Michigan Is a Medical Marijuana Battleground

SAGINAW, MICH. -- Protesters gathered recently near across from the Saginaw County Courthouse, accusing Sheriff Bill Federspiel of wrongly raiding and harassing medical marijuana growers and caregiver.

They are harbingers of a conflict that will increase across the nation.

Some passing motorists shout perceptions such as "potheads" and "druggies" out of their open car windows, but the demonstrators say they believe medical marijuana to be a vital and valuable alternative medicine, and that the THC ingredient is a proven natural pain reliever that provides potential to cure or slow the spread of cancer.

Medical marijuana caregiver John Roberts' Thomas Township home was raided April 15 by Federspiel's sheriff's deputies and then again on July 6 by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency agents, after Roberts organized the first courthouse protest on July 1. Federspiel denies Roberts' accusations of reprisals, saying there is no link between the July 6 DEA raid and the July 1 protest.

Roberts is a 49-year-old graduate of the Saginaw Township's former MacArthur High School. He says he first researched medial marijuana when he was diagnosed with hepatitis C, a liver ailment, back in 2003.

He lost his employment as a truck driver and qualified for Social Security disability payments.

Roberts says he unfairly is perceived as "a drug dealer" who caters to alleged patients who make false claims of illness and disability in order to "have a good time on us" smoking marijuana.

He notes that patients are required to have a doctor's recommendation.. In conversation, he constantly refers to "Simpson oil" rather than smoking cannabis.

Rick Simpson is a Canadian who says applications of cannabis oil cured his skin cancer.

"Rick Simpson is a hero," says a website for Rick Simpson Hemp Oil. "He has stood up for this medicine, the cure for cancer, in the face of strong adversity and personal liability. For about three years, Rick gave away hemp oil FOR FREE to anybody who needed it. He was arrested twice for doing this, under the charge of '˜trafficking THC.' which is what the Canadian government calls freely giving away hemp oil. After his first arrest, Rick continued his activities, flat out telling the judge he would not stop."

Roberts says he has followed the same example.

"There is a difference between cannabis oil and Simpson oil," he explains. "The difference is that Rick Simpson gave the medicine away freely to people who could not afford to pay. That is what I do. If I'm going to be portrayed as a drug dealer, ask yourself, what drug dealer gives his product away for free?"

Roberts says he won't reveal names of people for whom he serves as caregiver, because they are afraid of consequences if they receive publicity.

He says a patient with terminal breast cancer died in mid-July.

She was a middle-aged woman who was bed ridden for her final four weeks, he says, with the exception for one final time when she consumed Simpson oil and felt a surge of relief.

Roberts says a 6-year-old girl with an inoperable brain tumor has received a pair of doctors' approvals to ingest small quantities of Simpson oil, which she consumes with spoonfuls of peanut butter. He says her constant headaches are relieved, so that she is able to sleep soundly rather than remain awake up to 20 hours per day in pain.

"People react as through we are teaching a small girl how to smoke out of a bong," Roberts says.
"When the oil is ingested properly, it is a benefit. You can't overdose on it. Child development is not harmed. That's why she has papers from two doctors."

Online reports provide stories of children receiving medical marijuana. Marie Myund-Ok Lee, for example, is a Brown University professor who says that under a doctor's prescription she gives marijuana-laced cookies to her 9-year-old son with autism to treat pain. Debbie Jeffries of Rocklin, Calif., received a pediatrician's recommendation to give marijuana to an 8-year-old son who has attention deficit hyperactive disorder, ADHD. Mieko Hester-Perez of Fountain Valley, Calif., gives marijuana to a 10-year-old son with autism who had stopped eating.

Roberts says the Tri-City Compassion Group, which he helped to create, "is an organization of medical marijuana caregivers" which strives only to eradicate pain and suffering, not in any way to promote recreational marijuana use.

He says authorities are denying the will of voters who passed a moderate statewide medical marijuana authorization in 2008.

"We're up against law enforcement, and we have judges who don't believe in medical marijuana, so they won't recognize the law," he says.

SOURCES

Sheriff Bill Federspiel

John Roberts

http://marijuanacurescancer.net/

http://www.slate.com/id/2251174

http://jeffreysjourney.com/press.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9154480