VERIFY MED. MARIHUANA INFO S.B. 377 (S-2):
FLOOR SUMMARY
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Senate Bill 377 (Substitute S-2 as reported)
Sponsor: Senator Darwin L. Booher
Committee: Judiciary
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act to require the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) immediately to verify information regarding the identity or address of a qualifying patient or primary caregiver to a law enforcement officer.
The Act requires LARA to issue registry identification cards to qualifying patients and primary caregivers who submit certain information in accordance with the Department's rules.
The Department must verify to law enforcement personnel whether a registry identification card is valid, without disclosing more information than is reasonably necessary to verify the authenticity of the card. The bill would delete the requirement that LARA not disclose more information than necessary for verification. The bill also would require LARA immediately to verify either of the following to a law enforcement officer acting in the scope of his or her official duties:
-- Whether a person identified by the officer by name was a qualifying patient or primary caregiver.
-- Whether an address specified by the officer was the registered address for a qualifying patient or primary caregiver.
MCL 333.26426 Legislative Analyst: Patrick Affholter
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on LARA and the Michigan State Police. The bill would call for LARA to "immediately verify to a law enforcement officer" certain medical marihuana patient and caregiver information. The bill does not specify how these requests would be handled. To the extent that these requests would come during normal business hours when a LARA employee would be available to fulfill the requests, this requirement would result in a minimal fiscal impact on LARA. However, it is likely that many of these requests would come at times other than normal business hours when LARA employees are available. To comply with the requirement that LARA immediately verify this information, the Department would have to set up some kind of automated or staffed system to process these requests at any time of day, which would cost an indeterminate amount.
Date Completed: 6-22-11 Fiscal Analyst: Josh Sefton
Analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent. sb377/1112