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Mark Totten Wants To Clarify Medical Marijuana Law, Not Be An Obstacle To It


t-pain

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LANSING, MI -- Tonight, the MLive Media Group editorial board will finish its endorsement interviews for two of the top statewide Democratic candidates in the third Ballot Bash event.

 

Join us at 6:30 p.m. for interviews with U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, and Attorney General candidate Mark Totten. The event will take place at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle, 310 S Troy St, Royal Oak.

as said earlier today in the 'ballot bash' interview with mlive (still live right now)

 

http://www.ustream.tv/MLive-com

to watch it live (it will be available to watch after the event has ended as well).

 

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/10/final_ballot_bash_interviews_t.html

 

 

 

it was a good answer on medical marijuana.

although he said something about children when asked about decriminalization.

 

better than schuette , yay totten!

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his comment was also that schuette had gone on crusades against same-sex partners and that he would follow the law, not his own personal opinion.

 

 

he stressed that he wanted to be an advocate for the people of michigan. not other states.

 

very good answers. i'll have to go back and look at schuettes interview if i can stomach it.

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some examples:

 

1. how much unusable marihuana are you allowed to possess ?

2. are you able to make concentrates

3. are patients allowed in grow rooms with caregivers yes/no ?

4. does the illegal transport law conflict with the MMMA ?

 

cmon kingdiamond, theres plenty of answers that patients have which cannot be answered by lawyers or police.

 

if we had a real attorney general (or supreme court, or legislature) that could write up legal guidelines for patients and caregivers to follow, i'm sure 90% of us would FOLLOW THOSE GUIDELINES.

 

just a simple 'heres what you do when you harvest' 'heres what you dont do when throwing out trash' 'heres how to keep your grow secured' 'yes/no it needs a top or not outdoors' 'heres what to do if your plant produces more usable marihuana than you are allowed to possess'

 

hell even if bill schuette came up with a guide like that i would try to follow most of it.

at least it would be something.

 

maybe he would even make a guide for police huh? 'if they have a card or dr rec, leave them alone' 'no seizing property' 'no cps harassment to mmj patients' etc etc.

 

these are things an atty general can do.

even schuette did the cps one.

http://www.ag.state.mi.us/opinion/datafiles/2010s/op10350.htm

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The attorney general can give his opinion on the law as far as a guideline as you suggest but it wouldn't help anyway. The ag's opinion ain't law. If it was law then we'd need to have a separate locked room for every set of 12 plants cuz that is what schuette said was necessary. A guide for police is useless too because the ag doesn't have authority to tell local police what to do. The locals pretty much follow what their prosecutor says.

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video here: http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/10/ballot_bash_watch_full_video_i_1.html

heres a rough transcript i made from the video.

 

it should be accurate , but there maybe some errors.

i use harddiskogg program to record the audio to mp3, and then videolan.org player that can play the audio in half speed so i can fully hear what people have said. people talk ab about 500wpm and pro typers can do 100-150 wpm.

 

the quoted bits are the interviewer, the rest is totten.

 

so a number of cities have actually decriminalized possession of marijuana

would you support the state of michigan doing the same thing?

let me start by talking about what we already have

so back a few years ago the voters passed a mmj law, 63 % of voters said they wanted a safe and effective medical marijuana system

now i talked with prosecutors all across the state and they are frustrated by the law

they are frusted with the law because there are a lot of ambiguities with the law.

and many of them just dont know what to do in certain situations.

 

unfortunately , i think that my opponent in many times has been a stumbling block to that law, hes tried to be an obstacle to the law.

at one point he argued that that michigan law violated the federal constitution because the state had to make mmj illegal because the federal law required it

thats a bogus argument that lost in every court that it was presented to.

 

i want to be a problem solver, i want to try to clarify that law

give the certainty , the clarity that law enforcement needs to create what the voters wanted

which is a safe and effective medical marijuana system.

 

beyond that you've asked about decriminalization.

