The Romeo Observer - Romeo, Michigan: Northern Macomb County's weekly newspaper since 1866

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CURTIS OSTRANDER	DUAINE HARDING
ELEANOR TODD	ELMER "BUD" HAHN
GERVASE KILEY	MARIAN SUTTON
ORLO KIRKUM	SLAVA KOKOTOVICH
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County prosecutor: Marijuana
laws causing problems

by CHRIS GRAY
Observer Staff Writer

      Members of the Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition learned that new marijuana laws are leading to strains on law enforcement.
       Assistant Prosecutor Bill Dailey of the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office spoke to the coalition about some of the drug use problems he has seen in the county, mainly with medical marijuana.
       He said he is concerned it will be more readily available to students due to people owning medical marijuana cards that grow their own plants.
       "I think there is going to be more marijuana available to our young people and I think that it's because there is now a lawful way for it to be out in the stream of commerce," he said. "The same thing has happened with Vicodin and OxyCotin pills."
       Approved by voters on Nov. 4, 2008, the use of marijuana is legal in certain circumstances in Michigan. According to the state laws, patients suffering from debilitating medical conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Chron's disease and severe and chronic pain are among those who can use medical marijuana.
       Other conditions include cachexia, seizures and persistent muscle spasms that includes the symptoms of multiple sclerosis. To register, patients submit a $100 application or renewal fee, their personal information, their physician's information and written certification that they are qualified.
       If they qualify, they receive a registration card that allows them to possess and use marijuana.
       "Not to offend anybody, (but) in my opinion, it's pretty amorphous criteria to get a card," Dailey said. "There are people I know who have got a card for asthma, which is kind of surprising."
       He said more than half of the calls he receives from officers around the county deal with medical marijuana. He explained that part of the problem stems from the state's medical marijuana program protecting the confidentiality of patients so closely that law enforcement can only check if a patient or caregiver's registration card is valid.
       "They're not supposed to associate a name with the number, or a picture or anything else, they're allowed to know that number 123456 is a valid issued number from the state of Michigan, period," he said. "That's not to say that three districts over some guy is cranking out cards with that number on it."
       Another issue he said his offices deal with is when suspects apply for a card after they are being prosecuted.
       "We are spending a lot of time, in my opinion, trying to battle the enforcement of marijuana laws right now," he said. "I'm sure there were some good ideas behind the people who proposed the law, but it's causing a problem and it's taking our law enforcement's time."
       He said that the offices don't want to bug people who are lawfully following the program. He said that part of him wonders why the state didn't just totally legalize it so there could be quality control and regulation instead of the current "middle ground."
       "The enforcement of the law is not very good, and I think honestly it's going to start causing people who have real medical concerns to start to have the police knocking on their door and they probably shouldn't be," he said.
       One of the other problems that he said seems to be popping up is steroid cases. He said he has handled a number of cases where large quantities of steroids are being seized.
       "I really don't think that the dealers that I'm currently prosecuting have scruples enough to say `let's see your I.D., are you old enough to be doing this?'" he said. "Maybe we just got lucky and have stumbled onto a few big cases, I don't know, but I'll know more as time progresses."