A Response to Saginaw City Attorney Thomas Fancher

Recently I received this letter pertaining to Saginaw City Attorney Thomas Fancher's claims that the Michigan Medical Marijuana Law is 'sloppily written'.  The points made by the author are well taken, as in truth, the law is concise, clean, and quite clearly written:

Editor,

In regard to his recent comments made in the print media, Saginaw City Attorney Thomas Fancher parrots the same canned narrative we’ve regularly seen reported: that the new medical marijuana law is “sloppily written.”  However, you’ll notice that Fancher, like many others, isn’t inclined to elaborate on the particulars of this so-called sloppiness simply because it’s a fallacy.  Contrast that with a recent Mt. Pleasant media report where Attorney Andria M. Ditschman of the Lansing-based Hubbard Law Firm, whom they referred to as “an expert on local regulation of medical marijuana-related businesses,” was quoted as saying, "It [the law] isn't written poorly. It's actually very cleverly written."

 It’s often been suggested that the Legislature needs to “clean up” the medical marijuana law, as if to imply that our state Legislature has a track record of error-free work, that hasn’t been necessarily modified or challenged in court.  That too is a falsehood.
 
This law was designed to put the needs of the individual first and foremost, and that’s exactly what it does.  Beyond that, anything is certainly subject to fine-tuning insofar as what the public deems acceptable, but this is not due to any fault in the law.  A foundation has been laid and so long as the interests of patients aren’t compromised in any manner, building upon that foundation is not only reasonable, but customary.   

I’ll point out that Saginaw, like every other city in Michigan, has received most talking points from the Michigan Municipal League, the DEA and other sources with a stated opposition to this law.  

If you were to look closely, the source for the lion’s share of objections will quickly be revealed as people with a current or former connection to law enforcement or other positions within the legal hierarchy.  Their numbers are few yet they make a lot of noise, with most major media outlets across the state (keep in mind that most of them are also owned by a small number of news service companies) carrying their message for them to make it appear that the opposition is something that it is not.  In fact, a recent poll conducted by Marketing Resource Group of Lansing showed that nearly the same 60+ percent majority of people support the medical marijuana law now just as they did when the question was put on the ballot.

It’s understandable that those with the biggest stake in maintaining the status quo would also be the most opposed to change.  Consequently, we’ve been systematically conditioned to the concept that, with marijuana enforcement representing a disproportionate share of the greater host of supposed “crises,” if provided enough resources, they can protect the public interests, protect “the children,” and so it seems, protect us from ourselves as well.  This has been their bread and butter.  The real problem for them is that the curtain is finally being raised to expose this charade for what it is, and it certainly is long overdue.

With the citizen-led medical marijuana law, the people have reasserted their authority over the government, and as we all know, government doesn’t appreciate that sort of thing.  Fashioning myself as a Libertarian, this is cause célèbre and I hope to see more of it.  Much more.

David Light
saginawdave@sbcglobal.net