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It’s now legal to grow and sell marijuana here in Michigan, if you’re licensed and are doing it for medicinal purposes. As more people try to make ends meet in this tough economy, the thought of making money by growing cannabis to help someone with a health problem is gaining popularity.

Nick Tennant opened Med Grow Cannabis College in Southfield about a year ago. Since then he says he’s watched nearly one thousand students go through the program. It’s a diverse group, including people who really need an income.

Nick told us, “You have laid off autoworkers that have come in looking for a new means of viability for their career path. There are people from age 21 to 81 learning to grow medical marijuana.”

Nick himself used to work in the auto industry. But when opportunities started drying up he saw growth potential as a legalized marijuana supplier and educator. “It was a new industry, something Michigan had never seen.”

At Med Grow Cannabis College, potential suppliers attend six weeks of classes. For a fee of $475 they learn how to start a medical marijuana business.

They’re taught how to use proper nutrients, special lights and fans to maximize growth potential.

Michigan allows a caregiver who is certified to grow 12 plants per patient. They can grow for five other patients as well as themselves, if they are certified to use medical marijuana. That means they can grow a maximum of 72 plants.

Nick says a caregiver can make six figures the way the Michigan law is written.

Earlier this year we introduced you to Mathew Watkins who is battling a deadly brain cancer. For him, medical marijuana relieves his excruciating pain and allows him to gain weight. Before the law he was throwing up all the time.

Matt’s dad buys his medical marijuana from a licensed caregiver… who grows a special concoction for Matt.

In his case they triple the THC. So he’s getting a cocktail of different plants.

But that can run $700 a month.

People who grow medical marijuana aren’t just making money, they’re spending it too.

Mike, the owner of Ultra Green Hydroponics in Redford told us you can spend $5000 on a garden. But for $1000 you can get started in the business.

Mike used to be a skilled machinist. But he saw work in his field dwindling, so he decided to get into a different field.

Dr. William Gonte of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Center in Southfield examines patients to determine if they qualify for medical marijuana. He thinks the growing of medicinal quality pot may soon be taken over by big business.

“I think the state of Michigan is looking at their options. Probably tobacco companies will be the companies that set up and form these facilities where you can buy medical marijuana in packages.”

And Nick hopes getting in on the ground floor of this new medical marijuana wave will take him to new heights.

“I know we’re on the verge of a big, new industry.”

Len Goodman can’t grow enough marijuana to keep up with demand.

He is one of just 11 growers approved by New Mexico to produce pot for all of the state’s 2,000 registered medical marijuana patients, and his customers routinely wipe out his supply. Once a strain of marijuana is harvested, dried and cured, he sends an announcement that patients can place orders, and the pot is usually gone in 24 hours.

New Mexico has been so cautious in licensing and regulating growers under its 3-year-old medical marijuana law that the small number of providers can’t grow enough, creating a shortage that has forced some patients to the street to buy illegal drugs.

The dilemma in New Mexico could have ramifications elsewhere because the state’s program has been held up as a national model, with other states looking to replicate its strong regulatory structure to avoid the chaos that has prevailed in places like California.

Prospective pot growers are subjected to a painstaking screening process before being granted a license. Once that happens, they are limited to 95 plants and seedlings and an inventory “that reflects current qualified patient needs.”

The providers’ identities and locations are kept secret, avoiding the kind of storefront dispensaries that have flourished in Colorado and California.

State Health Secretary Dr. Alfredo Vigil says he must balance patients’ needs against preventing so much legal pot from being grown that it ends up in the illegal market. He said the program is being expanded methodically to ensure sufficient oversight and to get to know producers and how they operate.

He also opposes having hundreds of producers and many thousands of patients, which he said “absolutely takes it out of the arena of use for in-state patients and into the arena of defacto legalization.”

Medical marijuana patient Larry Love sees New Mexico as an example of what not to do. He contends the department approves new growers much too slowly.

Love, who runs a radio blog and has been highly critical of Vigil, got his medical marijuana card in June 2009 but said it was November before he could get a supply from an authorized grower. He said that drove him and other patients to the illegal market, despite the risks.

Goodman’s Santa Fe County business, NewMexicann, has 650 registered patients — five times the number of patients he said he can supply. Other producers are in similar shape, he said.

As a result, he has to ration pot to patients who are chronically ill.

“Sometimes they don’t have enough so they use it when it’s really severe, which is not good,” he said. “It’s like seniors cutting down on their meds because they can’t afford it.”

