Medical Marijuana: Michigan House Bills To Regulate MMJ Collectives

A package of 4 contentious bills determining medicinal marijuana use passed the Michigan House on Thursday — now its off to the Mich. Senate floor for debate.

The way that the bill has been written – so as to explain how the Michigan Medical Marijuana act that was passed by voters in 2008 will change, have attracted the ire of some medicinal marijuana Doctors and advocates, but received the required three-fourths majority House election with bipartisan support, based on the Detroit Free Press.

HB 4834 would require Michigan Marijuana patients to have photo ID on their registry identification card, make the card valid for two years and privatize parts of the registration process. It would also allow law enforcement access to information about patients on the registry.

HB 4851 would offer stricter guidelines for the “bona fide physician-patient relationship” as it relates to medical marijuana use, including requiring an in-person physical examination of patients.

HB 4853 would put the penalty for selling marijuana without a proper registry identification card within the sentencing guidelines for a two-year felony.

And HB 4856 would criminalize the transportation of medical marijuana in a motor vehicle under certain conditions.

Attorney Matt Abel is an expert in the growing marijuana law and it is the campaign director for Committee for any Safer Michigan, an organization trying to legalize marijuana in Michigan. He’s troubled through the use of patient’s private information that HB 4834 gives cops.

Although he thinks HB 4853 is fair since it is applicable a regular standard for 2 year offenses, he thinks HB 4851 and HB 4856 pick out the medicinal marijuana community for specific regulation.

“It might prevent a medicinal marijuana patient from transporting it on their own person, however they can transport their Vicodin on their own person,” he stated of HB 4856.

The 2009 week, Repetition. Mike Callton (R-Nashville) introduced another bill addressing medicinal marijuana towards the House. HB 5580 would regulate medicinal marijuana shops and provisioning centers to be clean and safe.

“Since medicinal marijuana grew to become legal in Michigan, shops are appearing right and left and we have to make certain these places pass the smell test,”. Shouldn’t  you feel safe letting your grandmother visit one of these simple places to get her medicinal marijuana, as though she visited a pharmacy, then it must be cleared up or closed.

The balance would also mandate that marijuana couldn’t be consumed at shops or provisioning centers, only offered offer local control and permit care providers to market excess items to shops. It might also stop centers from establishing shop within 1,000 ft of colleges. HB 5580 must certainly be considered through the House Judiciary Committee to visit forward.