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 with a child who has Autism in southeastern Michigan spawned a flurry of articles through out the media world.
Please watch the video from the meeting and Michael Komorn’s comments
State officials on Monday acknowledged they’d omitted hundreds of pages of medical studies from packets supplied to a state review panel slated to consider medical marijuana for treating autism according to the Detroit Free Press.
The panel will reconvene July 31 to reconsider autism, officials said.
LANSING (AP) – 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 …
LANSING, MI — The Michigan Medical Marijuana Law Review Panel voted Friday to recommend adding autism as a qualifying condition fit for treatment under the state law. That recommendation now heads to Mike Zimmer, director of the Michigan …
LANSING – Michigan would become the first state to allow medical marijuana for children with severe autism if an official follows the recommendation of a state panel. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted, 4-2, Friday to recommend autism as …
LANSING (AP) – A state panel is meeting again to consider whether to add extreme forms of autism to the conditions that qualify for medical marijuana in Michigan. Supporters say oil extracted from marijuana has been effective in controlling severe …
A state board has approved adding autism to the list of conditions that can be treated with medical marijuana. The Michigan Medical Marihuana Review Panel voted 4-2 on Friday to make the recommendation. The final decision will be made by Michigan …
The Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel has recommended to include autism as one of the health conditions that the state approves for medical marijuana treatment. The recommendation, which the panel released on July 31, is one step closer to …
Supporters of medical marijuana in Michigan received some surprising and hopeful news. On Friday, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted to recommend that autism be added to the list of conditions that doctors can prescribe medical …
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan would develop into the primary state to permit medical marijuana for youngsters with extreme autism if a senior official follows the advice made Friday by an advisory panel. The state’s Medical Marijuana Evaluation Panel …
Fathers high-fived with their children. Old men shed tears. Strangers embraced as if friends. Autism was recommended to be included in the list of illnesses covered under the protections of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. Although there still …
In this photo taken on June 26, Ida Chinonis helps her daughter, Bella, take her cannabis based medication at their home in Grand Blanc. Bella, 6, suffers from seizures, and her mother says the only medication that helps her is a cannabis oil. (Photo …
(WLNS) – According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention one in every 68 American children have some form of autism. On Friday families directly affected by autism are one step closer toward being able to use marijuana as a form of treatment.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A state panel has recommended that severe forms of autism be added as a condition that qualifies for medical marijuana in Michigan. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted 4-2 Friday to recommend its use. The group’s …
“We’ve been doing all of the regular gammits of everything that doctors recommend for us to do – advanced behavioral analysis therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. We have him maxed out,” explained Bruno’s Father, Dwight Zahringer.
A state panel met on Friday to consider adding extreme forms of autism to the list of conditions that qualify for the use of medical marijuana in Michigan. In a 4-2 vote, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel is recommending the approval of a …
A state panel is recommending Michigan add extreme forms of autism to the conditions that qualify for medical marijuana. In a 4-2 decision, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted to recommend allowing medical marijuana for children with …
The state’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Marijuana Review Panel is expected to vote today on whether or not medical marijuana can be used as treatment for people with autism. The panel has held a public hearing and reviewed several …
A regulatory panel will consider is autism will be included on the list of things medical marijuana can legally treat. Show Transcript Hide Transcript. THEY JUST DID WHAT THEY HOPED EVERYONE WOULD DO IN THAT SITUATION. Karen: SOME SAY IT’S …
Parents who are in favor of the proposal say medical marijuana in small doses works wonders with kids who have autism, and that it helps with behavioral issues. Opponents say there is no strong evidence the drug is very helpful. LANSING A state panel …
autism cannabis marijuana Multi-talented Michigan attorney Michael Komorn is calling on families of children with autism to attend a crucial vote of the Medical Marihuana Review Panel on July 31st. The Panel is considering whether to recommend approval …
State officials on Monday acknowledged they’d omitted hundreds of pages of medical studies from packets supplied to a state review panel slated to consider medical marijuana for treating autism according to the Detroit Free Press.
