Regardless of whether or not Michigan voters still support the legalization of medical marijuana, legislators must be more specific with which parts of the law are misleading or are being abused and what exactly needs to be amended in the ballot proposal for the 2012 election.

The Michigan Medical Marihuana Act was passed in 2008 through a ballot proposal with 63 percent voting in favor of the proposed law. The law allows patients to use or grow marijuana for medical relief.

Possible amendments to the law include a bill in Michigan’s Congress that would allow police to access cardholder registry records. Advocates of medical marijuana believe this will target patients and caregivers, possibly making marijuana use taboo for those who use it for medical benefits.

Another possible amendment — supported by state Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, a man at the forefront of criminalizing marijuana use in any form — would prohibit the creation of marijuana bars or clubs — establishments where patients pay to smoke in the facility — and prohibit cultivation of marijuana near churches and schools.

What Jones and others leading the fight at amending this law must do to gain the support of Michigan voters is be more specific with how the law is being abused and how their amendments would combat this.

Also, by proposing these amendments, Jones and others in Michigan’s legislature are attempting to slowly limit the rights of those receiving medical marijuana benefits, and although these might seem like small modifications to the original law, in the long run, these lawmakers might attempt to overturn the law altogether.

Some legislators claim that the language of the proposal was misleading and that if it was on the ballot this November, it most likely would not pass a second time. But the bottom line is that a strong majority of Michigan voters were in favor of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. If this proposal was put on the ballot this November, the outcome most likely would stay the same.

Although smoking is banned in restaurants and workplaces because of a 2010 law, legislators forgot to include the prohibition of smoking marijuana in the bill’s content. Legislators’ current attempt to amend the medical marijuana law is a pre-emptive strike against the possibility of the creation of marijuana bars and clubs. But with marijuana being legal only for cardholders, the possibility of such a bar flourishing is minimal, and attempting to prohibit their creation seems trivial.

Ultimately, this is a battle that advocates for medical marijuana already have won. By a large majority, Michigan voters were in favor of legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes in 2008. And trying to amend the law now would be like fighting a battle that already has been fought.

Those who are receiving medical benefits from marijuana use for their respective conditions should be able to continue to do so. And Jones should turn his attention toward a more important issue for this upcoming election, instead of trying to beat a dead horse.