Opinion ID: 831214
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: michigan's controlled substance laws

Text: MCL 257.625(8) forbids any person to operate a vehicle ... if the person has in his or her body any amount of a controlled substance listed in schedule 1 under... MCL 333.7212.... MCL 333.7212(1)(c) lists marihuana as a schedule 1 controlled substance. The Public Health Code, within which MCL 333.7212(1)(c) appears, defines marihuana as 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. [4] Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the main psychoactive substance found in the cannabis plant, [5] and it is undisputed that THC is a schedule 1 controlled substance. [6] The body produces 11-carboxy-THC when it metabolizes THC. Accordingly, it is a metabolite of THC. [7] In Derror, this Court addressed whether 11-carboxy-THC, as a metabolite of THC, is also a derivative of THC. [8] Because derivative is undefined in the Public Health Code, the Court in Derror used medical dictionaries to define the term and thereby determine whether 11-carboxy-THC is a derivative of THC. [9] The Court in Derror properly concluded that the term derivative encompasses metabolites. Although medical dictionaries define multiple senses of the term derivative, the Court determined that the definition chemical substance related structurally to another substance and theoretically derivable from it, contained in Merriam-Webster's Online Medical Dictionary, best effectuates the Legislature's intent. [10] In applying this definition, the Court concluded that 11-carboxy-THC is a derivative because it has an identical chemical structure to THC except for the eleventh carbon atom. [11]