Chelsea District Library Hosts Medical Marijuana Forum

Editor's note: This press release was submitted by the Chelsea District Library.

The Chelsea District Library, in partnership with the SRSLY community coalition, is presenting a panel discussion on medical marijuana on Tuesday at the Washington Street Education Center in Chelsea.

"Medical Marijuana: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly?" will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. and will address actual medical uses of marijuana, potential health hazards associated with the drug, and the legal quandaries faced by doctors prescribing the drug to patients, as well as treating patients using the drug.    

A panel of medical doctors and law enforcement officials will present facts with regards to the safety, legality and efficacy of marijuana usage, and answer audience questions. Panelists include Dr. Phyllis M. Boniface, a specialist in adult neuropsychiatry and psychopharmacology, and Mark Weiner, a specialist in internal medicine, and an expert in addiction and pain medicine.

Dr. Donald R. Vereen, director of community academic engagement at the University of Michigan School of Public Health's Prevention Research Center, will answer questions about state and federal drug policy.

The panel discussion comes on the heels of the Michigan Court of Appeals ruling that the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act makes legal the use of medical marijuana but does not permit its sale, specifically noting the “patient-to-patient” sales system common in many dispensaries is not legal under the act. In a second ruling in late August, the court said that users must have their state-issued identification cards before they can legally grow their own drugs.

The State Board of Medicine is also looking into the issue of doctors in the state signing medical marijuana cards for patients who do not fit the criteria for a prescription.

For more information about the forum, call 734-475-8732 or visit www.chelsea.lib.mi.us and click on the calendar tab.