Robert Celt
New Member
The number of patients using medical marijuana in the Tri-County area is up 74 percent from 2014, coinciding with a statewide uptick.
A Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) report for its 2015 fiscal year shows there are over 182,000 patients using medical marijuana in Michigan and 34,000 caregivers.
The state's Medical Marihuana Act of 2008 requires LARA to submit to the Legislature an annual report stating the number of applicants who filed for ID cards, the number of qualifying patients and primary caregivers approved in each county, the nature of the debilitating medical conditions of the qualifying patients, the number of ID cards revoked and the number of physicians providing written certifications for qualifying patients.
Below are the numbers for the Tri-County area:
Huron:
Huron's count shows a 76 percent increase in medical marijuana patients from 2014 and 71 percent increase in caregivers. For Sanilac, there's a 63 percent increase in patients and 30 percent more caregivers. And Tuscola saw an 82 percent increase in patients and 64 percent more caregivers than in 2014.
"Obviously, there's more people applying and receiving prescriptions," said John Bodis, Huron County Board of Commissioners chair. "There must be some purpose in (medical marijuana)."
During LARA's fiscal year 2015, 1,426 physicians provided written certifications for qualifying medical marijuana patients. The report shows 93 percent of patients cited a debilitating severe and chronic pain while over 23 percent reported severe and persistent muscle spasms. Other reported conditions were severe nausea, cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Medical marijuana use is federally illegal. The Drug Enforcement Agency classifies it a schedule I drug, the most dangerous of all drug schedules, and defines it as having no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse.
"But they're not enforcing anything," Bodis said.
In 2008, 63 percent of Michigan voters approved a proposal to legalize medical marijuana. It barely passed in Huron County, with 8,484 in support and 8,319 no votes.
In Bad Axe, officials prohibited medical marijuana dispensaries with a 2010 ordinance. The prohibition applies to any dispensary, regardless of a person's ability to legally grow marijuana in the state, because medical marijuana use/growth is not allowed by federal law and the city's ordinance states, "Every medical marijuana dispensary must comply with and not be contrary to all local, county, state and federal laws."
State Rep. and physician Ed Canfield, R-Sebewaing, says numbers of medical marijuana patients and caregivers are likely increasing due to wider acceptance and accessibility. Canfield says many patients sought his opinion for a card in past years. He says more physicians are writing opinions and that he knows at least one physician each in Huron and Tuscola counties "giving out medical marijuana cards."
But he says he wouldn't prescribe a card because the only legal use is smoking.
"Smoking is not good for your health, so I'm uncomfortable with that," Canfield said. "I believe there are many people who use medical marijuana for appropriate reasons, but I also believe some use it just because they like to smoke marijuana and get high. Determining who those people are is the hard part."
The physician community has been "somewhat ambivalent" on medical marijuana due to it being federally illegal and the inability to find known, stable and legitimate dispensaries offering a consistent product, he said.
To help matters, Canfield co-sponsored a bill introduced in February 2015 to create the Medical Marihuana Provisioning Center Regulation Act. Combined with other bills in the package, it would allow LARA to regulate and tax the production and sale of medical marijuana. The House passed the bills in October, with each getting at least 95 of a possible 106 votes. The bills were referred to the committee on judiciary but have not seen action since October.
Canfield says he supported the measure "not because I'm a big fan of marijuana," but with the hope that it would provide government oversight for many gray areas.
"There are problems with our current medical marijuana law, and I'm not a huge fan of it," Canfield said. "These bills would provide improvement and safety."
Current Michigan law allows caregivers to possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana and grow up to 12 plants for five patients.
"There are legitimate people who are legitimate caregivers who do a good job, but there are also people who are suspect," Canfield said. "Sometimes it seems these are just folks who grow marijuana.
"Physicians don't know where to send people. If we had dispensaries and reputable individuals to send patients to ... folks could get a prescribed dose and there would be a reputable place that was governed or evaluated by the state to provide these substances as medical prescriptions in a controlled dose and environment."
A Hillsdale College economist recently analyzed the House-passed bills.
Dr. Gary Wolfram, in an analysis commissioned by the Michigan Cannabis Development Association, estimates a "robust free market medical marijuana industry with fair and open competition ... can generate between $44.3 million to $63.5 million a year in revenue" statewide, and that House Bills 4209, 4210 and 4827 could generate 10,000 new jobs "in the early years of implementation if the Michigan experience reflects that of other states."
Locally, officials have talked of employers' need to fill jobs but the struggle in doing so because applicants often fail drug tests. Canfield says he doesn't think companies discriminate against those with valid medical marijuana cards, and there is some protection in that employers can't release people with a medical marijuana card.
But it does raise a red flag for most businesses, he said.
"You may think twice before you employ them; whether that's legal or not, I don't know," he said. "But I think it would give people cause."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: MI: Medical Marijuana Use Up 74 Percent
Author: Chris Aldridge
Photo Credit: None found
Website: Huron Daily Tribune
A Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) report for its 2015 fiscal year shows there are over 182,000 patients using medical marijuana in Michigan and 34,000 caregivers.
The state's Medical Marihuana Act of 2008 requires LARA to submit to the Legislature an annual report stating the number of applicants who filed for ID cards, the number of qualifying patients and primary caregivers approved in each county, the nature of the debilitating medical conditions of the qualifying patients, the number of ID cards revoked and the number of physicians providing written certifications for qualifying patients.
