C-Span Rallies Against Scottville Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

On Wednesday February 21st, 2018, Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole and Prosecutor Paul Spaniola teamed up in Scottville to give a presentation against allowing medical marijuana (MM) dispensaries in the city, argued before the Scottville Ordinance Committee and about 70 other interested individuals of the public.  

This wasn't the first go-around for this tag team that the Ludington Torch affectionately calls "C-Span".  Unlike the C-SPAN that unbiasedly shows what goes on in legislative bodies and other corridors of government, this version of C-Span does their best to block information from the public and otherwise spread misinformation (with the COLDNews willing aid) that hinders the public's ability to understand the actual facts.  This was readily in evidence Wednesday night, as reported by the Feb 22, 2018 COLDNews in an article called (the article is in italics, clarifying facts and graphs are provided courtesy of the LT in standard type):

Cole, Spaniola Talk Marijuana Risks in Scottville


SCOTTVILLE — Opinions remained divided in Scottville Wednesday regarding the possibility of allowing medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in the city, as more than 70 area residents took to the Scottville Senior Center to hear a joint presentation from Mason County Sheriff Kim Cole and Mason County Prosecutor Paul Spaniola about the risks associated with opting into the new marijuana legislation...

The city’s ordinance committee, consisting of Marcy Spencer, Sally Cole and Bruce Krieger, heard about the potential benefits of opting in from Tom Reif of Michigan Marijuana Law Experts in January. On Wednesday, at the request of several concerned locals, the city heard from the opposition.


Sheriff Cole started the presentation by citing statistics about the availability of medical marijuana, its correlation with automobile accidents and the likelihood of medical marijuana making its way onto the black market...

Cole promised to only use data from sources not affiliated with law enforcement in order to provide an unbiased perspective.  “Ninety-two percent of the current cardholders list chronic or severe pain as their reason for obtaining a medical marijuana card, and the overwhelming number of cardholders are between 18 and 24 years of age,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with legitimate cardholders, but we’ve got an awful lot of 18- to 24-year-olds with bad backs and sore shoulders. That’s something to keep in mind.”

Except his claim that "the overwhelming number of cardholders are between 18 and 24 years of age" is totally false.  According to Denali Health Care's instantaneously updated and unbiased figures, users between 16 and 24 make up only 5% of the registered cardholders in Michigan.  One in 20, rather than every other age range that are significantly greater, other than the 75+ year old groups.  Consider the numbers further of Scottville.  If 2% of Michiganders have MM Cards then we can assume if Scottville is normal, they would have about two dozen cardholders.  Five percent of those 24 people would be one.  That one Scottville youth is being singled out for sure by the sheriff.


Cole expressed concern about the effect a medical marijuana dispensary could have on the area’s youth, drawing from surveys of 14- to 17-year-old marijuana users in Colorado, collected before the state adopted its current recreational use legislation.
“When they were asked where they obtained their marijuana, 2 percent of 14- to 17-year-olds said they got it from a medical caregiver, 5 percent said they got it from a medical dispensary, 7 percent from a cardholder and 39 percent obtained it from a friend who had obtained it legally,” he said. “If you open up a dispensary in the city of Scottville, you’re going to have people selling marijuana on the streets. It’s just going to happen.”

One has to ask why he uses data from Colorado, pre-recreational use, rather than data from the State of Michigan over the last nine years since medical marijuana has been legalized here.  Maybe it's because the statistics really don't matter in this case.  In Scottville, keeping track of that one 16-24 year old legally getting their pot from the dispensary and sharing it with their friends should be rather easy to do, especially since they've been singled out by the sheriff.


He also cited traffic data from the University of Michigan Traffic Research Institute, stating that in 2013 Michigan had 70 fatal crashes involving marijuana, which resulted in 86 deaths. By 2016, he said, the number had jumped to 138 crashes resulting in 159 fatalities.

I cannot find those statistics anywhere on-line, and welcome the sheriff to share them, even though it's really meaningless for his point.  In 2013, MM had been legal for five years, so if the sheriff wishes to show MM was a cause of traffic crashes he would be better served showing the difference between 2007 and 2013 crashes involving marijuana, he may be surprised.  Speaking of Colorado, the graph above shows the correlation between traffic fatalities and when MM was introduced in that state, it s

According to two comprehensive studies deaths dropped 11 percent on average in states that legalized medical marijuana, researchers discovered after analyzing 1.2 million traffic fatalities nationwide from 1985 through 2014.  The decrease in traffic fatalities was particularly striking - 12 percent - in 25- to 44-year-olds, an age group with a large percentage of registered medical marijuana users, the authors report in the American Journal of Public Health. 

The results mirror the findings of another study of data from 19 states published in 2013 in The Journal of Law and Economics. It showed an 8 to 11 percent decrease in traffic fatalities during the first full year after legalization of medical marijuana.  "Public safety doesn't decrease with increased access to marijuana, rather it improves," Benjamin Hansen, one of the authors of the previous study, said.  

The on-line COLDNews source summarizes what Paul Spaniola said in the print edition.  Here is some of what was on the print edition:  

"I see it when I go out (to Washington state) and visit my son, and he said it has not been a positive thing for the state of Washington or the city of Seattle," Spaniola said.

