Q: How would AAMMI help medical marijuana patients?
A: The proposal would waive fines for patients and their caregivers who are recommended by a physician or other qualified health professional to use or provide cannabis or marijuana for medical treatment. The proposal also provides for an affirmative defense for patients and caregivers who are able to show actual or potential benefits. And, the proposal would protect recommended patients and caregivers from complaints by Ann Arbor police and City Attorney.
Q: Why weren't specific medical conditions included in the proposal?
A: The list of medical conditions benefiting from medical marijuana continues to grow. Our proposal gives judges and health professionals wide discretion to decide which medical conditions should be acceptable. With only a $25 fine at stake, our charter doesn't need excessive language to ensure just deposition of contested cases.
Q: Which conditions could be excluded?
A: Again, our proposal gives judges and health professionals wide discretion to decide which medical conditions should be excluded. The proposed language is flexible enough that a physician or judge could exclude simple headaches, writer's cramp, hangovers, bumps, bruises or other minor trauma. And yet it is flexible enough to allow a physician or judge to accept chronic migrane headache, menstrual cramps, addiction substitution, paraplegia or other neurological trauma. Other medical conditions that would be acceptable include: Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, asthma, breathlessness, chemotherapy, Crohn's disease, depression, eating disorders, epilepsy, glaucoma, Huntington's disease, multiple sclerosis, Nail Patella syndrome, nausea, OCD, pain, Parkinson's disease, sleep disorders.
Q: Do medical marijuana patients need a recommendation or reveal their identity prior to a police encounter to be protected under the proposal?
A: No. Patients need only to prove their recommendation at anytime prior to being required to pay a fine. During a police encounter, if no proof of recommendation is offered, or, if police are not persuaded by the proof offered, police may issue a violation, and the defendant will have additional opportunities to either assert an affirmative defense or prove their recommendation to the prosecutor or judge. However, submission of proof to Ann Arbor police prior to an encounter may help ensure Ann Arbor police will accept the proof.
Q: Will University of Michigan police, Washtenaw County sheriffs, LAWNET, Michigan State police and federal law enforcement honor the proposal's provisions should city voters adopt it?
A: Currently, Ann Arbor's charter does not and cannot restrict other law enforcement agencies from enforcing state law in Ann Arbor. The proposal if adopted would not change that. We do hope other law enforcement agencies will honor the will of Ann Arbor voters.
Q: Will patients get to keep their marijuana after a police encounter?
A: Police, prosecutors and judges are not required to return any seized marijuana.
Q: Why was the fine structure changed if it has nothing to do with medical marijuana?
A: We decided that the current charter provision permitting fines up to $500 was excessively high (see Proposal Language). Currently, Ann Arbor courts have been imposing $25 fines and $25 court costs on all defendants without regard to the number of previous violations. This proposed change would have no effect on fines our courts now impose.
Q: Why were prohibitions against incarceration, probation and other punitive and rehabilitative measures included?
A: This additional language would not change how the current charter provision is enforced. The additional language is nearly identical to language that was part of Ann Arbor's marijuana law before it was deleted when fines were raised from $5 to $25 in 1990.
(Compiled by Rich Birkett)