The situation in New Mexico is being closely watched by other states as medical marijuana becomes increasingly popular nationwide.

New Jersey, Iowa, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Colorado, Washington, D.C., and some California municipalities have called about New Mexico’s law, Health Department spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer said. They have been asking how the state manages producers and how it’s kept some control over legal pot while avoiding problems with federal agencies, since marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

New Jersey and Rhode Island have laws that are closer to New Mexico’s system than California’s much more freewheeling one.

New Mexico passed its medical marijuana law in 2007 with a groundbreaking provision to license production and distribution.

The Health Department spent more than a year crafting regulations, electing to go with a state-licensed system of nonprofits that places strict restrictions on how much pot they can grow.

Patients can get licenses to grow their own, but most turn to the state-sanctioned growers. The first producer wasn’t approved until March 2009. The health Department OK’d four more in November, then six more last week. It takes five to six months for a grower to ramp up to production.

In the meantime, patient rolls have grown to about 2,000. New Mexico approved 200 patients in the program’s first year; now it’s approving about 200 a month.

While Love praised the approval of the new producers, he said New Mexico still will have only about half the supply it needs for current patients. He claims the state needs at least 10 more producers by the end of the year to keep up.

FROM ANOTHER VIEW: Medical marijuana should be legalized
Photos
Grizzoffi.Victoria.jpg
Joe Tamborello / The Journal-Standard
Victoria Grizzoffi, Democratic candidate for 89th district state representative.

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By Victoria F. Grizzoffi
The Journal-Standard
Posted Jul 16, 2010 @ 05:34 PM
Last update Jul 16, 2010 @ 05:35 PM
State of Illinois —

I’m glad to read that I’m in such good company with so many optimists.

I have my ups and downs just like everyone else. If I can’t solve a problem myself I reach out to others and work together to find the best solutions.

I would support Senate Bill 1381. If a terminally ill person can benefit from marijuana, I don’t see why not. It must be regulated and under the strict guidelines from a physician. I have personally experienced the death of family members from cancer and frankly, there comes a point where there isn’t anything you wouldn’t do to make a loved one as comfortable as possible.

There are also situations where marijuana helps a person receiving treatments cope with the side effects better. I would trust marijuana before the countless synthetic drugs that come and go off the market. They advertise drugs on T.V. and the side effects are worse than the ailment you have. We’ve all heard them, “may cause death.”

Marijuana has been around forever and demonized. I have never seen or heard of anyone turn into the crazed maniac portrayed in the 1936 movie Reefer Madness. That was pure Hollywood, before my time, and I have seen the movie.

If anything is a “gateway” drug it starts with cigarettes and alcohol. Yet there are many people who smoke and drink and are not criminals and addicts. And just like cigarettes, alcohol, prescription drugs, weapons and even a driver’s license, comes personal responsibility.

Once again I must stress here that it must be regulated and a person must have a prescription just like any other narcotic. I am not endorsing or condoning general use and a free for all.

I see regulating it to be the biggest obstacle because here comes the patent wars. The drug companies will worry because this is something that can be grown by anyone. And the problem always is, money and greed.

There is also industrial hemp used for rope, clothing, oils and many other uses that has less than 1 percent THC levels in it. During WWII our country grew hemp to help the war effort. Farmers in North Dakota are fighting to change legislation so they can grow it. Imagine the entrepreneurism, economic growth, and revenue that could be generated by a new textile industry. I know there is space available at Mill Race.

NEW YORK – An emergency medical technician accused of refusing to help a dying pregnant woman while on his coffee break has been shot and killed near a New York City nightclub.
Police say Jason Green was shot in the face near Manhattan’s Greenhouse club Sunday morning. Green was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. There have been no arrests.
Green and fellow EMT Melisa Jackson had been under criminal investigation for their handling of a distressed woman at a Brooklyn bakery Dec. 9. They were in line at the bakery when 25-year-old Eutisha Rennix collapsed.
Witnesses say the EMTs told workers to call 911 and left without helping the six-months-pregnant woman, whose prematurely born baby also died.
Green and Jackson insisted they tried to get help. They were suspended without pay.

Just posted new videos of axe murder boyz menace 2 sobriety and kronic sin

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration last week raided the Covelo home of the county’s first applicant for a 99-plant exemption under the county’s newly revised medical marijuana cultivation code.

“I don’t know why this came up on the DEA’s radar,” Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said, adding that none of the other approximately 10 applicants had been raided by the DEA.

“I’m sure when the case is unsealed by the judge we’ll know a whole lot more,” Allman said.

