Michigan voters passed a medical-marijuana ballot initiative in November, but the law provides qualified patients and caregivers with no legal means to obtain the drug, the Saginaw News reported Nov. 29.

The initiative allows primary caregivers (anyone over the age of 21 who has no record of drug-related felonies) to keep up to 60 marijuana plants and 12.5 ounces of the drug. But absent any explicit law on acquiring the drug, patients will "have to grow it themselves or appoint a caregiver to grow it for them," said Greg Francisco, director of the Michigan Marijuana Association.

Federal law still prohibits marijuana possession. On the other hand, said Francisco, the Michigan measure "actually protects the patient if they purchase marijuana from the dealer on the street."

The main goal of the legislation was to protect patients using marijuana as treatment, said Dianne Byrum, a spokesperson for the Coalition for Compassionate Care, the organization that drafted the bill. "The ballot proposal can't answer [how to obtain marijuana] because of the legal and regulatory structure of the federal government," she said.

Under the law, patients and caregivers can register for an identification card once they are authorized by a doctor. The state plans to issue identification cards through the Bureau of Health Professionals and has until April 4, 2009 to do so.

"Typically we don't arrest people for simple possession, even though those people that possess marijuana are breaking federal law," said Rich Isaacson, a special agent and information officer for the Detroit field division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The agency focuses on cracking down on "large-scale drug trafficking organizations," he said.