Michigan Medical Marijuana AD Defense Law,

Benefit of Participation in the Formal Registry: A registered “Qualifying Patient”, and a designated “Primary Caregiver”, who have in their possession Registry ID Cards, enjoy rebuttable presumptions of legitimacy. This creates a prophylactic immunity from arrest.

Amount: A registered “Qualifying Patient” may possess 2.5 oz. of marijuana for medical use, and can cultivate 12 plants (kept in a locked facility) unless a “primary caregiver” has been designated. The law specifically bars arrest, prosecution, criminal or civil penalty, disciplinary action, and bars seizure or forfeiture of medical use marijuana. “Usable marihuana” means the dried leaves and flowers of the marihuana plant, and any mixture or preparation thereof, but does not include the seeds, stalks, and roots of the plant. The affirmative defense does not specify the amounts; the standard is “not more than was reasonably necessary to ensure the uninterrupted availability of marihuana for the purpose of treating or alleviating the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition.”

Enclosed, Locked Facility means a closet, room, or other enclosed area equipped with locks or other security devices that permit access only by a registered primary caregiver or registered qualifying patient.

Legal Protections for Bystanders, Pariphinalia Providers, and Unregistered People: bystanders merely in the presence or vicinity of the medical use of marijuana in accordance with the Act, or unregistered persons assisting a registered qualifying patient with using or administering marijuana, and suppliers of paraphernalia are legally protected under state law too. “A person shall not be subject to arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner, or denied any right or privilege, including but not limited to civil penalty or disciplinary action by a business or occupational or professional licensing board or bureau, solely for being in the presence or vicinity of the medical use of marihuana in accordance with this act, or for assisting a registered qualifying patient with using or administering marihuana.”

“Medical use” means the acquisition, possession, cultivation, manufacture, use, internal possession, delivery, transfer, or transportation of marihuana or paraphernalia relating to the administration of marihuana to treat or alleviate a registered qualifying patient’s debilitating medical condition or symptoms associated with the debilitating medical condition.

Medical Purpose Affirmative Defense: A stand alone “Medical Purpose Affirmative Defense” is established by the Act. It protects patients and primary caregivers, even if they do not have Registry ID Cards. Defendants facing charges may successfully assert this defense if a licensed physician has stated, in this professional opinion, after complete assessment of medical history and current medical condition, that the patient has a serious or debilitating medical condition, and is the patient likely to receive therapeutic benefit by using marijuana to treat or alleviate that condition or its symptoms. This absolute legal defense is very robust, not overly difficult to prove for legitimate medical use, and mandatory on the court.

How to Assert the Affirmative Defense: It is fully explained in “The Essentials of the Affirmative Defense”, which is available, along with a model Motion to Dismiss and Affidavit in Support at the Free Form Bank. This umbrella Affirmative Defense is the key to the Act. Using this defense, the specific limits give way to a reasonableness standard; not more than is reasonably necessary to ensure the uninterrupted availability of marijuana for the purpose of treating or alleviating the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition.

Other Michigan Laws: All other acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act do not apply to the medical use of marijuana as provided for by this act. This protects driver’s, not under the influence, from Michigan’s OWI law (MCL 257.645), which makes it a crime for drivers to have any amount of a controlled substance in their body, even if it has been weeks or months since they used marijuana.

Parental Rights Protected. A person shall not be denied custody or visitation of a minor for acting in accordance with this act, unless the person’s behavior is such that it creates an unreasonable danger to the minor that can be clearly articulated and substantiated.

Disqualifying Factors: Disqualifying Factors that preclude protections under the Act Smoking marijuana “in any public place”; Smoking marijuana on any form of public transportation; Any use by a person who has no serious or debilitating medical condition; Any conduct where being under the influence would constitute negligence or professional malpractice per se; Operating, navigating, or being in actual physical control of any motor vehicle, aircraft, or motorboat while under the influence of marihuana. Any use or possession in a school bus; Any use or possession on the grounds of any preschool, primary, or secondary school; Any use or possession in any correctional facility.

Formal Medical Certifications ( Registry ID Card Program): Under the Act, Doctors are able to certify qualifying patients for an expansive list of specified debilitating medical conditions, plus any other “chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces…” symptoms or side effects like appetite loss, severe and chronic pain; severe nausea, seizures, severe and persistent spasms.

Medical Statements (Affirmative defense): Doctors can also make statements (written or oral) that support asserting the Affirmative Defense for an unlimited number of other serious for debilitating medical conditions. The Affirmative Defense applies so long as a physician has stated that, in the physician’s professional opinion, after having completed a full assessment of the patient’s medical history and current medical condition made in the course of a bona fide physician-patient relationship, the patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative benefit from the medical use of marihuana to treat or alleviate the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or its symptoms.

