Attorney: Medical Marijuana Act 'trampled Upon' In Busts

[bobandtorey]

 

GAYLORD — Alan Witt has been arrested and arraigned and faces future court appearances, though he does not understand what he did wrong.

Witt, 27, of Gaylord, was arrested on marijuana charges July 9 while working at Gaylord Provisions, a medical marijuana dispensary located at 115 S. Wisconsin Avenue.

When Michigan State Police troopers arrived and later arrested him, Witt said he was only told there was a warrant out for his arrest. He said the troopers did not know why the warrant was issued or who was responsible for issuing it.

Once they arrived at the Otsego County Jail, Witt said it took another 30 to 45 minutes to find the warrant, and charges were not announced until the following morning, during which time he was confined to the jail.

Witt was arraigned, and he said he is currently facing charges, including two felony counts of delivering and manufacturing of marijuana, and one count of maintaining a drug house. His attorney, Joshua M. Covert, a criminal defense attorney with the Nichols Law Firm in East Lansing, said there are no charges stemming from the search of Witt’s home, all of them are from the dispensary.

With the charges now known, Witt said he remains confused as to what he did wrong.

“I believe I did nothing wrong,” Witt said of the charges. “I believe I was helping people and trying to save lives.”

He appeared for a preliminary exam July 23 before Judge Patricia A. Morse, where he said the court offered to drop the two felony counts if he pleaded guilty to the maintaining a drug house misdemeanor.

Witt said he and his attorney chose to waive the preliminary exam, putting the plea on hold, sending the case to 46th Circuit Court.

Now Witt plans on taking his case to a jury trial where he believes he will be able to clearly show his side of the story.

“We are innocent people, we haven’t done any illegal activity,” he said of himself and the other medical marijuana dispensary employees now facing charges. “Any law-abiding citizen who knew what happened would not deem me as a criminal.”

Witt is part of a lengthening list of Otsego County medical marijuana dispensary employees arrested and facing various marijuana charges after raids of several dispensaries throughout Gaylord and the county May 27.

As of Tuesday morning, at least six dispensary employees have been arraigned on marijuana charges, with more individuals awaiting arraignment.

Those arraigned include Witt, as well as Douglas and Karen Sides of Natural Remedies at 1349 S. Otsego Avenue, and Veronica James, Deborah Conklin, Gage McGuire, all from unspecified Otsego County dispensaries. At least two more arrests have been made as well, though the individuals await arraignment.

Covert deals often with medical marijuana cases and has defended medical marijuana patients. Much of his work is devoted to assuring medical marijuana act protections are upheld.

“I represent medical marijuana clients all over the state,” he said. “I do that because I think the medical marijuana act is trampled upon and people are not given their full rights.”

Witt’s case is another example of the trampling of the act, Covert said.

To better protect medical marijuana dispensaries and their employees, Witt and several others have been circulating petitions around Gaylord looking to put a proposed ordinance on the November ballot which would regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in Gaylord.

The “Coalition for a safer Gaylord” ordinance, written by Ben Horner, owner of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Report — a publication with medical marijuana news and information — would protect medical marijuana dispensaries, or provisioning centers, as long as the provisioning centers adhered to medical marijuana law as well as the ordinance.

Approximately 314 signatures are required for the issue to be placed on the ballot in November, and, so far, Witt said they have collected around 205.

Despite his pending court dates, Witt said it was important to continue on and work to solve the problem in hopes there will be not future raids.

“(The raids) turned innocent people into criminals,” he said. “Now we have taken all of our energy and turned from being reactive to proactive.”

 

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