Your son's experiences may differ, Paul, and seem to be within the 23% minority, but a comprehensive review of the recreational usage of marijuana one year later in Washington, showed quite a few positives, and no skies falling down around Seattle.  That survey noted a substantial drop in the caseloads of prosecutors for what amounts to victimless crimes, perhaps job security is a factor in Spaniola's view.  

"We have had a couple of child abuse cases where we've run into situation of children getting ahold of marijuana, Spaniola said.  "There are stories of kids unwittingly taking marijuana-infused products into school so kids they've gone to school with have been sickened."  

The stories are stuff of Mason County urban legends.  Paul never identifies any specific case of either happening in this county, but since it has happened elsewhere it's fair game for creating hysteria.  Giving kids marijuana or alcohol is bad and illegal for parents to do, and any responsible parent with MM is not likely to allow access to susceptible children in their home.

It's telling of the newspaper to cut off the electronic article where the responses from the audience are muted, perhaps as much as when they covered the presentation offered by Michigan Marijuana Law Expert Tom Reif in January, which seemed a bit more reliant on facts and laws not on unverifiable hearsay and false assertions which the sheriff and prosecutor put forth on Wednesday.

If one were solely to make a decision on the issue based on the integrity, presentations and the professionalism of each side, one would be hard-pressed to decide against allowing MM dispensaries in Scottville.  But when your county sheriff, prosecutor, and the county commissioner serving Scottville has strongly come out against dispensaries, it will be nigh impossible for the Scottville commissioners to muster four votes amongst them.

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A simple solution to this situation is to put it on the ballot. If the citizens of Scottville want MM clinics then so be it. I for one would vote against it. I do not believe for a minute that all of these people buying from MM dispensaries are getting high for their pain. When visiting relatives in Lansing recently, I was amazed at how many MM disp. there are. Far more than standard pharmacies. If someone is truly in pain and needs to use weed and their doctor says it's OK then I have no problem with that but from what I have seen MM dispensaries are just neighborhood corner drug dealers doing business out of a store front instead of standing on the corner.

And I agree, up to a point. So what do the other real people in real need do? Shoot up a needle into them, or snort meth? The doctors that prescribe need to be watched more too. And instead of getting everyone on the same bandwagon, some must be eliminated, so the entire system is fair, and honest.  Too many elderly folks need this valuable treatment, so they don't commit suicide, or get hooked on something much worse.

I find this to be a moot point if the 2018 ballot contains a provision for the legalization of marijuana which looks likely.

The polling data shows that 57% of the voters approve of passing the legalization.

The way the proposal is written you will be able to grow a dozen plants for your own use. The details of growing your own should prove interesting.

With dial-a-ride service to Scottville and PM township how much of an inconvenience can it be if you are not able to procure your own medical marijuana in Scottville?

And as far as bringing in tax windfall as  County Commissioner Choom Castonia was so eager about, who is going to buy from a brick and mortar store when gray market prices will already have a 10% or larger price advantage. The only way to assure a tax windfall is to allow mail order sales out of state much like they do for alcohol beverages.

A bigger concern locally will be unregulated entrepreneurs selling to people from Wisconsin getting off the carferry such as a self serve "Weed and Firewood" enterprises ripping off the cheeseheads with bags of oregano. Should keep law enforcement busy.

And brace your for the DDA's "Ludington's Lucifer Lettuce Festival" with smoke stands in Rotary Park.

And of course the law of unintended consequences.

The fallout of which is the current heroin epidemic.

I forgot about the 2018 ballot proposal. If it does pass the devil will be in the details, so to speak. Once the cats out of the bag, if it passes, how will it ever be regulated? An impossible task in my opinion. Will kids who bring it to school be reprimanded or just scolded. I can hear some of the excuses now. "It's my mom's stash and she said it was OK to borrow some as long as I pay it back". I can just see the student and parent sitting with the principal in his/her office, passing around a joint and having a friendly chuckle about how things have changed from the good old days.

I also assume the greenies will have to change all of the ordinances banning tobacco products when smoking marijuana is allowed but tobacco is not, as it is on many college campuses and other places that do not allow the use of tobacco products. What is going to happen to a boy who walks into a girls bathroom at school and lights up, claiming to be a transsexual cannabis gendered person.  Here we go! Up is down!

Being a 4H judge at the county fair will be a whole different experience as will the 4H auction.

More deaths are attributed to law enforcement killing unarmed civilians and drunk drivers but he didn't talk about any of them.

As I've noted before, I was in the minority that voted against MM in 2008, but I am disgusted at the way the state has followed up on getting this initiated law underway.  It took 9 years with a full time legislature  to get legislation to set rules for dispensaries; in the meantime, cardholders and caregivers have tried to follow the ambiguous laws on the books, and too many otherwise innocent, suffering people have been incarcerated for terrible and inconsistent interpretations of the law by the police and then the prosecutors and courts.  I will vote against legalization of recreational weed if it's on the ballot, but I would vote for sensible MM reform. 

If I was a Scottville city councilor, I don't know how I would vote, but I wouldn't vote based on any of the faulty data that C-Span delivered.  I would be conscious of all the citizens that would be sorely inconvenienced in getting the MM they should be able to get without having to travel out of the county.

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