Part one of Proposal 1 states that Michigan citizens will acknowledge marijuana as a prescription drug. Although not every voter agrees that marijuana can be used as an effective medicine, a majority of us do according to recent polls taken by the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press. Both polls showed over 60 percent support among likely voters for Proposal 1.

Most Michigan citizens clearly favor the idea that sick residents with a doctor’s prescription should have access to marijuana. And serious medical conditions like cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis C and MS are specifically named in the proposal as likely candidates for medical marijuana treatment. So far so good.

Part one concludes by stating that all medical conditions qualifying for marijuana treatment will be determined by the Michigan Department of Community Health. That also seems reasonable enough, so the editorial staff of the Eastern Echo unanimously supports this first section.

It’s the second, third and fourth sections of Proposal 1 that begin to make the Echo editors a bit uncomfortable. These three sections will likely scare off quite a few Michigan voters as they encounter them on Election Day as well.

Sections two and three give a general description of “registered individuals” with state-issued ID cards growing “limited quantities” of marijuana in an “enclosed, locked facility.” So who will issue the ID cards to marijuana patients and their growers? Answer; The Michigan Department of Community Health. Okay, who are they again?

According to their Web site michigan.gov/mdch, the MDCH is among the largest of Michigan’s 20 departments of state government, and is “responsible for health policy and management of the state's publicly-funded health service systems.”

The director of the MDCH is Janet Olszewski, described as “a long-time health care executive” who has spent “more than 20 years in state government health services.” Governor Jennifer Granholm appointed her in January 2003.

What is unnerving about these later sections of Proposal 1 is they provide no details concerning how the MDCH will register, track and enforce the state’s legal marijuana users and growers. Will the Office of Drug Control Policy, a division within the MDCH responsible for drug treatment, prevention, education and law enforcement, oversee medical marijuana? Who knows.

The final section of Proposal 1 presents a strange twist on providing medical marijuana to sick Michigan patients. This section would permit “registered and unregistered patients and primary caregivers to assert medical reasons for using marijuana as a defense to any prosecution involving marijuana.” What’s that all about?

Just as the 2004 amendment to Michigan’s constitution banning gay marriage was used to overturn Michigan’s public same-sex benefits programs in May of this year, section four of Proposition 1 seems designed to eventually provide a legal defense for many types of marijuana prosecutions. After all, what claim to a legal defense should an unregistered caregiver have for the possession or distribution of a controlled substance like marijuana? We at the Echo are just not sure.

So while the Eastern Echo editors all support a patient’s right to use prescription marijuana as a medicine, we are divided as to whether Proposition 1 is the best way for Michigan residents to efficiently and safely make that happen.

One thing is clear however; we are all very interested to see how the voters resolve this important health care rights debate. We’ve said our bit, now it’s up to you, Michigan.