Medical marijuana event at Wayne State spotlights MI state law - Patients outnumber MDs, JDs, & LEOs

http://www.detnews.com/article/20091003/LIFESTYLE03/910030384/1409/METRO

Saturday, October 3, 2009
Medical marijuana event at Wayne State spotlights state law
Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News


Detroit -- A medical marijuana symposium at Wayne State University on Saturday aimed to get accurate information to doctors, lawyers and law enforcement about Michigan's medicinal marijuana law.

But the majority of the 227 people who showed up were patients or people looking to learn more about the law. That suited the WSU law students, students with the National Lawyers Guild and the Police Officers for Drug Law Reform, who staged the symposium, just fine.

"We want to get the best information we can to people," said Dan Solano, an organizer and former Detroit police officer who was repeatedly run over by a suspect in 1991 and left for dead.

Solano of Detroit underwent numerous surgeries and two years of rehabilitation. He was prescribed large doses of painkillers before opting for marijuana in the 1990s, even though it was illegal. He currently is licensed by the state to grow marijuana for two patients and use it himself.

His story is similar to other patients' at the symposium. They spoke of pain from disease, injuries or surgery. Keynote speaker Robert Sedler, a WSU law professor, and a host of others addressed the crowd.

University of Detroit-Mercy professor Mike Whitty attended the conference and said legalizing marijuana is more efficient than continuing to fight its use as a crime.

"Medicalize, don't criminalize," he said. "It is cheaper and smarter."

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love to know it was available if I ever got sick. I had a cousin who died in 1979 and it could have helped ease her last days.

Madness.