 

my number one priority is to make sure that our families and especially our children are kept safe

there are a few states right now, 2 in particular that have decrim across the state

i'm certainly open to watching what happens in those states

i want to always make deicions based on the best data research that is available

but i certainly dont see at this point in time that thats the right direction to go

 

i mentored a kid for several years who grew up with all kinds of strikes against him

i took him hiking, i took him to church with me on sundays, he helped us do some rennovation on the house

and when he got to high school, after i had been with him for about 4 years

he started getting involved with marijuana, and it was just like i lost him

i mean he just wasnt focused on school,

 

i want to be especially focused on making sure that we keep marijuana out of the hands of our kids

as for decrim , not now but obviously with any decision i'm going to look at the best data and research thats available

we have a couple states that will give us the data that we need.

 

to clarify, this is something you'll want to continue studying? is that where you are at right now ?

i do not support decriminalization at this point

i think with anything, with any area of public policy, you want to look at the best data and research thats available.

and see whats happening.

 

co and wa that have made significant changes, i think we can wait and watch and see what happens there

and if there are results i'll want to look into them and see where that data leads.

 

but we dont at all have that data at all right now

Edited by t-pain
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The attorney general can give his opinion on the law as far as a guideline as you suggest but it wouldn't help anyway. The ag's opinion ain't law. If it was law then we'd need to have a separate locked room for every set of 12 plants cuz that is what schuette said was necessary. A guide for police is useless too because the ag doesn't have authority to tell local police what to do. The locals pretty much follow what their prosecutor says.

so your argument is that it doesnt matter who is atty general because thier opinions arent law?

 

The ag's opinion ain't law. If it was law then we'd need to have a separate locked room for every set of 12 plants cuz that is what schuette said was necessary.

keeping plants in 12 plant cages would have kept bylsma and redden out of court. so maybe is good idea yes/no ?

 

A guide for police is useless too because the ag doesn't have authority to tell local police what to do. The locals pretty much follow what their prosecutor says.

what? MSP legal updates are very similar to the atty general opinions. although they are independent.

Michigan State Police Legal Updates

The MSP Legal Update is published as needed by the Office of the Director. The Legal Update is intended to inform Michigan's police officers of recent changes in the law. Although the information provided in the Legal Update is current as of the date of publication, case law, statutes, and opinions change frequently. Therefore, officers should always consult their local prosecutor's office before applying any information found in the Update.

http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123-1645_4607_57129---,00.html

or are you are ignoring MSP and only talking about locals here?

 

local prosecutors ... they follow the attorney general! thats what the name attorney general actually means. the big kahuna of prosecutors.

 

 

Search and Seizure: A police officer may frisk a suspect only if there is reasonable suspicion to believe the suspect is armed and dangerous.

whoa... no stop and frisk right there ?? :)

Edited by t-pain
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so your argument is that it doesnt matter who is atty general because thier opinions arent law?

 

 

keeping plants in 12 plant cages would have kept bylsma and redden out of court. so maybe is good idea yes/no ? i agree but it was not Law at the time 2009

 

 

what? MSP legal updates are very similar to the atty general opinions. although they are independent.

http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123-1645_4607_57129---,00.html

or are you are ignoring MSP and only talking about locals here?

 

local prosecutors ... they follow the attorney general! thats what the name attorney general actually means. the big kahuna of prosecutors.

 

 

 

whoa... no stop and frisk right there ?? :)

 

 

keeping plants in 12 plant cages would have kept bylsma and redden out of court. so maybe is good idea yes/no ? 

Edited by bobandtorey
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5104 edibles bill changes the MMMA law.

 

you maybe thinking of 4271 (dispensary bill) , which maybe a law in itself if passed.

no one knows what it will look like after it passes the senate (if that ever happens).

 

but bob, thats an excellent question. i dont think anyone is monitoring if 4271 isnt a law in itself it could be unconstitutional and thus worthless.... it better have that 'all other laws except the mmma are inconsistent' part or else.

Edited by t-pain
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so your argument is that it doesnt matter who is atty general because thier opinions arent law?

 

 

keeping plants in 12 plant cages would have kept bylsma and redden out of court. so maybe is good idea yes/no ?

