| Incredibles white chocolate/Pop Rocks bar from Colorado. |
Michigan’medical marijuana laws are pretty screwy. Namely: edible forms of marijuana aren’t covered under the laws. Patients have to smoke it or vaporize it. At least, that’s the ruling from the state Supreme Court who clearly had no freaking idea what they were dealing with.
All of that seems like it’s about to change based on the overwhelming approval of a Michigan state House bill re-legalizing edible forms of medical cannabis.
The proposed law would allow patients and caregivers to make infused edibles and topical rubs. But the law also sets limits. Michigan patients can currently possess up to 2.5 ounces of flowers. The new bill establishes that 16 ounces of solid infused products like butter, 72 ounces of liquid and seven grams of gas are all equal to one ounce of flowers. So a patient could potentially have up to 40 ounces of butter on them at any time or 180 ounces of marijuana-infused oils or tinctures.
According to the state courts, Michigan laws only pertained to medical marijuana as a whole plant. Concentrating the THC – even as cannabis butter – violated the intent, the Supreme Court argued. The move shut down any edible sales at then-open dispensaries as well as the sales of any tinctures or oils for vaporizers.
The only way around the measure was to literally bake buds into your foods – a process that works, but nowhere near as well (and conveniently) as condensed butter or oils. It also makes for a pretty gritty cake.
And don’t think it hasn’t been applied. There are currently four people – all corrections officers – facing charges for making brownies with their wives. All four are otherwise legal medical marijuana patients in the state.
Parents of children battling severe seizures say the current laws prevent them from getting properly-extracted CBD-rich oils. The bill’s sponsor, Eileen Kowall, said she was moved to write the bill after witnessing one her constituent’s daughters suffer a major seizure.
“This gives people who need this medication, who legitimately need it, that avenue to
have recourse for their medical care,” Kowall said to the local Fox affiliate.
Another bill re-legalizing medical marijuana dispensaries (another thing the Supremes shut down last year) is up for debate as well but has not passed the House yet.