MI new era cannabis regulations

abe supercro

Well-Known Member
Bills to regulate medical marijuana headed to Snyder
Paul Egan and Bill Laitner, Detroit Free Press September 14, 2016

Marijuana off state's fall ballot for sure.


The dispensary law would create a five-member medical marijuana licensing board, appointed by the governor, with no more than three members from the same political party.

The board and the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs is to, among other duties, provide "oversight of marijuana facilities to ensure that marijuana-infused products meet health and safety standards that protect the public to a degree comparable to state and federal standards applicable to similar food and drugs."

Growers, processors, secure transporters, dispensaries and accredited testing facilities would all be state-licensed. The costs of the application fee and an annual regulatory assessment have not yet been set. Licenses are issued for one year and are renewable annually. Licensees are subject to extensive disclosure requirements and would be required to conduct background checks on prospective employees.

Dispensaries would be taxed at 3% of their gross receipts, with some of the proceeds used to support law enforcement in municipalities where marijuana facilities are located.

Marijuana facilities could operate only in municipalities that have authorized them through local ordinances, and municipalities could limit the number and where they could locate. They can also charge licensees an annual fee of up to $5,000 to defray administrative and enforcement costs.

Medical marijuana dispensaries, already on shaky ground, received a major setback in May when a state appeals court effectively ruled that medical marijuana patients could get their cannabis only by growing it themselves or from caregivers authorized to serve a small number of patients.

The new legislation aims to clarify and standardize what is now a patchwork of selective enforcement in which some counties — including Oakland — raid and shutter virtually every dispensary, while others, such as Wayne and Washtenaw, turn a blind eye to the shops that are often marked with green crosses, a marketing symbol for medical marijuana.

“What we have now is totally out of control, the wild wild West," said state Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge. "We have 70 or 80 dispensaries in Lansing alone. It’s up to us to bring clarity to this.”

One of the bills would legalize the use of non-smokeable forms of marijuana, such as oils or brownies and other edible forms routinely referred to as "medibles," that can be used by people, even children, with medical needs.

That's important to Ida Chinonis of Grand Blanc, whose 7-year-old daughter Bella finally found relief from constant seizures by taking a cannabis oil three times a day.

Since she began taking the cannabis oil, starting about two years ago, "she's started to bloom into becoming a little girl," Chinonis told the Free Press before lawmakers convened Wednesday. "I just hope that the House of Representatives hear her cry for help."

Chinonis now buys her cannabis oil at a dispensary in Detroit, but she's worried about potential legal liability without state laws to protect her. She would also welcome the possibility of an alternative supplier closer to her home.

The main bill, House Bill 4209, as amended by the Senate, passed the House 83-22 Wednesday, with House Minority Leader Tim Greimel, D-Auburn Hills, among the no votes. Greimel shared concerns of Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard that people with criminal histories could potentially get involved in the medical marijuana business.

"The biggest problem ... is that it allows people with serious criminal convictions, including violent felonies, to own and operate marijuana businesses," said Greimel spokeswoman Katie Carey.

"If the Legislature decides to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries and other related businesses, it is imperative that the businesses be strictly regulated and that there be stricter prohibitions on the involvement of those with criminal histories, including a lifetime ban for violent felons and for those convicted of money-laundering, among others."

Anna Heaton, a spokeswoman for Snyder, said "the governor will still need to review the final versions before making a decision on signing, but overall he is supportive of the policies and appreciates all the hard work the Legislature did to get to this point."

The bill package provides for three classes of grower licenses, with caps of 500 to 1,500 marijuana plants per license.

The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs would set standards for various facilities;, set out how much insurance must be purchased by licensees and establish quality control standards, labeling and packaging standards, and testing standards and procedures. It would also oversee a "statewide monitoring system to track all marijuana transfers."

The board and its agents, including auditors and the Michigan State Police, would have the right to inspect marijuana facilities at any time, without notice or the need for a search warrant.

Those operating within the scope of their licenses are protected under the new law from state or local criminal or civil prosecution for marijuana-related offenses.

