Attorney Michael Komorn “Allowing medical marijuana for those with autism was supposed to be the clinical trial,” Komorn said. “Instead, we’re going to have criminal trials.”
Medical marijuana use for Autism rejected-More local and national news
LARA director rejects autism for medical pot, upending state board approval. Despite getting the go-ahead from a state board made up largely of physicians, Michigan will not allow autism patients to use medical marijuana.
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan won’t allow the use of medical marijuana to control the effects of severe autism, an official said Thursday, rejecting the recommendation of an advisory panel.
Michigan would have been the first state to add autism to the list of conditions that qualify for medical marijuana use. But Mike Zimmer, director of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, said he wasn’t swayed, citing a lack of deep research and other concerns.
“It’s frustrating and disappointing after all we’ve been through,” said Michael Komorn, an attorney for the woman who filed the petition. “It should be a choice that parents and doctors make.”
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan will not permit using medical marijuana to regulate the consequences of extreme autism, an official stated Thursday, rejecting the advice of an advisory panel. Michigan would have been the primary state so as to add autism to …
DETROIT — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder ‘s top state regulator Thursday rejected a state panel’s advice to allow medical marijuana as a treatment for autism. The decision followed three years of efforts by parents of autistic children, their lawyers and …
DETROIT (AP) – Michigan won’t allow the use of medical marijuana to control the effects of severe autism, an official said Thursday, rejecting the recommendation of an advisory panel. Michigan would have been the first state to add autism to the list …
safer michigan marijuana These tired eyes, which were filled with hope four short weeks ago, are now closing in disgust. The state of Michigan has denied allowing doctors to recommend marijuana for the treatment of autism. On July 31, a panel of mostly …
Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director Mike Zimmer upended an expert panel’s recommendation that autism be added to the list of conditions. The Michigan Responsibility Council (MRC) announced this week it will push …
Patients with autism and Parkinson’s disease could use medical marijuana under a new effort to overhaul the system in Michigan. The Michigan Responsibility Council (MRC) announced this week it will push lawmakers to make the state’s medical marijuana …
California could still see a medical marijuana regulation bill this year, a Michigan officials ignores his own advisory panel and bars medical marijuana for autistic kids, California counties strike out in an effort to make Big Pharma pay for damages …
Grand Rapids Business Journal (subscription) – Aug 28, 2015
A group of more than 50 attorneys with a stake in marijuana-related law will meet for the first time in October as a formal section of the State Bar of Michigan. In July, the State Bar of Michigan voted to create the Marijuana Section, which will focus …
In this photo taken on Friday, June 26, 2015, Ida Chinonis helps her daughter Bella take her cannabis based medication at their home in Grand Blanc, Mich. (Photo: The Flint Journal). Lansing — Michigan’s regulatory director on Thursday rejected the …
A sweeping bipartisan bill introduced in 2015 could soon legalize medical marijuana in all American states. on.aol.com. Despite a recommendation by an autism review panel, a Michigan official has rejected adding autism to the diseases that can be …
(MPRN-Lansing) Despite getting the go-ahead from a state board made up largely of physicians, Michigan will not allow autism patients to use medical marijuana. Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director Mike Zimmer overturned the …
MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A state official in Michigan has rejected a recommendation to add severe autism to the list of conditions that qualify for medical marijuana. The head of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs says there’s a lack of scientific
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan’s Director of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) has rejected a state panel’s recommendation to include autism in the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana. The decision came from Mike Zimmer, the Director …
LANSING, MI — A Michigan official has rejected a citizen petition and review panel recommendation to add autism to the list of conditions that qualify patients for medical marijuana use under state law. Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs …
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.”
LANSING, MI 7/30/15 — In a decision that could have a far-reaching impact on current and future cases going through the court system, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state’s sentencing guidelines that mandate prison terms are unconstitutional, and that judges should use them only in an advisory capacity.
In a 5-2 decision, the court struck down parts of Michigan law around sentencing guidelines and made sentencing guidelines advisory rather than mandatory.
One of the biggest aspects of Wednesday’s ruling is the elimination of mandatory minimum sentencing as determined by sentencing guidelines. Instead of sentencing guidelines determining a minimum length of how long a defendant must stay in prison, it will be up to Michigan judges to decide the minimum amount of a prison sentence range.
“A scheme of mandatory minimum sentencing violates the Sixth Amendment if it constrains the discretion of the sentencing court by compelling an increase in the mandatory minimum sentence beyond that authorized by the jury’s verdict alone,” wrote Justice Bridget Mary McCormack in the majority’s opinion.
The ruling set off a range of reactions, with many prosecutors expressing outrage, while many judges hailed the decision as long overdue.
Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper predicted the ruling would throw the judicial system into chaos for a while.
“This is going to result in a great deal of disparity in sentencing,” Cooper said. “It’s going to make a mess on both sides of the aisle and that’s not fair to anyone.”
But Oakland County Judge Jim Alexander said that guidelines are supposed to be a road map and not a hard and fast mandate.
“We’re going to have to get used to it. We’re going to have more discretion,” he said. “You can’t get total consistency when you’re dealing with human beings.”
There are more people incarcerated than our neighboring states and it’s costing $2 billion a year.
“Michigan’s sentencing guidelines do so to the extent that the floor of the guidelines range compels a court to impose a mandatory minimum sentence beyond that authorized by the jury’s verdict.”
Sentencing guidelines are a series of variables — made up of the offense for which a defendant is found guilty and the defendant’s past — that help determine the range of time a defendant could serve in prison.
McCormack was joined by Chief Justice Robert P. Young Jr. and Justices Mary Beth Kelly, David Viviano and Richard Bernstein in the majority opinion. Justices Brian Zahra and Stephen J, Markman dissented.