The panel will reconvene July 31 to reconsider autism, officials said.
“I became aware several weeks ago that we hadn’t received a huge number of documents, maybe six or eight hundred pages,” said David Brogren, 61, a retired insurance agent who treats his multiple sclerosis with medical marijuana.
Brogren notifed state officials of the omission two weeks ago and was assured that the materials would be added to panel members voting packets, he said. Yet, at Monday’s hearing in a state office building in Lansing, “I brought in this thick pile of documents that they still hadn’t given to us” — he got them from the petitioner’s lawyer — “and I tossed it on the table,” said Brogren, who moved recently from Bloomfield Hills to Mason, near Lansing.
Staffers of LARA — the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs — called for a 15-minute recess, met with lawyers from the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, then offered to provide the missing studies if the panel postponed its hearing to July 31 at 1 p.m., panel member Robert Noiva of Rochester said.
Panel members voted 5-0 to postpone as “the only fair thing to do,” said Noiva, associate dean for medical education at Oakland University’s William Beaumont School of Medicine in Auburn Hills.
“Licensing and Regulatory Affairs provided the information we were supposed to provide and David Brogren wanted the department to provide the reference materials cited” in the petition, said LARA spokesman Michael Loepp. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office referred questions to LARA.
4/20/15
Most adults agree with legalizing medicinal marijuana, but they’re a lot more uneasy when it comes to its use for sick kids.
And most by far — 4 in 5 adults — say kids shouldn’t see adults using it.
That’s according to the latest University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health, which routinely asks what’s on the minds of the nation’s moms and dads — from how they’re using social media to what they think of new laws and policies.
It’s not surprising that adults are hesitant when it comes to medical therapies that many believe are still unproven, said Dr. Matt Davis, director of the National Poll and professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at U-M Medical School.
“From my experience as a physician, they commonly mention the lack of testing for testing as a reason for their concern,” said Davis, who as a pediatrician at U-M is not allowed to prescribe marijuana for children.
Michigan is one of nearly two dozen states that permit medical marijuana, but it also has stricter rules when it comes to children using medical marijuana.
The Mott poll is the first to examine parents’ views about medical pot for adults compared to their view about its use for children. It drew from responses in November and December of 2,176 adults — both parents and non-parents.
Davis said responses about adult use of medical marijuana were similar to polls elsewhere, offering “reassurance” that it accurately reflects adults’ views about marijuana’s use for children too.
More specifically, the poll found:
■Nearly 2 in 3 parents say their state should allow medical marijuana for adults.
■Just more than 1 in 3 say it should be allowed for children.
■Four in 5 people say adults shouldn’t be allowed to use medical marijuana in front of children
■1 in 10 said they either have a medical marijuana card or know someone who does.
Some in the audience, including parents of autistic children, labeled the omission an intentional obstruction by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, headed by Bill Schuette, a strong opponent of medical marijuana. Schuette’s staff lawyers initially blocked the autism petition, first filed in May 2014, in a lengthy court fight before dropping opposition in April, said Michael Komorn, a Southfield attorney who successfully argued the case in Ingham County Circuit Court.
