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Medical Marijuana News Update
The Coalition
for Medical Marijuana includes:
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An initiative petition to allow patients in need to have access to medical marijuana has been approved for circulation in the state of Michigan. The Lansing State Journal reported on June 7, 2007 ("Medical Marijuana Petition Approved") that "An effort to legalize marijuana for medical use in Michigan cleared a key procedural hurdle Wednesday. A state elections board approved the form of petitions being circulated by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care. The group still needs to collect at least 304,101 valid signatures of Michigan voters within six months to send its issue to state lawmakers. If state lawmakers vote to accept the proposal, it becomes part of Michigan law. If the Legislature doesn't vote on the measure or rejects it, the initiative would appear on the November 2008 ballot." According to the State Journal, "Campaign organizers want to collect about 550,000 signatures to make sure they will have enough valid ones when it comes time to certify their petitions. Michigan law prohibits marijuana use for any reason. But a dozen other states permit medicinal use by patients. Voters in five Michigan cities - Ann Arbor, Detroit, Ferndale, Flint and Traverse City - have passed ballot initiatives allowing for medicinal marijuana use in the past few years. The votes were mostly symbolic, however, since state and federal laws prohibit use of the drug." The State Journal noted that "The statewide Michigan initiative would allow patients to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for relief from pain associated with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other diseases. A doctor's approval or recommendation would be required to use the drug. Registry cards would be created so law enforcement personnel could tell who was a registered patient with the OK to use the drug."
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