Ottawa Compassionate Care

WEST BRANCH — Since April, patients of chronic illnesses have been able to apply and register for an identification card for the legal, medicinal use of marijuana. And so far, there have not been any problems in Ogemaw County concerning this new statute.

“Right now, until we have a contested issue, we’re just going to kind of go about our business,” Michigan State Police D-Lt. Jeffrey Keister, unit commander at STING, said. “Hopefully, people will do the right thing.”

To receive a registered identification card to legally possess and smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes, there is an application and qualifying process that individuals suffering from a chronic disease such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, and severe nausea have to go through. There is also a fee for the registration card, but if the patient is receiving state assistance, the fee is either waived or reduced.

Prosecuting Attorney LaDonna Schultz said there’s a misconception that individuals need a prescription for marijuana.

“There’s no such thing,” Schultz said. “Doctors would lose their license if they gave prescriptions for marijuana. What they do is they write certified letters that say their patient has a debilitating condition and it is their opinion they would benefit from the use of marijuana.”

The patient would then take that certified letter written by their physician to the Department of Corrections, and fill out an application. Once the Depart-ment of Corrections receives the patient’s application, it will be approved or denied within 15 days.

A primary caregiver of an individual suffering from a chronic illness can also possess a certified registration card to assist up to five qualified patients in their care who can legally use marijuana for medicinal purposes. The registration card is also available for minors, but they have to have two letters from two different physicians, and one letter from a parent or guardian.

According to Keister, so far the state has issued roughly 150 registration cards under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act of 2008. However, due to privacy laws, and that the patients are registered by numbers instead of their names, it is unknown how many registered cardholders are in Ogemaw County.

“People are worried about their right of privacy,” Keister said. “The fact of the matter is … if somebody provides us with a document that they are indeed a patient, they (community health) will only tell us if they are or aren’t. They are pretty well protected.”

According to Schultz and Keister, once a patient receives a card, they can possess up to 12 marijuana plants in an enclosed locked facility, and up to 2.5 ounces of useable marijuana. However, even as a registered medical marijuana patient, possession of the drug is still prohibited on a school bus, school grounds, and in correctional facilities, and the smoking of marijuana is still prohibited on any form of public transportation or in a public place.

Even with these guidelines listed in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, Schultz said there are still gray areas that will have to be clarified once the courts start creating case law about the medicinal use and possession of the drug.

“There’s some answers we don’t have for some people because there is a lot of gray area, and we have to wait until those cases start hitting the court and the court starts telling us what the parameters are going to be,” Schultz said. “We’re assimilating the best information we have at the present time.”

For now, law enforcement officers are being trained on an enforcement plan, the new statute, and registered cardholders’ duties and responsibilities.

“It’s a law, and we as law enforcement officers will do our best to enforce and follow the rules set by the law,” Keister said. “From an operational standpoint, if people do what they’re supposed to do and they have the appropriate documentation, it should be pretty smooth. For the people who don’t want to do that, that’s when we’re going to run into gray areas, and we’ll sort those out when they come, but we haven’t run into that yet.”

Orginal Story - Ogemaw Herald - By Elon Brissette