Opinion ID: 831214
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: background: mcl 257.625(8) and derror

Text: MCL 257.625(8) states, in relevant part: A person, whether licensed or not, shall not operate a vehicle upon a highway or other place open to the general public or generally accessible to motor vehicles, including an area designated for the parking of vehicles, within this state if the person has in his or her body any amount of a controlled substance listed in schedule 1 under section 7212 of the public health code, 1978 PA 368, MCL 333.7212, or a rule promulgated under that section.... [Emphasis added.] Under § 7212(1)(c) of the Public Health Code, marijuana is listed as a schedule 1 controlled substance. MCL 333.7212(1)(c). Marijuana is defined as follows: Marihuana means all parts of the plant Canabis [sic] sativa L., growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin extracted from any part of the plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant or its seeds or resin. It does not include the mature stalks of the plant, fiber produced from the stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of the plant, any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the mature stalks, except the resin extracted therefrom, fiber, oil or cake, or the sterilized seed of the plant which is incapable of germination. [MCL 333.7106(3).] On the basis of these statutes, a majority of this Court concluded in Derror that 11-carboxy-THC is a schedule 1 controlled substance. The majority reasoned that the Public Health Code includes within the definition of marijuana every compound and derivative of the plant.... Derror, 475 Mich. at 325, 715 N.W.2d 822. After examining several medical dictionaries with diverse definitions, the majority chose the definition of derivative that it believed most closely effectuated the Legislature's intent, which was a chemical substance related structurally to another substance and theoretically derivable from it. Id. at 327-329, 715 N.W.2d 822 (quotation marks and citation omitted). Applying this definition of derivative, the majority concluded that 11-carboxy-THC was included in it because the compound is structurally related to THC. Id. at 329, 715 N.W.2d 822. As a result, the majority concluded that MCL 257.625(8) proscribes driving with any amount of 11-carboxy-THC in a person's body regardless of whether the person is actually under the influence of marijuana while operating the motor vehicle. Id. at 333-334, 341, 715 N.W.2d 822. That interpretation, however, was contrary to the statutory language.