Specific Medical Conditions that qualify for formal certification. List of Some Debilitating Medical Conditions Specified in the Statute:

• Cancer
• Glaucoma
• Positive HIV
• AIDS
• Hepatitis C
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS is Lou Gehrig’s Disease)
• Crohn’s disease
• Agitation of Alzheimer’s disease
• Nail patella

Other General Covered Conditions that qualify for formal certification. Any chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces 1 or more of the following:

• cachexia or wasting syndrome;
• severe and chronic pain;
• severe nausea;
• seizures, including but not limited to those characteristic of epilepsy; or
• severe and persistent muscle spasms, including but not limited to those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.

Here is a list of some specific conditions that may already qualify for the Affirmative Defense with a medical opinion, but are not yet specifically part of the formal certification list. The department shall accept a written petition from any person requesting that a particular medical condition or treatment be included in the list of debilitating medical conditions. Sample Petition Here

Amotivational Syndrome, Achalasia, Acute Porphyria, Aggressive-Destructive Behavior, Amputation, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Anxiety Attacks, Aseptic Necrosis, Asthma, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Adhd), Back Pain, Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, Brain Surgery (Post), Burn Injury, Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, Colitis, Common Cold, Congestive Heart Failure, Constipation, Crohn’s Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Degenerative Disc Disease, Dementia, Diabetes, Diabetic Gastroparesis, Dysmenorrhea, Endometriosis, Familial Spastic Paraplegia, Fibromyalgia, Frontal Lobe Epilepsy, Gastroesophogeal Reflux Disease (Same As Diabetic Gastroparesis), Gout, Grand Mal Seizures, Gynecomastia, Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy, Herpes, High Blood Pressure, Horton’s Syndrome (Cluster Headache), Hyperemesis Gravidaru, Hypertension, Insomnia, Intractable Hiccoughs, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Joint Pain, Labor Discomfort, Lewy Body Disease, Lyme Disease, Lung Cancer, Menière’s Syndrome, Meningitis, Menorrhagia (Excessive Menstrual Bleeding), Migraine, general Muscle Spasm, Myasthenia Gravis, Myofascial Pain Syndrome, Narcolepsy, geneal Nausea, (Erythema) Nodosum, Neurofibromatosis Nystagmus, Optic Nerve Atrophy, Orthostatic Hypotension, Osteoarthritis, Paget’s Disease, Panic Disorder, Paraplegia, Peripheral Neuropathy, Phantom Pain, Polycystic Kidney Disease, Post-Polio Syndrome, Post-Traumatic Convulsive Disorder, Post-Traumatic Neuromuscular Symptoms, Post-Traumatic Spasms And Pain, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd), Pregnancy, Premenstrual Syndrome (Pms), Primary Sclerosing Cholangiitis (Psc), Pseudotumor Cerebri, Psoriasis, Quadriplegia, Raynaud’s Phenomenon, Restless Legs Syndrome, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ruptured Disc Pain, Sexual Disability, Spastic Paraplegia, Spasticity, (Dyspepsia) Stomach Discomfort, Stuttering, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Sle), Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, Esophageal Spasms, Tinnitus, Tourette’s Syndrome, Transverse Myelitis, Trigeminal Neuralgia, Ulcerative Colitis, Von Hippel-Landau Syndrome, Morbid Obesity, Wyburn-Mason Syndrome

Get up to date Medical Information about any condition: Enter name of condition in this Search Engine

Elements of the Affirmative Defense: Disqualifications: Section 8(a) provides that the defendant cannot assert the affirmative defense if possessing or engaging in the use of marijuana was in violation of Section 7(b) of the Act.

1. The Physician’s Statement [Section 8(a)1]:

• A physician (Licensed MD or Osteopath)has stated that
• in the physician’s professional opinion
• after having completed a full assessment of the patient’s medical history and patient’s current medical condition
• which assessment was made in the course of a bona fide physician-patient relationship
• that the patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative benefit
• from the medical use of marihuana
• to treat or alleviate the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition

2. The Reasonably Necessary Quantity [Section 8(a)2]: The patient and the patient’s primary caregiver, if any, were collectively

• in possession of a quantity of marihuana that was
• not more than was reasonably necessary
• to ensure the uninterrupted availability of marihuana
• for the purpose of treating or alleviating the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition

3. The Medical Purpose [Section 8(a)3]: The patient and the patient’s primary caregiver, if any,

• were engaged in the
• acquisition, possession, cultivation, manufacture, use, delivery, transfer, or transportation of marihuana or paraphernalia relating to the use of marihuana
• to treat or alleviate the patient’s to treat or alleviate the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition.

Disqualifications: Section 7(b) lists certain disqualifying criteria that apply to the Section 8 affirmative defense and to the Act’s other more prophylactic immunities for registry participants. The defense may not be asserted for any of the following:

• Smoking marijuana “in any public place”;
• Smoking marijuana on any form of public transportation;
• Any use by a person who has no serious or debilitating medical condition;
• Any conduct where being under the influence would constitute negligence or professional malpractice per se;
• Operating, navigating, or being in actual physical control of any motor vehicle, aircraft, or motorboat while under the influence of marihuana.
• Any use or possession in a school bus;
• Any use or possession on the grounds of any preschool, primary, or secondary school;
• Any use or possession in any correctional facility;

 

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