Police escort ‘big marijuana’ lobbyist from contentious hearing on Michigan caregiver law

Police protected lobbyist Stephen Linder as he left the Capitol building in Lansing Tuesday.

A digital billboard outside parodied the longtime Republican lobbyist as the character Dr. Evil from the “Austin Powers” movies with a message to “vote no on Linder’s monopoly bills.”

Linder, director of the Michigan Cannabis Manufacturers Association (MCMA), a trade organization comprised of some of Michigan’s largest players in the marijuana industry, is the face of a movement underway to regulate and limit grow allowances for medical marijuana caregivers.

It’s a move supporters frame as one to ensure market fairness and that patients receive product tested and tracked the same as marijuana sold in stores. Opponents claim it’s a misguided effort by “big marijuana” corporations to monopolize the market that will ultimately harm patients relying on caregivers for medicine.

The debate is usually framed in one of two ways: capitalistic greed v. altruistic compassion, or sensible regulation v. anarchy.

Linder and the MCMA are attempting to sway politicians to revise the 2008 voter-passed medical marijuana law that created caregivers, who are allowed to grow up to 12 plants each for themselves, if they are a registered medical marijuana patient, and five other registered patients, for a total possible allotment of 72 plants.

The intent of the caregiver, created prior to the 2016 advent of the licensed retail market, was to provide medicinal marijuana to patients who might be incapable of growing marijuana or processing products for themselves. [Read More @ MLive.com]