years. He
wasn't looking to become a caregiver. In
fact, he hasn't even become a registered
patient yet.
Even though he has an obvious quali-
fying condition, Joe hasn't applied for
a card because he has been waiting to
have a consultation with his main doc-
tor at the University Hospital to get his
approval.
Earlier in the year, his doctor had been
concerned about Joe smoking marijuana
and inhaling chemicals on the buds. As a
substitute, Joe was prescribed Marinol,
which is a synthetic cannabinoid meant
to mimic the effects of marijuana. But
Joe said the drug was less effective and
took longer to work - "I was going bon-
kers," he said.
Since being diagnosed with cancer
in 2002, Joe has realized the place for
medical marijuana in his pain manage-
ment system. At first, he said, he turned
to marijuana for the first time in years to
deal with his feelings about his diagno-
sis. But he soon learned that marijuana
can't be used to avoid your problems.
"You'll box it up and box it up, and
sooner or later, your box is full and you
have to deal with," he said. "It doesn't
work. I've tried."
Joe now uses marijuana for moderate
daily pain that doesn't require some-
thing as heavy as morphine. It helps
him overcome nausea, develop an appe-
tite and get on with his life. For a can-
cer patient as active as Joe, the ability
to lessen pain without getting bogged
down by heavy-duty pain killers makes
for a more fulfilling life.
That is why he is working on a project
that he hopes will placate his doctor's
concerns about street-bought marijua-
na while keeping his medicine always
at hand: his own organic hydroponics
grow room.
See PAGE 8B
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