Michigan will have med-pot, stem cell research on their ballots in November

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Lansing Michigan -- Two proposals were approved after the wording of the ballots was approved by a states election panel on Thursday.

Earlier this year the Board of State Canvassers certified more than enough petitions to put the marijuana issue on the ballot in November. The Legislature had 40 days to vote on it and if they didn't the proposal would go on the Nov. ballot.

The proposal is to permit the cultivation, possession and use of marijuana by patients with certain debilitating illnesses, such as muscular dystrophy or HIV-AIDS. The Board of State Canvassers has designated this as Proposal 1.

On Thursday enough petitions were certified to put on the ballot a proposal to loosen Michigan's restrictions on embryonic stem cell research.

A constitutional amendment has lifted restrictions on the research of the use of human embryos to seek treatments and cures for chronic illness and injury. This proposal has been designated as Proposal 2.

Those who backed the amendment to make way for the number 2 proposal say it will give the researches in the public universities in Michigan new opportunities to conduct research for what will be much of the life saving and health medicine of the 21st Century. Those who oppose the proposal see it as freeing human embryo researchers from any state oversight. They feel it potentially could turn Michigan into a

"Frankenstein laboratory of American medicine."

The third proposal that would have changed the size of the legislative, judicial and executive branches of the government was ordered not to be put on the ballot by the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Those who support the proposal will appeal the ruling to the Michigan Supreme Court.

The wording of the two proposals can be viewed here.