Activists are screaming mad at the conduct of officials representing Governor Rick Snyder’s administration during a hearing today to determine if autism should be added to the list of illness that qualify a patient to use medical marijuana in Michigan. The petition, submitted in 2014, contains a summary of 75 peer-reviewed articles on autism and 800 pages of reference material. ”When the panel sat down today, what they had was pieces of the document,” said Southfield attorney Michael Komorn. Pieces apparently selected by the Attorney General’s office, according to statements made on the record by Board officials. What was missing? “The Summary, with the 75 peer-reviewed studies, and the 800 pages of clinical research on autism and cannabis,” Komorn said. Advocates sued the government in Ingham County Circuit Court to force the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) to consider a petition for that purpose submitted in 2014 by Lisa Smith, whose son Noah has autism and other illnesses. Petitions are debated by the Medial Marihuana Review Panel (the Board) under rules established in 2008 by the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA). A previous petition to add autism to the MMMA was rejected at a Board hearing back in 2013. “We litigated for a year,” to get the Smith petition accepted, Komorn said. The State was represented by the Office of the Attorney General, Bill Schuette. The language of the MMMA requires that each petition properly submitted must be considered by the Board. Schuette’s and LARA’s response was the opposite: we already ruled on that illness and no subsequent petition will be considered. “The Court decided theirs was a wrong interpretation. We won; they had to give us a new hearing on the petition submitted.” A hearing on the Smith petition was held in May of this year. On July 1 a whole new Board was created, per rule changes made in January 2015 by LARA over the objections of citizens and Senators. Some of the members of the new panel had not heard the testimony on the Smith petition taken by the Board weeks earlier. “When the Board assembled today we were expecting a vote yea or nay on the petition,” Komorn related. “Before we were able to begin the conversation it was brought to the attention of the Board as a whole by (Board member) David Brogren that this very comprehensive document with supporting papers was not given in its entirety to the Board, and that the Board should consider the entire package before voting.”The science was scrubbed from the document given to the Board for consideration, Komorn said.“When the Circuit Court made an order that the petition be considered, they meant the whole petition,” Komorn growled. ”(The Court) didn’t change the material submitted, it required the Board to consider the petition filed with the Court.” Of a greater concern is the reason cited for the edited version of the petition being presented. Along with a new Board comes a new leader, and the newly-appointed Board made selecting a new Chair their first priority. When the confusion regarding the petitions was exposed, her reaction was not one that inspired confidence among the hearing’s attendees. “The statement she made on the record was very distressing, that this information was given to the board by the Attorney General, not the Court,” Komorn said. “The Attorney General’s role was referenced by (the Chair), who said, in response to Brogren, this is what was sent to us by the Court via the Attorney General.” “The representative kept referring to the fact that this document is what the Attorney General’s office gave us,” said Jamie Lowell of Ypsilanti’s 3rd Coast Medical Marijuana Dispensary, who attended the hearing. Brogren mentioned on the record that he had given the Board the petition in its entirety two weeks ago. Even after the issue was exposed, Komorn said the Chair seemed more concerned with spin control than she was with establishing proper process.Komorn explained that “she kept insisting that the Board had all the information they needed to make a decision on autism and medical marijuana,” he said, “without seeing any of the science behind it.” Brogren’s objections to considering the issue without all the facts swayed the result and stayed the Board from voting. They will reconvene at a later date to make a final determination on the Smith petition, after receiving the entire document. In addition to being a criminal defense attorney, Komorn is the host of an Internet-base radio program broadcasting weekly for more than four years. The Planet Green Trees Radio Show (PGT) has followed the progress of the autism petition from the start, prior to 2012’s initial rejection. Shows #255 and #257 covered the topic with interviews and behind-the-scenes looks at the tribulations experienced by those advocates who sought a positive result at the July 20 hearing. One of those interviewed by the PGT staff: Dr. Harry Chugani, chief of pediatric neurology at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit “There was a major flaw in the process of how information was being given to the Board members,” Komorn stated. He challenged the notion that the Attorney General, a noted medical marijuana detractor and a major opponent of the MMMA in 2008, should be filtering information approved by the Court for use by a state agency. “Mind you, the AG had to be sued to bring this information to the Board in the first place,” Komorn emphasized. “Why is it OK for the Director of this Board to rely on them for the information used to make the determination of autism’s validity for inclusion on the medical marijuana program?” As a barometer of governmental efficiency, Komorn gave the Board’s actions today two thumbs down. “This Board is not operating in a way that anyone in the public would appreciate… this behavior should do nothing but bring concern from citizens… I don’t think that anyone that walked out of that room has one bit of confidence in the integrity of the process.” “I’d like to believe in the possibility of a fair hearing, but after experiencing the Attorney General in action over the years I can’t help but believe today’s behavior, creating unnecessary confusion and restriction, is intentionally designed to lead to a negative outcome,” Lowell observed. “I really hope I am wrong.”
Source: The Compassion Chronicles by Rick Thompson at 6:15 AM on July 21, 2015
