Quote appears in Michigan Radio article; controversial Senator has history of rough treatment of medical marijuana patients
Editorial disclosure: Rick Thompson is on the Boards of the MILegalize and Michgan NORML organizations, which are mentioned, and delivered testimony opposed to the bill detailed below on two different occasions. ~RT
photo caption: Senator Rick Jones with a brick, symbolizing his understanding of the marijuana issue, which is tilted to show all the holes in it.
by Rick Thompson/January 6, 2017
LANSING– A Michigan state Senator with a bad reputation for rough treatment of medical marijuana patients in Committee sessions has expressed an opinion which raises the hackles of advocates.
At issue is an interview Senator Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) gave to Michigan Radio, published on January 5th. The article’s main focus is the progress of a bill sponsored by the Senator which allows landlords to ban the vast majority of medical marijuana use from their properties, universally viewed as an anti-patient piece of legislation. The new law could impact more than 80,000 registered medical marijuana patients who rent (see below).
The bill was passed by the Michigan legislature late in 2016 and is one of a handful of bills still awaiting Governor Rick Snyder’s signature.
The quote from Michigan Radio reads:
Bill sponsor Republican Senator Rick Jones said the legislation protects fellow tenants and landlords from smoke and damage to buildings.
“No one needs to use medical marijuana in a smoking form,” he said. “If they have a prescription, they can use it in many other ways – edibles, creams, oils, and even vaporizers.”
Senator Jones originally introduced the bill during the 2013-14 legislative session and was not able to receive the endorsement of the full House. He re-introduced it in early 2015 and was barely able to engineer its passage as part of a lame-duck session at the end of 2016. The Senator is a former Sheriff from Eaton County, Michigan.
In 2008, 63% of Michigan voters approved the medical marijuana act. At that time the general public recognized two ways to use cannabis- smoking and eating- of which, smoking was the predominant method of use. The voters clearly endorsed the smoking of cannabis. The disdain expressed by the Senator for the medicinal use of cannabis has caused many Michigan notables to raise a red flag.
The law allowing landlords to remove any poor-behaving tenant “already existed and if it’s a private entity the use of this legislation is really unnecessary,” said criminal defense attorney Michael Komorn, whose statement was also included in the Michigan Radio article.
“Trusted advice on medical marijuana should come from doctors, not politicians,” former state House Representative Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, told The Social Revolution.
Mary Chartier, attorney with the Lansing-area firm of Alane & Chartier, echoed that sentiment. “The way a patient uses medical marijuana should be decided by the patient with guidance from his or her doctor. Medical issues certainly should not be decided by politicians who lack the knowledge to understand the efficacy of the different strains and uses of cannabis. Patients have a fundamental right to make decisions based on their medical needs.”
“Once a sick person finds a method of treatment that provides the most successful results, they have the right to be immune from penalty in any manner under the protections of the MMMA,” said criminal defense attorney David Rudoi.
On the nature of the proposed law, Rudoi said, “A person being kicked out of their home for medical use of marijuana is, no question about it, a penalty for which that person is immune under the act.”
Matthew Abel is the founder of Cannabis Counsel in Detroit, is a lifetime member of the NORML Legal Committee, and is on the Boards of Directors of both MILegalize and the Michigan chapter of NORML (Executive Director). “Senator Jones is overreaching in his desire to regulate the behavior of patients, and is presumptuous in his belief that he is a medical expert. People have been smoking marijuana since prehistoric times and the harmful effects are minuscule compared to the harms caused by prohibition.”
Another Michigan NORML Board member went a little further in his criticism of the Senator’s bill. “While this one-sentence amendment to the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act may seem like a common sense reform that protects property owner rights, it’s practical effect will jeopardize access to housing for over 80,000 registered Michigan patients,” according to Brad Forrester. Forrester is the Membership Director for the Michigan NORML and was the primary author of a letter sent to Vice President-elect Mike Pence seeking clarity on the new administrations’ intent toward cannabis law reform programs in America. That letter was initiated by the Michigan chapter but has received the endorsement of more than 50 NORML chapters nationwide.
Forrester determined the impact of the bill on medical marijuana patients by using the number of registered patients in Michigan (220,000) and the percentage of Michigan residents who rent either a home or an apartment (37%, see SOURCE).
“Landlords should be able to protect their investments, but lease-language should be non-discriminatory towards registered patients and articulate provisions that permit them to cultivate and consume marihuana (sic) in a manner that does not damage the property or adversely effect other tenants,” he added.
The founder of the Marijuana Law Section of the Michigan Bar Association, a group with over 400 members, is Lapeer criminal defense attorney Bernard Jocuns. “This sounds like Senator Jones has a personal bias against smoking medical marijuana and is making broad assumptions regarding effective methods of consumption while in its medical form.” Jocuns sought to correct the Jones statement, saying, “The State of Michigan does not have prescriptions for medical marijuana, doctors recommend” medicinal cannabis for use.
The Senator’s lack of objectivity in matters concerning the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act is well established.
In one session of the House Judiciary Committee, then-Representative Jones forced a medical marijuana patient to surrender the floor after Jones determined that the citizen was under the influence of marijuana. In a session as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Jones had security forces remove a U.S. military veteran from the speaking podium and eject him from the building after he referred to police narcotics raid teams as “jackbooted thugs.”
“For years as both a Representative and Senator, Mr. Jones has attacked cannabis use at every opportunity. This statement shows what his end game was all about, and should bring shame upon those activists who were ‘neutral’ or supported his legislation,” said this author in a recent social media post. Those activists include the former spokesman for the group Michigan Responsibility Council, Tim Beck, who whole-heartedly endorsed the Jones bill during his Senate testimony. His vicious statements regarding registered caregivers brought gasps of surprise from the patients and MMMA participants in the Senate chamber, and were widely criticized by media sources. The MRC sought to impose a Responsible Ohio-style exclusive licensing agreement for ten wealthy businessmen to grow all the cannabis for the Michigan program, but were discouraged from launching their petition drive by the success of the MILegalize ballot proposal.
During a recent public meeting in Ann Arbor, the Marijuana Policy Project and Mr. Beck seemed to be teamed up in their effort to create a ballot proposal for legalization of the adult use of cannabis in Michigan. Also apparently on the MPP team: Robin Schneider, now the Executive Director of the NPRA, a medical marijuana trade organization which was officially ‘Neutral’ on the bill and offered no opposition to the proposal during Senate testimony.
Dear Mr Know it all,
I have Meleanoma. Last stage. I have successfully used medical marijuana, the Cannabis plant, SOLELY, to reverse it.
It is in my mouth and sinus cavities, even my ears!
So long story short I NEED TO VAPORIZE/
SMOKE MARIJUANA THREE TIMES A DAY FOR THE VOMITTING INTRINSIC TO THE DISEASE.
Get a clue. READ ! Study your topic before you fuck us over yet again.
ps The disease I have fought since I was 19. It’s horribly painful and you end up going piece by piece.
Offering us a little pain free time on earth is it too much for your ignorant ass?
I AM ILLEGALLY ALIVE BECAUSE I SMOKE MARIJUANA! DO YOU KNOW HOW DEMENTED IT IS, you chasing the suffering around to arrest us for seeking peace. Who are you douche bag?
Editor’s Note: this comment was slightly edited before publication