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors finalized changes in the county’s ordinance governing the cultivation of medical marijuana earlier this year – codified as section 9.31 of the county code. Among the changes is an exemption to the county’s 25-plants-per-parcel rule for cooperatives that apply for a permit with the Sheriff’s Office.

The changes were effective in May, and the county adopted permit and garden inspection fees June 22. The permit requires applicants to buy a zip tie for each of their plants from the Sheriff’s Office, which are intended to signify that the plants were inspected for compliance with state and local law.

The woman, identified as Joy Greenfield of the Chicken Ridge area, had purchased 25 zip ties from the Mendocino

County Sheriff’s Office and was in the process of buying 74 more, according to Allman, for a total of 99 plants. Her marijuana garden had passed an initial inspection, he said, but she hadn’t yet received her permit.

Greenfield posted a notice in her driveway stating she was in the process of getting the permit, about 200 yards from her garden. An MCSO officer who accompanied DEA agents said Greenfield was asked to move her sign closer to her garden.

The MCSO officer who accompanied DEA agents on the raid knew they were going to the property of a woman who had applied for the exemption, Allman said.

“The DEA knows the Board of Supervisors passed the 9.31 exemption,” Allman said, adding, “That doesn’t mean you’re exempt if you’re in violation of federal law.”

The investigation is ongoing, Allman said, adding that he couldn’t comment further because he didn’t know much about it.

“Her application wasn’t shown to anybody from the federal government,” he said, noting the raid didn’t have as negative an effect on the numbers of people applying for the exemption as he had thought it would.

Since the fees were adopted in late June, Allman noted, about 10 co-ops have applied for the permits. The Sheriff’s Office has sold $30,000 worth of zip ties since January.

Source http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_15530520

Recent DEA raids in California are once again raising questions about the Obama Administration’s commitment to respecting state laws:

San Diego, CA — Federal agents raided at least three San Diego-area medical marijuana dispensaries [Friday] in the early morning hours. Sources say that Green Kross, Unified Collective and Kush Lounge were all served federal search warrants and were subjected to aggressive SWAT-style raids which resulted in the arrest of as many as 12 people and the seizure of money, medical marijuana and patient records. These raids come as the City of San Diego is deliberating an ordinance to regulate the local distribution of medical marijuana. [Americans for Safe Access]

It’s possible, of course, that there were violations of state law taking place here, in which case the DEA’s involvement would be consistent with Obama’s policy. But it remains unclear why California police would need federal assistance enforcing their own laws. The cynical interpretation would be that the tendency of local juries to acquit medical marijuana defendants has led San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to have the feds do her dirty work.

Meanwhile in Mendocino:

A marijuana activist group on Friday protested a federal law enforcement raid on a Mendocino County pot farm, saying it was protected by the county’s new medical marijuana cultivation ordinance.
…
The Covelo farm owned by Joy Greenfield, 68, was registered with Mendocino County authorities under an ordinance that allows medical marijuana collectives to grow up to 99 plants.
…
Federal agents removed 99 plants and took a computer and cash, the group said. Greenfield wasn’t there at the time.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman confirmed Friday that the property owner had the proper paperwork and the marijuana was legal in the eyes of the county. [Press Democrat]

Once again, there could be more to the story, but it sure sounds like classic DEA craziness. The grower’s relationship with local law-enforcement casts doubt on the possibility of impropriety, so we’re left wondering what the hell is going on here.

Events like these are inevitable under a vague federal policy left to the whims of the DEA’s bullying cowboy mentality. Only a change in federal law will bring an end to this, but for the time being, the Obama Administration would do well to eliminate all apparent departures from the well-received hands-off approach they’ve promised the American people. I don’t see what’s so hard about that. If circumstances emerge that absolutely necessitate DEA activity involving medical marijuana, then it shouldn’t be too hard to provide an explanation for why federal resources were needed. That’s the very least you can do.

Obama’s pledge to respect medical marijuana laws enjoys broader public support than almost anything else he’s done since taking office. Screwing that up would be stupid, cruel and pointless.

Source: http://www.stopthedrugwar.com/chronicle_blog/2010/jul/12/medical_marijuana_raids_continue

An Orange County Superior Court judge has firmed up her tentative ruling throwing out a woman’s case against Dana Point in which Malinda Traudt sought to prevent the city from closing Beach Cities Collective, a pot dispensary that her family says is her lifeline.

Her attorney has promised an appeal. Traudt, 29, of San Clemente, who was born with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and blindness, had sued Dana Point in May to keep open the dispensary from which her family obtains marijuana to manage her pain.

