Medical Use of Marijuana Nears a Win

Medical Use of Marijuana Nears a Win

Detroit is poised to become a harbinger for the Midwest as voters choose whether to allow residents to use and possess marijuana for medical purposes. The measure does not affect state and federal law.
With 40 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday, 62 percent of voters approved the measure. Thirty-eight percent opposed it. ``I always knew Detroit would come through for people who need help,'' said Rochelle Lampkin, a city resident who smokes marijuana for relief from multiple sclerosis.

The city's proposal follows on the heels of a movement that has spread mainly in the West.

But now other Midwestern cities, including Ann Arbor, Madison, Wis., and Columbia, Mo., are looking at similar measures.

``A lot of places that are in your traditional Midwest are looking more like Berkeley, Los Angeles, Portland,'' said Allen St. Pierre, executive director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a Washington, D.C.-based group in favor of legalizing the drug.

So far, nine states - Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington - allow the use of medical marijuana.

The Detroit proposal exempts residents who use or possess marijuana for medical purposes from the portion of the city code that makes the drug illegal.

That means Detroit police officers would not arrest or ticket residents with medical permission. Those found to illegally possess marijuana still would face up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Federal agents, state police and county sheriff's deputies could still arrest people with marijuana in the city. But law enforcement officials say most marijuana possession cases are handled by Detroit police.

``If we come upon it, of course state law obligates us to enforce it,'' said Lawrence Meyer, undersheriff and chief deputy with the Wayne County Sheriff's Office. ``But our narcotics unit, we're looking for dealers. We're trying to get to the source of the problem.''

Gov. Jennifer Granholm and federal authorities in Detroit oppose legalizing medical marijuana.

Drug Enforcement Agency special agent David Jacobson said the medical marijuana campaign is a veiled push to legalize the drug.

Advocates of medical marijuana ``are preying on the compassion of people across the United States . . . but there is no value to smoking marijuana'' he said.

He would not say whether federal authorities would arrest or prosecute Detroiters found with marijuana for medical reasons, as has happened in other states with similar laws.

Timothy Beck, head of the Detroit Coalition for Compassionate Care, the group that led the effort to place the proposal on the ballot, said smoking marijuana eases the suffering of people with AIDS, cancer and other diseases.

``It's simple human justice,'' Beck said. ``We find it reprehensible that people who are sick would be persecuted like criminals.''

Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Author: Marisol Bello, Free Press Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, August 3, 2004
Copyright: 2004 Detroit Free Press
Contact: letters@freepress.com
Website: http://www.freep.com/

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