The bills had been stuck in a Senate committee for 11 months, with sponsors unable to get the majority needed to move to the full Senate. But last Thursday, the bills were discharged from the committee and passed by the full Senate with the bare amount of votes necessary.

The bills — HB 4209-4210, 4827, SB 141 and SB 1014 — build on the constitutional amendment passed by voters to legalize medical marijuana in 2008.

Reaction to the bills’ final passage has been building in advance — vehemently pro and con — on the Internet’s marijuana forums and in law enforcement circles ever since the sudden Senate action last week.

“Some folks are happy for any legalization crumbs — I've worked too hard to accept that,” said Debra Young, 58, of Ferndale, a state-registered user of medical marijuana for glaucoma.

Young has campaigned for years on behalf of having Michigan legalize marijuana that would be taxed and regulated like alcoholic beverages. She said she opposed the new rules for dispensaries because she said they’d drive up costs for users, but she was glad to see Michigan join other states in allowing non-smoked forms of medical marijuana.

“So many ill people, including children, needed this badly,” Young said.

But Rick Thompson of suburban Flint, editor of the online Compassion Chronicles site on medical marijuana, said the bill on dispensaries “represents everything bad about the legislative process in Michigan" as "a tale of special-interest concessions, law-enforcement lobbying and political manipulation."

Lowell said the security required in the bills to safely transport cannabis is excessive. “You don’t need two armed guards to transport medical marijuana,” he said.

Also, “the marijuana now gets taxed — no other medicine is taxed in Michigan."

Schneider disputed claims the legislation will drive up the price of cannabis, which she said is now in the range of $200 to $400 an ounce for medical marijuana patients, and said allowing
larger-scale grow operations is likely to bring the price down through economies of scale.

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/09/14/house-vote-bills-regulate-medical-marijuana/90352068/
 

HGK420

Well-Known Member
i honestly like it..... AS LONG AS home grow rights don't get infringed upon and we still have a peer to peer option..

we need to regulate dispensaries TIGHTLY.. some ppl use this stuff for a lot more then just catching a buzz. we've all heard it 100 times... if someone with a compromised immune system gets a hold of meds that aren't of a certain quality (lots of profit first dispensaries around) it can be fatal at the very least it will lower their quality of life... can't have that.

THERE HAS TO be an option if someone needs 100% guaranteed clean meds and if someone needs clean meds and gets bad meds there has to be a route for recourse... currently who you gonna call if you got ripped off? NO ONE. the dispensaries have all the power in the supplier/demander relationship and people take advantage of this..

remember I'm saying this is all ok ONLY IF they leave our home grow rights alone/improve them.

no one complains when they regulate other things in a similar way. they are basically just making sure dispensary owners WHO WILL PROFIT IMMENSELY are on the up and up.. not a terrible thing IMO.
 

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
You don't honestly believe that they will run two different parallel medical systems do you. Once they get the corporate one up and running and the money is rolling in the axe will come down on the other. Can't let it cut into corporate profits or how they will put it,wasteful to have two systems that do the same thing.

I'm all for regulating corporations to keep them from running amuck but their plan is to hand the whole thing over to them and fuck the little people.

And by clean meds do you mean spayed with all kinds of shit and then maybe Gamma radiated like PPS does it.
 

HGK420

Well-Known Member
i think we need to fight for it. nothing bun this life i handed to us. go back to your 2003 self and tell him he's going to be allowed to grow for 5 years legally eventually and watch that person tell you "THEY will never let that happen"

THEY don't have the power... we do... NUMBERS are power... if we all sit around and let it go that way... then it goes that way... but in CANADA and WASHINGTON it went that way.... and guess what.. ppl fought and got grow rights back.. the new model is allow minimum number of plants for home growers and BIG NUMBER LICENSES for ppl who wanna go big.. Colorado has 2 different programs running too.. theres ZERO canopy limit licenses.. theres collective medical licenses... or you can just grow a handful for yourself..

