Three men will go to trial next month after police say they were growing large quantities of marijuana illegally. All are charged with delivering or manufacturing between 5 and 45 kilograms of marijuana, the equivalent of between 20 and 200 plants, as well as a generic charge of delivering or manufacturing marijuana.
The charges were filed following police raids on an alleged marijuana dispensary in Brighton Township and two homes, which authorities say were being used to grow marijuana.
The defendant’s attorneys have also questioned officers involved with the raid whether they were aware if their clients were registered caregivers and/or patients under Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Act, but were told by one DEA agent that didn’t matter as they were operating under a federal search warrant. Federal law doesn’t recognize state efforts to legalize marijuana, whether for medicinal or recreational use. (JK)
Michael Komorn, a Michigan attorney who specializes in medical marijuana laws and is also the president of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, who filed a petition on behalf of a mother in southeastern Michigan, said no other state allows medical marijuana for severe autism.
This inspired several posts including MLive and the Washington Times. The post stated Michigan would become the first state to allow medical marijuana for children with severe autism if a senior official follows the recommendation made Friday by an advisory panel.
The state’s Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted 4-2 to recommend autism as a condition that qualifies for the drug.
Supporters say the extracted oil from marijuana when swallowed has been effective in controlling extreme physical behavior by kids with severe autism. It wouldn’t be smoked.
The panel was influenced by comments from some Detroit-area doctors, especially the head of pediatric neurology at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and parents desperate for relief.
Now the recommendation go before Mike Zimmer, who is the director of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. He has until late October to make a final decision.
Voting in favor of allowing it, Dr. David Crocker, a panel member noted that two doctors need to give their approval for a child to get a medical marijuana card from the state.
“We have a pretty good checks-and-balances system,” he said.
Michigan’s chief medical executive, Dr. Eden Wells, serves on the panel and voted no. She’s not convinced that there’s enough research on the topic, especially the long-term effects of marijuana on children.
The same panel rejected an autism petition in 2013 in what had been called a final decision. Smith’s petition was initially denied by LARA, but she successfully sued to force reconsideration.
The review panel voted 4-2 in favor of a petition submitted by Lisa Smith, a Michigan mother who has said cannabis oil has helped improve her severely autistic 6-year-old son’s behavior, sleep patterns and eating schedule.
Attorney Michael Komorn, who represents Smith, said her petition included hundreds of pages of research on autism and medical marijuana that was not included in the 2013 debate.
Smith’s son was certified to use medical marijuana because he also has epilepsy, which is already a treatable medical condition under the law.
“Otherwise, she would not have been able to get a recommendation from her doctor to see the benefits that it had on autism,” Komorn said. “She’s heroic in that she came forward and was able to tell her story so that this could happen.”
“These things are things we do not know until we have enough experience with these medications in a controlled trial. … I don’t think we have those checks and balances,” Wells said.
Experts writing in the February edition of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics cautioned that marijuana for kids with severe autism might serve only as a “last-line therapy.”
Only one condition, post-traumatic stress disorder, has been added to those that qualify since Michigan voters approved marijuana for the side effects of cancer and a few other illnesses in 2008.
7/31/15 – This month there was a full moon on July 1 and tonight, the last day of July, there’s another.
A blue moon occurs roughly once every 2.7 years,” according to Space.com
A blue moon, at least according to the modern definition of the term, has nothing to do with color. It simply means a second full moon in the same calendar month.
As NASA explains “Most blue moons appear pale gray and white, just like the moon you’ve seen on any other night.”
A blue moon doesn’t happen very often. The last time was in August 2012 and the next time will be January 2018, so “once in a blue moon” is a phrase still worthy of a rare occurrence..
Even so, “on rare occasions, the moon can turn [the color] blue,” according to NASA . “A truly blue moon usually requires a volcanic eruption. Back in 1883, for example, people saw blue moons almost every night after the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa exploded with a force of a 100-megaton nuclear bomb.”
