Campus Letter and Informed Consent for the Wisconsin to Michigan Medical Marijuana Migration Research Study

March 22, 2013

To the Editorial Board:

Below is a press release seeking patients for a geographic study of Michigan residents who relocated to the state from Wisconsin to obtain legal access to medical marijuana. A student
researcher under my advisement is conducting the project. To ensure that we record valid data, we ask that this announcement is circulated widely. Feel free to edit the copy into an
announcement, letter to the editor, or third-person staff story. The contact person below, Jay Selthofner, is our key informant for the study and serves as the gatekeeper for participant
anonymity. All interested parties should be contacting him directly–not the researchers–to preserve privacy.

If you have any questions about the project itself, please do not hesitate to contact my student, Jonathan Steffen stefj8414@students.uwc.edu), or myself (andrew.shears@uwc.edu) via e-mail.

Best regards,

Andrew Shears, PhD
Assistant Professor of Geography

Jonathan Steffen
Undergraduate Researcher

Campus Letter Press Release for Medical Marijuana Migration Research Study

Informed Consent MMJ-WI-MI Reserch Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jay Selthofner Tel: 920-410-2920
Email: Jay@SelthofnerConsulting.com

PARTICIPANTS NEEDED FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA MIGRATION/RELOCATION RESEARCH
PATIENTS & CAREGIVERS WELCOME

Wisconsin to Michigan Medicinal Movement

Participants are needed for an undergraduate research study that is being conducted by a student/staff team specializing in geography at the University of Wisconsin Fox Valley. We will be looking to conduct our research in the form of a single, semi-structured interview with medical marijuana patients and caregivers; mainly those who
migrated internally for political-medicinal relief.

By studying the migration of medical marijuana patients to Michigan, we hope to contribute our results to the discussion on marijuana law reform, as well as the geography of
health related circumstances in general. Participation in this study will provide researchers with the information necessary to examine the factors leading to interstate medical migration for access to marijuana, as well as the various cultural, social and economic impacts resulting from the choice to relocate.

Participants will never be identified in this study ever, in any way, any time – except by a participant identification number – and will remain completely anonymous in perpetuity. Benefits for participants include personal reflection and scientific contribution, and indirectly it could allow the patients to move back into Wisconsin if the research convinces legislatures to move forward on policy formation regarding the medicinal uses of marijuana.

###