Advocates encourage patients and supporters to contact their state representatives about support for medical marijuana. Make appointments to speak to them when they are at their home offices, call and write letters. Don't show up en masse and unannounced. And above all else, patients and caregivers should stay strictly within the provisions of the MMMA.

 "Probably everybody is back open now with the exception of Oakland County and probably Ingham County," says Wood. "The rumor mill is that most people are back open. The guys that I talk to say, 'If they want to raid us, let them go ahead and raid us.' With the model that we have, you can't raid us just because you're suspicious. As long as you have a hard card and pay your membership fee, club privileges are open to you. We don't break any laws. We don't make parking lot deals.  I don't have that much available in my place. Are you able to get compassionate care there? Absolutely, that's what we are."

Things may have taken a step backward in Michigan  but that seems contrary to national trends. Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, points out that some states have responded differently than Michigan Attorney General Schuette to the memo regarding medical marijuana from federal Assistant Attorney General James Cole to state attorneys general. 

"Other politicians in the country got the same memo. ... The Vermont governor signed a bill moving them toward a system of regulation. Maine, they usually don't care what the feds say. They said we're going to have our dispensaries and tax them. Gov. Christie in New Jersey has even signed off on a program that has effectively told the federal government to go 'F' themselves."

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