APPROVAL OF MEDICAL POT IS STATEMENT, NOT MANDATE

FERNDALE-- If city voters today pass an ordinance allowing the
medical use of marijuana, what will it change?

Nothing -- according to police here and in Ann Arbor, where voters
passed a similar measure last year.

But several Ferndale elected officials and others predict City
Proposal D will gain voter approval -- chiefly because people tend to
see it as an issue of compassion to allow people with serious
illnesses the right to use pot for the symptomatic relief of diseases
such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis or side effects of chemotherapy.

Voters in Detroit also passed a medical pot law last year.

In Ann Arbor, where simple possession of small amounts of marijuana
is a civil infraction, Police Chief Daniel Oates says the medical
marijuana measure there didn't change anything.

Ann Arbor voters passed it by a 3-1 margin.

"It was a wonderful compassionate statement by the voters," said
Oates, who is leaving Ann Arbor soon for another chief's job in
Aurora, Colo. "But as a practical matter there is no such thing as a
medical marijuana product recognized by the FDA and available via
prescription ... for treatment of an ill person. As a practical
matter such a law has no effect."

Police policies and procedures regarding marijuana remain unchanged
in Ann Arbor.

In a city of 114,000, Ann Arbor police prosecute less than 10 people
a year for simple marijuana possession, Oates said. Typically, those
are cases where authorities have pursued a suspect for marijuana
sales but are unable to prove the intent to deliver the drug.

"The only time we bring a case is for sale" of marijuana, Oates said.

No matter what ordinances an individual community passes, marijuana
is still illegal under federal and state law. And those laws
supersede municipal ordinances, authorities say.

In Ferndale, resident and University of Michigan student Donal
O'Leary III is head of the Ferndale Coalition for Compassionate Care
that got the pot issue on the ballot with a petition drive.

O'Leary indicated the ordinance would send a message that residents
don't want police using tax funds to pursue those who use marijuana
to treat an illness.

If Proposal D passes today, an officer who works to prosecute a
patient using marijuana "would be going against the will of Ferndale
residents who say that we don't want our neighbors prosecuted just
for using the medicine they and their doctors agree is right for
them," O'Leary said.

Ferndale Capt. Timothy Collins, a 27-year veteran of the department
said that to his knowledge no one has ever been arrested in Ferndale
and used a medical marijuana defense.

Like the Oakland County prosecutor's office, Ferndale police oppose Proposal D.

"We would charge under the state law rather than city ordinance in
cases where there is a medical marijuana defense," Collins said,
adding that someone may eventually make a court decide whether such
ordinances are even legal.

"My fear is that unscrupulous people will use this kind of ordinance
as an out," Collins said.

Run-of-the-mill marijuana possession is punishable as a 93-day
misdemeanor or up to a year in jail under state law. Possession with
intent to sell is a 5- to 15-year felony depending on the amount of
pot a suspect is charged with having.

If medical marijuana proponents want to change the law they need to
do so at the state and federal level, opponents say.

Ten states, mostly in the western U.S., have laws that allow medical
pot. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that those state
laws don't preclude federal law officers from charging marijuana
users and dealers operating under state medical marijuana laws.

O'Leary said he and other proponents are focusing on community
ordinances for medical marijuana to gauge support for policy reform.

A statewide effort would require greater resources and effort, he said.

"If this proves to be an issue people are really passionate about I
suppose it is possible we would pursue it on a greater level," O'Leary said.

Meanwhile, community police faced with such ordinances say they are
virtually meaningless in legalizing marijuana use, even for sick people.