Twenty Questions and Answers for Michigan Adult Use of Marijuana

There is no requirement in the act for the marijuana to be dried or wet. The MRTMA law has no difference between wet and dry marijuana weight either.

Prosecutors and Courts have gone to absurd results at the “usable marihuana” language in the MMMA. Using technical violations and wording logic, prosecutors have instructed police to arrest patients and caregivers, instead of giving them protections from the law. It remains to be seen what will happen in the future with the new MRTMA law.

The law is silent on this issue. However section 17 states “This act shall be broadly construed to accomplish its intent as stated in section 2 of this act.”

While section 2 states “Sec. 2. The purpose of this act is to make marihuana legal under state and local law for adults 21 years of age or older.” and “The intent is to prevent arrest and penalty for personal possession and cultivation of marihuana by adults 21 years of age or older”

What this means is that, hopefully, police and prosecutors will not bother adults 21+ who transport their 12 clones or seedlings around. But to be safe, you should consider transporting only seeds until the police, attorney general and prosecutors settle down. Will there be a fight or is marijuana legal legal? After seeing the fight against Medical Marijuana for the last 10 years, it is difficult to say.

To be safe, you should either stick to the MMMA or the MRTMA law and not try to combine them until the new Attorney General and courts have made some opinions on it.

The MMMA has 10 years of case law and absolute immunities upheld by the Michigan Supreme Court. MRTMA does not. While the language in MRTMA mirrors or is very similar to the MMMA, we cannot predict the future.

MMMA and MMFLA provisioning centers are open right now to sell marihuana to patients and caregivers. MRTMA businesses are not open and will not be open for at least 1 year.

This means that as a patient, you have the ability to buy from a provisioning center now, whereas an adult 21+ does not have that ability.

Also, caregivers are allowed to sell to their registered connected patients. Caregivers are not allowed to sell to adults 21+. This means as an adult 21+ you cannot get marihuana from a caregiver either.

A patient card will increase your ability to acquire marihuana, for at least the next year

Yes, per house can only have 12 plants. So if you have 4 adults 21+ at one house, you can still only have 12 plants at that house.

Within the person’s residence … cultivating not more than 12 marihuana plants for personal use, provided that no more than 12 marihuana plants are possessed, cultivated, or processed on the premises at once.

Remember the laws are for personal use of marijuana, you are not growing for others.

You must not allow the public to see your plants, or drying / curing buds, or you trimming plants.

This act does not allow “Cultivating (propagate, breed, grow, harvest, dry, cure, or separate parts of the marihuana plant by manual or mechanical means) marihuana plants if the plants are visible from a public place without the use of binoculars, aircraft, or other optical aids.”

This means you should use crop cloth or privacy screen to make sure no one can see your plants growing, if outdoors.

Drying, curing, trimming, harvesting, growing or breeding plants must be done inside “an enclosed area equipped with locks or other functioning security devices that restrict access to the area”.

2.5 ounces of marijuana unlocked and “excess marihuana is stored in a container or area equipped with locks or other functioning security devices that restrict access to the contents of the container or area.”

Possibly, “excess marihuana” is “not more than 10 ounces of marihuana”. “excess marihuana” could be marijuana gifted by other adults 21+ or bought in MRTMA stores (not yet operational).

AND you are allowed to keep all marihuana produced by your 12 plants on your premises.

“any marihuana produced by marihuana plants cultivated on the premises and cultivating not more than 12 marihuana plants for personal use, provided that no more than 12 marihuana plants are possessed, cultivated, or processed on the premises at once;”

BUT “not more than 15 grams of marihuana may be in the form of marihuana concentrate”. “Marihuana concentrate” means the resin extracted from any part of the plant of the genus cannabis.

“Marihuana” means all parts of the plant of the genus cannabis, growing or not; the seeds of the plant; the resin extracted from any part of the plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant or its seeds or resin, including marihuana concentrate and marihuana-infused products. For purposes of this act, marihuana DOES NOT include:

the mature stalks of the plant, fiber produced from the stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of the plant, any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the mature stalks, except the resin extracted from those stalks, fiber, oil, or cake, or any sterilized seed of the plant that is incapable of germination; 

industrial hemp; or

any other ingredient combined with marihuana to prepare topical or oral administrations, food, drink, or other products.