like i said THEY don't have that much power when the masses speak up
 

disratory

Well-Known Member
i think we need to fight for it. nothing bun this life i handed to us. go back to your 2003 self and tell him he's going to be allowed to grow for 5 years legally eventually and watch that person tell you "THEY will never let that happen"

THEY don't have the power... we do... NUMBERS are power... if we all sit around and let it go that way... then it goes that way... but in CANADA and WASHINGTON it went that way.... and guess what.. ppl fought and got grow rights back.. the new model is allow minimum number of plants for home growers and BIG NUMBER LICENSES for ppl who wanna go big.. Colorado has 2 different programs running too.. theres ZERO canopy limit licenses.. theres collective medical licenses... or you can just grow a handful for yourself..

like i said THEY don't have that much power when the masses speak up
well we didnt have the numbers for the petition this year
 

HGK420

Well-Known Member
o we have the numbers... whether or not they mobilized is another thing.. but we got the numbers..

no one to blame but ourselves if we lose our grow rights.. theres over 200,000 patients and 30,000 growers (SUPER LOW ESTIMATION) if we can't maintain our rights with almost a quarter million ppl then we have no right to those rights to begin with... rights aren't free.

what petition are you talking about too, I've seen so many during the obama administration (anyone else notice the petition is the thing to do now?) the last one i can remember for us in MI was a while ago. I'm assuming i missed a recent one?
 

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
i think we need to fight for it. nothing bun this life i handed to us. go back to your 2003 self and tell him he's going to be allowed to grow for 5 years legally eventually and watch that person tell you "THEY will never let that happen"

THEY don't have the power... we do... NUMBERS are power... if we all sit around and let it go that way... then it goes that way... but in CANADA and WASHINGTON it went that way.... and guess what.. ppl fought and got grow rights back.. the new model is allow minimum number of plants for home growers and BIG NUMBER LICENSES for ppl who wanna go big.. Colorado has 2 different programs running too.. theres ZERO canopy limit licenses.. theres collective medical licenses... or you can just grow a handful for yourself..

like i said THEY don't have that much power when the masses speak up

Colorado has med and rec,I can see that being separate. We will have 2 med systems here,don't think that will last.
 

HGK420

Well-Known Member
its not 2 med systems if we integrate them together. its not hard to add 12 plant per patient with up to 96 plant limit collectives to the massive corporate canna plan... we just gotta be represented and not let them make the rules
 

Michiganmeds1982

Well-Known Member
I wonder if they will still try to pass that Bill that made a second card for provisioning center purchases and you could only be in one program...
 

captainmorgan

Well-Known Member
Sorry but my blood pressure goes up when I talk about these slime balls, the plant should not even be on the schedule. Did you see they are taking a nice pile of money off the top for substance abuse programs. I've never heard of any one going to rehab for pot, it's not addictive, plus this is medical not recreational.
 

HGK420

Well-Known Member
Sorry but my blood pressure goes up when I talk about these slime balls, the plant should not even be on the schedule. Did you see they are taking a nice pile of money off the top for substance abuse programs. I've never heard of any one going to rehab for pot, it's not addictive, plus this is medical not recreational.
i agree on all fronts. including the blood pressure.

we need to get it to a place where there is a massively regulated medical division with provisions for home grows and collectives. home growers will have to live with at least a few rules but it the end hopefully everyone can work together. lots of ppl are gonna want to just stop and buy McBuds from the mega dispensary and some people ill want something better. its not a big deal if we have peer to peer options.
 

linky

Well-Known Member
I see no problem with a regulated system for dispensaries and the growers that provide for them but these bills go way to far, over regulated, way to expensive, cuts out the average joe from getting in the door on a business like this.. Hopefully they do not screw the current caregiver/patient model up also, but I am sure there will be enough big business lobbying to change that for the worse as also.
 

since1991

Well-Known Member
And just think....all this (since the 1930's started by a racist power hungry beuracrat) for a little ole weed that grows anywhere and gets you buzzed if you injest it (mildly). I feel sorry for the plant personally. All of this manmade bullshit over a fuking simple plant.
 
Top