By Rick Thompson, The Compassion Chronicles
Michigan’s two most powerful marijuana radio shows are combining forces to deliver a very special Monday night broadcast. The Medical Marijuana Radio Show (MMRS) and the Planet Green Trees Radio Show (PGT) will bring their casts together to evaluate the Michigan Supreme Court decision in People v McQueen, which has been widely reported as heralding the death of dispensaries, fulltime caregivers and farmer’s markets in Michigan.
The MMRS is a radio show formerly broadcasting on traditional radio via 1310 AM in Detroit, where the show was a fixture of the Saturday lineup for nearly two years. MMRS is expanding to new markets and even has a new name- the Political Twist-Up Show (PTU). The cast is still the same- host and activist Steve Greene, attorney Denise Policella and journalist Rick Thompson- but will now appear in multiple markets across the state. WFNT in Flint and WTKG in Grand Rapids will host the PTU beginning in March. Arbitron ratings show the MMRS was the state’s most listened-to marijuana radio show in 2012. MMRS also simultaneously broadcast shows on Iheartradio.com.
PGT is an Internet-only radio show broadcasting on blogtalkradio.com featuring show host Michael Komorn, an attorney from Birmingham, Michigan. The show is the state’s most popular Internet radio broadcast covering the marijuana community and features co-host Chad Carr from Birmingham Compassion Club, Jamie Lowell from 3rd Coast Compassion Center and journalist Thompson. Komorn is the leader of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, an online entity boasting thousands of registered members. PGT has been continually broadcasting on the Internet for two years.
The McQueen decision was a sweeping clarification of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMA), defining types of allowable transfers and identifying those that fall outside the scope of the Act. The Opinion delivered by the Court has been hailed in newspapers, on radios and televisions as bringing the end to medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan, as it narrowly interpretst the allowable actions contained within the MMA. The McQueen ruling is so conservative it contradicts a Court of Appeals ruling from one week earlier, which took a more liberal view of allowable transfers.
Patients, caregivers, business owners and local officials are struggling to decide exactly what this Opinion means. Matthew Abel of Cannabis Counsel was quoted as saying, “This is the end of the road,” while powerhouse legal eagle Neil Rockind wrote a blog stating “Relax, it’s not that bad”. Rockind will join in the conversation, as will Policella, Komorn, attorney John Targowski from Kalamazoo and Thomas Lavigne from Cannabis Counsel.
Broadcast begins at 8pm EST and can be heard on www.blogtalkradio.com/planetgreentrees
The Political Twist-Up Show’s webpage is located at https://www.politicaltwistup.com/
Read more about the McQueen ruling with these articles:
https://www.thecompassionchronicles.com/2013/02/09/michigan-high-court-drops-pot-bombshell/
https://www.thecompassionchronicles.com/2013/02/09/unintended-consequences/
The Michigan Medical Marijuana Association maintains the state’s largest online forum for chats, blogs and conversation with literally hundreds of threads covering all aspects of cannabis news and talk. https://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/
Read the Supreme Court decision for yourself HERE.