No. the MRTMA law specifically says:

“This act does not limit any privileges, rights, immunities, or defenses of a person as provided in the Michigan medical marihuana act, 2008 IL 1, MCL 333.26421 to 333.26430, the medical marihuana facilities licensing act, 2016 PA 281, MCL 333.27101 to 333.27801, or any other law of this state allowing for or regulating marihuana for medical use.”

Any private property where the owner of the property allows smoking.

DO NOT smoke in “a public place”, parking lots, parks, rivers, roads, sidewalks, vehicles as a driver or passenger, etc.

Adults 21+ can help other adults 21+ to grow, process, transport, possess, use, trim, extract or other conduct allowed in

Section 5.

Sec 5.1 c “assisting another person who is 21 years of age or older in any of the acts described in this section”

MRTMA bans butane extractions in the “curtilage of any residential structure”.

Sec 4.1 (d) “separation of plant resin by butane extraction or another method that utilizes a substance with a flashpoint below 100 degrees Fahrenheit in any public place, motor vehicle, or within the curtilage of any residential structure”

Yes! Even the new 2018 governor has said she wants to expunge past marijuana convictions.

Call my KOMORN LAW today to get prepared and started for when the official expungements begin 800-656-3557

The requirements for licensing have not yet been determined by the department. Since MRTMA was based on MMFLA language, it is speculated that the MMFLA rules will be used.

The MRTMA law allows you to prohibit smoking of marijuana in your property.

“This act allows a person to prohibit or otherwise regulate the consumption, cultivation, distribution, processing, sale, or display of marihuana and marihuana accessories on property the person owns, occupies, or manages, except that a lease agreement may not prohibit a tenant from lawfully possessing and consuming marihuana by means other than smoking.”

Sec 6.1 says in part “Individuals may petition to initiate an ordinance to provide for the number of marihuana establishments allowed within a municipality or to completely prohibit marihuana establishments within a municipality, and such ordinance shall be submitted to the electors of the municipality at the next regular election when a petition is signed by qualified electors in the municipality in a number greater than 5% of the votes cast for governor by qualified electors in the municipality at the last gubernatorial election. A petition under this subsection is subject to section 488 of the Michigan election law, 1954 PA 116, MCL 168.488.”

No, you really should not.

The border crossing area to Canada is federal land and there are currently no protections for recreational marijuana laws in federal law.

There is some MMMA protection in the DOJ appropriations blocking the Department of Justice from using funds against state-legal compliant medical marijuana patients.

If you are travelling to another medical or recreational marijuana state, just buy it there. No reason to make a federal case out of it. 

Remember, if a person under 21 can access your marijuana, under current drug case law, he constructively possesses the drug.

This could land that young person in trouble with the law.

If you have family in your house, make sure to lock up your marijuana and keep the key or combo to yourself.

The federal government has issued various open letters against people owning firearms with medical marijuana.

This also applies to recreational and legalization of marijuana.

The senate and house have introduced bills to make this not apply in legal states, however the bills have not been voted on yet.

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/open-letter/all-ffls-sept2011-open-letter-marijuana-medicinal-purposes/download

The medical marijuana authorization database is in no way connected to any other system and does not affect your right to purchase or carry a gun.

However, under federal law, marijuana possession is illegal for both recreational and medical use.

The federal law affects gun ownership. It is unlawful for a firearms dealer to sell or give a gun to a person who uses or is addicted to a controlled substance that is illegal under federal law.

https://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/Marijuana/MedicalMarijuana/AuthorizationDatabase/FrequentlyAskedQuestions#6

https://www.psp.pa.gov/firearms-information/Pages/Firearms-Information.aspx

Dec 6^th, growing industrial hemp will be legal. LARA shall issue rules and regulations related to the growing and processing of industrial hemp. In order to stay legal and safe, it is advised to use the best practices utilized in other states hemp laws; Including using a known hemp seed source.

Dec 20th 2018 President Trump signed the law to legalize industrial hemp federally.

It will go into effect at the end of March 2019