Ottawa Compassionate Care

It’s not unheard of for a voter-ordered change in state law to require additional work by the Legislature. Constitutional amendments and initiatives do leave strings dangling, details missed.

But the move afoot at the Capitol now to tinker with the state’s new medical marijuana regime has a different feel to it. This seems more the stuff of derailing the voters’ intent, rather than executing it.

Among the changes proposed in the Republican-led Senate: Barring registered private citizens from growing marijuana and installing a system of state dispensaries instead.

Backers of the idea cite confusion and the need for closer oversight of how much marijuana is grown. Such concerns are a tad disingenuous in light of the Legislature’s record on medical marijuana.

First, the Legislature never seriously dealt with the issue on its own. It could have tackled all these problems via its own legal acumen; it did not.

Then, when supporters collected the signatures to place the issue before the voters in 2008, legislators had six weeks to act on the topic to bypass a statewide vote.

The legislators, again, sat on their hands. The voters didn’t.

Nearly two-thirds of those voting approved the ballot measure, which, in part, would explicitly “permit registered individuals to grow limited amounts of marijuana for qualifying patients in an enclosed, locked facility.”

That’s not legal mumbo jumbo. The voters knew what was asked of them and they gave a clear answer.

It’s too bad that some lawmakers don’t like the answer the voters provided. But that is not grounds for them to use their state offices to try to short-circuit all this.

And it’s not like lawmakers don’t have other pressing duties at hand.

After all, this is the same Legislature that cannot handle its prime responsibility – passing a balanced budget on time; the same Legislature that can’t impose punishment on itself for its failures; the same Legislature that can’t find a way to immediately reduce lawmakers’ generous, taxpayer-supported lifestyle.

Last Friday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm unveiled a broad array of changes to state government at a Rotary Club luncheon in Lansing. An eyewitness says the audience’s loudest applause was reserved for Granholm’s call for docking lawmakers’ pay for each day they are late in delivering a balanced state budget.

The voters have spoken. The question is, do lawmakers really care what they said?

Source: Lansing State Journal (MI)
Published: February 2, 2010
Copyright: 2010 Lansing State Journal
Website: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/
Link: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100202/OPINION01/2020304/1086/OPINION01