Below are the numbers for the Tri-County area:
Huron:
- 2015: 339 patients, 41 caregivers
- 2014: 192 patients, 24 caregivers
- 2013: 193 patients, 27 caregivers
- 2012: 196 patients, 37 caregivers
- Estimated ratio of medical marijuana patients per 1,000 residents: 10
- 2015: 972 patients, 188 caregivers
- 2014: 594 patients, 144 caregivers
- 2013: 751 patients, 165 caregivers
- 2012: 753 patients, 311 caregivers
- Estimated ratio of medical marijuana patients per 1,000 residents: 23
- 2015: 1,508 patients, 321 caregivers
- 2014: 829 patients, 195 caregivers
- 2013: 945 patients, 223 caregivers
- 2012: 976 patients, 412 caregivers
- Estimated ratio of medical marijuana patients per 1,000 residents: 28
Huron's count shows a 76 percent increase in medical marijuana patients from 2014 and 71 percent increase in caregivers. For Sanilac, there's a 63 percent increase in patients and 30 percent more caregivers. And Tuscola saw an 82 percent increase in patients and 64 percent more caregivers than in 2014.
"Obviously, there's more people applying and receiving prescriptions," said John Bodis, Huron County Board of Commissioners chair. "There must be some purpose in (medical marijuana)."
During LARA's fiscal year 2015, 1,426 physicians provided written certifications for qualifying medical marijuana patients. The report shows 93 percent of patients cited a debilitating severe and chronic pain while over 23 percent reported severe and persistent muscle spasms. Other reported conditions were severe nausea, cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Medical marijuana use is federally illegal. The Drug Enforcement Agency classifies it a schedule I drug, the most dangerous of all drug schedules, and defines it as having no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse.
"But they're not enforcing anything," Bodis said.
In 2008, 63 percent of Michigan voters approved a proposal to legalize medical marijuana. It barely passed in Huron County, with 8,484 in support and 8,319 no votes.
In Bad Axe, officials prohibited medical marijuana dispensaries with a 2010 ordinance. The prohibition applies to any dispensary, regardless of a person's ability to legally grow marijuana in the state, because medical marijuana use/growth is not allowed by federal law and the city's ordinance states, "Every medical marijuana dispensary must comply with and not be contrary to all local, county, state and federal laws."
State Rep. and physician Ed Canfield, R-Sebewaing, says numbers of medical marijuana patients and caregivers are likely increasing due to wider acceptance and accessibility. Canfield says many patients sought his opinion for a card in past years. He says more physicians are writing opinions and that he knows at least one physician each in Huron and Tuscola counties "giving out medical marijuana cards."
But he says he wouldn't prescribe a card because the only legal use is smoking.
"Smoking is not good for your health, so I'm uncomfortable with that," Canfield said. "I believe there are many people who use medical marijuana for appropriate reasons, but I also believe some use it just because they like to smoke marijuana and get high. Determining who those people are is the hard part."
The physician community has been "somewhat ambivalent" on medical marijuana due to it being federally illegal and the inability to find known, stable and legitimate dispensaries offering a consistent product, he said.
To help matters, Canfield co-sponsored a bill introduced in February 2015 to create the Medical Marihuana Provisioning Center Regulation Act. Combined with other bills in the package, it would allow LARA to regulate and tax the production and sale of medical marijuana. The House passed the bills in October, with each getting at least 95 of a possible 106 votes. The bills were referred to the committee on judiciary but have not seen action since October.
Canfield says he supported the measure "not because I'm a big fan of marijuana," but with the hope that it would provide government oversight for many gray areas.
"There are problems with our current medical marijuana law, and I'm not a huge fan of it," Canfield said. "These bills would provide improvement and safety."
Current Michigan law allows caregivers to possess 2.5 ounces of marijuana and grow up to 12 plants for five patients.
"There are legitimate people who are legitimate caregivers who do a good job, but there are also people who are suspect," Canfield said. "Sometimes it seems these are just folks who grow marijuana.
"Physicians don't know where to send people. If we had dispensaries and reputable individuals to send patients to ... folks could get a prescribed dose and there would be a reputable place that was governed or evaluated by the state to provide these substances as medical prescriptions in a controlled dose and environment."
A Hillsdale College economist recently analyzed the House-passed bills.
Dr. Gary Wolfram, in an analysis commissioned by the Michigan Cannabis Development Association, estimates a "robust free market medical marijuana industry with fair and open competition ... can generate between $44.3 million to $63.5 million a year in revenue" statewide, and that House Bills 4209, 4210 and 4827 could generate 10,000 new jobs "in the early years of implementation if the Michigan experience reflects that of other states."
Locally, officials have talked of employers' need to fill jobs but the struggle in doing so because applicants often fail drug tests. Canfield says he doesn't think companies discriminate against those with valid medical marijuana cards, and there is some protection in that employers can't release people with a medical marijuana card.
But it does raise a red flag for most businesses, he said.
"You may think twice before you employ them; whether that's legal or not, I don't know," he said. "But I think it would give people cause."
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: MI: Medical Marijuana Use Up 74 Percent
Author: Chris Aldridge
Photo Credit: None found
Website: Huron Daily Tribune