Traudt claimed in legal documents that the city’s ban unconstitutionally interferes with her fundamental rights to life and safety, under the California Constitution.

In her ruling, Orange County Superior Court Judge Nomoto Schumann cited cases and said that:

•There is no constitutional right to obtain medical marijuana.

•The Compassionate Use Act and the Medical Marijuana Program Act do not preempt the city’s ability to regulate or ban medical marijuana collectives or dispensaries.

•There is no authority that a patient has a fundamental constitutional right to obtain any particular controlled substance.

The Compassionate Use Act, also known as Proposition 215, which was approved by voters in 1996, allows for the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Patients can legally use marijuana with permission from doctors under that law. However, federal law still forbids marijuana possession in most cases, which officials and lawyers say creates conflicts.
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/news/marijuana-257658-use-dana.html

A poll released Wednesday by the Cornell University Survey Research Institute found that nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers favor legalizing marijuana for medical use.

A higher percentage of upstate residents support it than people who live downstate (which includes New York City, the northern suburbs and Long Island) — 67 percent versus 62 percent.

“It pretty much said what we’ve seen in polls across the state and across the country for many years, which is that people strongly support medical marijuana,” said Vince Marrone, a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project, which favors the legalization of medical marijuana.

There is a marked difference in attitude between Democrats and unaffiliated voters on one side and Republicans on the other, according to the poll. Sixty-six percent of Democrats and 68 percent of unaffiliated voters support legalization for medical use, while a plurality of Republicans — 48 percent — said they are against it.

Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long said there is no evidence that marijuana helps with any medical conditions, and the party opposes legalization for medical use.

“There have been some leaders who … have pushed to have us change our position, but the majority of the leadership rejects the thought process that in some way shape or form it helps people,” he said.

The poll found that 79 percent of people who consider themselves ideologically liberal support medical marijuana, compared to 63 percent for self-identified moderates and 49 percent for conservatives.

More men are in favor of medical marijuana than women — 67 percent versus 61 percent, the poll said. The higher the household income, the more likely the support for legalization — 53 percent for people with household incomes below $30,000 compared to 73 percent for those with incomes of $100,000 or more, the Survey Research Institute said.

The 2010 Empire State Poll surveyed New Yorkers on a number of issues facing their community and the state. More than 800 telephone interviews were conducted in February and March.

Legislation to legalize medical marijuana didn’t get through the Senate or Assembly this year. It would have allowed patients registered with the state Department of Health to have up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana on hand at any one time. It could not be smoked in public places. The state would register organizations that would acquire, manufacture, sell, deliver, transport and distribute marijuana for medical use.

Bills on the topic have been introduced for more than a dozen years. The Assembly has passed legislation twice before. Neither house brought the bill to the floor for a vote this year.

“We don’t consider it over with yet,” Marrone said. “There’s still a lot of interest in both houses and the governor’s office to do this.”

Fourteen other states allow the use of marijuana for patients who have serious or life-threatening medical conditions, such as HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Users have said it relieves nausea and reduces chronic pain and muscle spasms.

Cornell’s Survey Research Institute has been conducting an annual Empire State Poll since 2003. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percent.

In a February Quinnipiac University poll, 71 percent of New York voters said legalizing marijuana for medical use was a good idea and 25 percent said it was not. The political breakdown of those supporting it was 78 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of independents.

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20100714/NEWS01/7140361/Poll-Medical-marijuana-gets-strong-support-upstate

Berkeley’s City Council last night approved the wording for a November ballot measure that would amend the city’s ordinance regulating medical marijuana. The amendments would increase the number of licensed dispensaries in Berkeley from three to four, allow six non-dispensing locations for cultivation in the manufacturing district and change the status of the Medical Marijuana Commission to that of an ordinary city commission, rather than an autonomous one. Before last night’s meeting, the proposal was to allow 10 non-dispensing locations, not six.

In addition, the proposal would establish a 2.5% tax on medical marijuana sales. Oakland’s recent tax on dispensaries is expected to generate $1.5 million this year.

The amendments would also restrict dispensaries to locations more than 600 feet from any school, public or private. That provision eliminates a loophole that would have allowed dispensaries to locate next to private schools. Another provision in the ballot measure restricts residential cultivation of medical marijuana to no more than 200 sq. ft.

Mayor Tom Bates said at the meeting that he thought “going slow” in changes to regulation was the right approach for the city, since it is at an early stage of learning about the medical cannabis industry.

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