Pompo

Patients oppose strict rules for medical marijuana
1/3/09|The Grand Rapids Press| by Theresa D. Mcclellan - The Grand Rapids Press



George Wagoner does not smoke marijuana, but he has seen firsthand the benefits it offered his late wife while she battled ovarian cancer.

While he cannot attend Monday's public hearing in Lansing on the proposed rules for those receiving medical marijuana, the 74-year-old retired obstetrician from Manistee wants state officials to know how important it is to make it available as a medicine.

"It's reasonable to have rules and, if we are a compassionate society, we should have a mechanism where legitimate producers can provide the medicine to those who need it," said Wagoner from his Florida home.

The Michigan Department of Community Health will hold a hearing at 9 a.m. Monday on the rules to carry out the medical marijuana proposal that was passed by voters in November. The rules take effect April 9.

A group of Lansing-area patients is expected to attend the hearing to argue the draft rules impose restrictions on medical marijuana users that exceed the department's authority, said Karen O'Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project.

"Among the rules considered problematic are requirements that patients or caregivers submit written inventory reports of medical marijuana they grow, that all medical marijuana -- not just plants -- be kept in an enclosed, locked facility, and a definition of public use that would make it illegal for patients to use medical marijuana in their own homes with the curtains open," O'Keefe said.

Wagoner said marijuana gave his wife -- who died in 2007 -- some relief from the violent nausea resulting from her chemotherapy.

"This is just an effective medicine, and we need to stop harassing people who will benefit from it," he said.