 

 

what? MSP legal updates are very similar to the atty general opinions. although they are independent.

http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,1607,7-123-1645_4607_57129---,00.html

or are you are ignoring MSP and only talking about locals here?

 

local prosecutors ... they follow the attorney general! thats what the name attorney general actually means. the big kahuna of prosecutors.

 

 

 

whoa... no stop and frisk right there ?? :)

If local prosecutors followed the AG then you'd see people being prosecuted for not having each of their patients' plants in separate rooms. Local prosecutors aren't bound by the AG's opinion and they know that. They develop their own policy on who to prosecute. That's their job. Some prosecutor's policy may reflect some of the AG's opinion on things but is that because of the AG or is that because they hold similar opinions? If it was because of the AG then why don't we see prosecutions for unseparated plants?

 

Did I say the AG's opinion doesn't matter or did I say him issuing guidelines wouldn't help? He already issued an opinion that says each of a cg's patient's 12 plants need a separate room. Does the MSP update reflect his opinion? That opinion is a guideline, ain't it?

 

The problem with AG guidelines is that they aren't law and they aren't binding on local prosecutors or courts. So they would give a grower a false sense of security. An AG is important because of his influence on state law and because of any cases he will prosecute not because of cases that local prosecutors prosecute. Your honor I followed the AG's guidelines ain't gonna cut it bro. Only thing that will cut it is your honor I followed the law. We already got enough people out there confused on how to operate and stay safe that we don't need them thinking that if they follow an AG opinion that they are rock solid. What if we got Totten in there and he said dispensaries are okay? So then a bunch of people reopen and then get prosecuted by local prosecutors? That ain't cool. Like I said the AG is important but an AG issuing guidelines beyond an official AG opinion is dumb. At least as far as gray areas of the law is concerned.

 

Your comparison to redden and bylsma is stupid. Bylsma was a collective and redden had plants commingled with another patient or cg. That ain't anything close to the same as a single cg having to have separate rooms for each of his pt's plants. So they both were separate cgs or pts commingling plants it wasn't one cg commingling his own pts' plants. Their issues were shared access issues. In theory a cg with 5 pts is still the only one with access. Access ain't shared bro. You're comparing apples to pineapples.

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An AG creates priorities. An AG chooses whether to put the full force of the State into prosecutions, submit opinions and finance cases counties and municipalities cannot afford to nor have the resources or expertise for.

 

An AG influences the Prosecutors Attorneys Association of Michigan.  The AG influences the marihuana panel within PAAM.  The AG influences legislation and requests bills, amendments and general direction of Law enforcement oriented legislation. 

 

 If you do not think that the AG makes a difference in our current situation as a community,... you are either blind, dumb or purposefully ignorant.

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An AG creates priorities. An AG chooses whether to put the full force of the State into prosecutions, submit opinions and finance cases counties and municipalities cannot afford to nor have the resources or expertise for.

 

An AG influences the Prosecutors Attorneys Association of Michigan.  The AG influences the marihuana panel within PAAM.  The AG influences legislation and requests bills, amendments and general direction of Law enforcement oriented legislation. 

 

 If you do not think that the AG makes a difference in our current situation as a community,... you are either blind, dumb or purposefully ignorant.

Yeah no kidding there's a lot they do which is why I started the thread on voting for Totten. I was pointing out stuff they don't do and how much weight their opinions have in cases prosecuted at the county level.

 

Have you seen the AG pick up a case from a county on medical marijuana because the county wouldn't prosecute? None I know of. Have you seen the AG prosecute a case on separate rooms for each pt's plants? No. And it's a no even though the AG says you need separate rooms for each set of 12 plants.

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the case law invalidated schutte's crap opinion, thats why you dont see cg's prosecuted for the 12 plants seperated thing.

 

yes schuette is wrong on that issue, but if bylsma (and his cg friends) followed schuette's crap opinion, bylsma wouldnt be at a sec8 in possession of 88 plants, he would have been protected by sec4!!!

 

which is why i said an atty general's opinion on the law, while it ISNT THE LAW, is still useful as a guideline. not a guideline for prosecutors, but a guideline for patients.

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