JANUARY 2019

It’s legal:
now what?
Measuring the aftermath of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Michigan
BY VANESSA DENHA GARMO
Marijuana is big business and
it was long before the law
passed to legalize it on a
recreational basis. On December 6,
Michigan became a green state, making
it the 10th state in the nation to
legalize marijuana for adult recreational
use. Even before Michigan’s
recreational marijuana law went into
effect, grow houses, dispensaries and
medical marijuana licenses existed.
The law is officially known as the
Michigan Regulation and Taxation
of Marijuana Act.
In 2008, the Michigan Compassionate
Care Initiative, establishing
a medical cannabis program for
serious and terminally ill patients,
was approved by the House but not
acted upon, and defaulted to a public
initiative on the November ballot.
“Prop 1” was approved by 63 percent
of voters, making Michigan the 13th
state to legalize medical cannabis.
With the passage of proposal 1,
it is not legal for anyone 21 years or
older to grow, consume, and possess
marijuana, but not purchase or sell it;
only those with medical marijuana
cards can buy more.
The same goes for growing. If you
already have plants in your house,
they are legal to grow and harvest
for your own use. But buying marijuana
plants or selling the marijuana
that you grow is still illegal. It seems
confusing and it is to many people
including law enforcement.
So, it’s now legal but what does
that really mean? That depends on
who you ask.
The Legal Perspective
This law was decided by a vote of the
people and right now there is a transitional
period. “The state has one
year to come up with the regulatory
framework for sales of recreational
marijuana,” said Mike M. Bahoura,
principal attorney of Bahoura Law
Group, located in Troy, MI. The firm
practices almost exclusively in cannabis
licensing.
“However, we do know that for
the first two years after the state
begins accepting applications for
recreational sales, only those who
have been approved to sell medicinal
marijuana will be allowed to apply to
sell recreational,” said Bahoura. “In
other words, if you want to sell recreational
marijuana in the next couple
of years, you need to be approved for
medical marijuana sales first.”
Law enforcement would agree
that the law is not yet clear. “We
as police, don’t decide the laws, we
enforce them,” said West Bloomfield
Police Chief Michael Patton.
“Just because it is legal doesn’t mean
someone can walk down the street
on Orchard Lake Road smoking
marijuana. The medical marijuana
law was decided 10 years ago and it
took about ten years for that law to
be tweaked.”
Police officers must look at this
from various angles, including from a
motor vehicle violation perspective.
For example, will impaired driving
be treated similarly to alcohol regulations?
“God bless America for ballot
initiatives but there are issues dangling
and unresolved,” said Patton.
“The ballot initiative says zero tolerance
offense yet we are getting
conflicting reports on what is probable
cause to arrest.”
Police are looking at the need for
a motor vehicle code for marijuana
use. “If this was done at a legislative
level, they would have heard these
issues come up but the legislature
didn’t want to listen and it became
a ballot initiative and now these issues
are coming up after the vote.
We have unanswered questions and
issues in limbo.”
The language on the ballot initiative
is ambiguous and conflicting.
“You can’t consume Marijuana
in public, it reads,” noted the Chief.
“What does consume mean? Does
that including smoking or eating a
brownie with marijuana in it?”
Under the new law, one can carry
up to 2.5 ounces as long as they’re
not at a K-12 school or on federal
property. In your own home, you can
store up to 10 ounces and grow up to
12 plants.
Chief Patton continued pointing
out the confusion with the law and
the issues that are unresolved. “Unless
the legislature weighs in more,
16 CHALDEAN NEWS JANUARY 2019