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Five Month Medical Marijuana Dispensary Investigation Ends In Arrests


beourbud

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http://www.9and10news.com/story/31905028/five-month-medical-marijuana-dispensary-investigation-ends-in-arrests

 

Police arrested five people after spending five months investigating local medical marijuana dispensaries.

 

It all started in December when the Traverse Narcotics Team and several other agencies raided the dispensaries.

 

They say the four dispensaries in Kalkaska County were operating outside Michigan’s medical marijuana act guidelines.

 

During the raids, they seized marijuana, records, and cash along with other forms of the drug.

 

Those searches also led to two other searches at homes and three more search warrants at local banks.

 

Five people in Kalkaska County have now been arrested for selling and delivering marijuana as part of dispensary raids that happened back in December.

 

The Kalkaska County Prosecutor, Mike Perreault says they violated the state's medical marijuana laws and thanks tippers for informing them about the dispensaries. “People complain to the sheriff about these and say do something about it and we have been investigating cases we've been working on them.”

 

But since the December raids law enforcement and the county prosecutor has worked with dispensaries to better follow guidelines.

 

“If you really want to do this for your patients you really want to do this properly you need to be in compliance this is how you should go about doing this. Other locations were less interested in doing that and might have made a halfhearted effort completely failed or racked up repeated violations since then.”

 

And arrests were made, but the prosecutor says their main goal is protecting the community. “So we're not looking to take these people and throw them in prison and throw away the key and stuff like that, our real goal here is just the compliance of the statue and the safety of the community.”

 

But organizations like Chronic Certification Center who connect dispensaries with patients across Northern Michigan are concerned about the raids and arrests' impact on patients depending on them.

 

Adam DeVaney, the Assistant Clinical Director at the center says, “Certainly when patients have no access it essentially cuts off their access. If they don’t have access to the caregiver then they simply have no access when this happens.”

 

People who were arrested are due back in court later this month.

Edited by beourbud
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How does a despense have guide lines?  I dont see one word about despense in the law.  Im totaly not against them, I beleive we should have despense's and farm markets, Bottom line is they are not in the law, which makes them ilegal!

 

Like I have been saying even way before any news stations, is the only way you can have a despense is if the workers are all c.g's and only sell to their registered pt's thru the registry!

 

What is following the rules? no medibles, but pt2pt is legal? no wax, dabs, oil but cg2cg is legal?

 

How are they telling them to be in compliance?  do they have to have 100 c.g's in order to sell to 500 pt's?

 

how does a despensarry open and not break any laws?

 

Peace

Edited by phaquetoo
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How does a despense have guide lines?  I dont see one word about despense in the law.  Im totaly not against them, I beleive we should have despense's and farm markets, Bottom line is they are not in the law, which makes them ilegal!

 

Like I have been saying even way before any news stations, is the only way you can have a despense is if the workers are all c.g's and only sell to their registered pt's thru the registry!

 

What is following the rules? no medibles, but pt2pt is legal? no wax, dabs, oil but cg2cg is legal?

 

How are they telling them to be in compliance?  do they have to have 100 c.g's in order to sell to 500 pt's?

 

how does a despensarry open and not break any laws?

 

Peace

 

 

“If you really want to do this for your patients you really want to do thi$ properly you need to be in compliance"

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How does a despense have guide lines?  I dont see one word about despense in the law.  Im totaly not against them, I beleive we should have despense's and farm markets, Bottom line is they are not in the law, which makes them ilegal!

 

Like I have been saying even way before any news stations, is the only way you can have a despense is if the workers are all c.g's and only sell to their registered pt's thru the registry!

 

What is following the rules? no medibles, but pt2pt is legal? no wax, dabs, oil but cg2cg is legal?

 

How are they telling them to be in compliance?  do they have to have 100 c.g's in order to sell to 500 pt's?

 

how does a despensarry open and not break any laws?

 

Peace

 

 

Long read from 2010

 

GOT POT?: CITIES STRUGGLE WITH NEW LAW 

When Michigan residents in 2008 voted in a measure approving the use of medical marijuana for qualified patients, the state suddenly found itself on the front lines of a national legal and ideological battleground. 

 

Residents, elected officials, planners and attorneys for many municipalities are embroiled in debate and confusion over the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, which was approved by more than 63 percent of the state's population. 

 

It is an emotional struggle, pitting those who are trying to understand and reasonably enforce the law against those who see it as a basic health care and human rights issue. 

 

And for the time being, there seems to be little, if any, light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

Politics aside, it is local government and residents caught in the trenches of this struggle as the legal nuances of the medical marijuana law will invariably shake out in the courtroom. 

 

In the city of Ypsilanti, the first medical marijuana dispensary in the state opened in January, thrusting into the hands of city officials the complicated issues of proper zoning and permitting, the statute's relationship with federal law and the Public Health Code, as well as the touchy subject of whether people want a dispensary in their neighborhoods or Main Street areas. 

 

So far, the arrangement has been a success, said Jamie Lowell of the 3rd Coast Compassion Center, a nonprofit that offers medical marijuana to some 2,000 licensed patients, in addition to caregiver consulting, educational classes and advocacy networking. 

 

"We've been totally transparent with the city from the beginning," Lowell said.  "We've tried to work with them, we've had them up here and we've showed up at the various meetings. 

 

"( The city ) has done a good job of gathering people together to research everything that they can.  They have gotten information from several sources." 

 

The building, at 19 N.  Hamilton St., is a historic structure nestled comfortably in a residential neighborhood mostly occupied by Eastern Michigan University students.  At one point, it was home to a funeral parlor and then served as headquarters for Girl Scouts. 

 

Area resident and EMU teacher Darrell Stavros has owned the building since 1994, and he, too, now helps manage the center. 

 

Despite signs that read, "Medicine and cash not kept overnight," and some educational materials posted on the outer doors, one probably would never realize while casually walking by that the historic structure has opened the doors for dispensaries across the state. 

 

Of course, the first question most people ask when they do realize that the one-time funeral home is now a medical marijuana dispensary is: How does it work? 

 

The 3rd Coast Compassion Center is, essentially, a private club for state-certified patients who can buy and use medical marijuana on site, and for caregivers who develop relationships with the collective and provide medicine. 

 

How the process works is that caregivers who grow more than what they need can bring that in and get it into the hands of patients who are currently without medicine. 

 

Lowell describes it as a "dispensing collective" that is not meant to substitute the patient-caregiver relationship as prescribed in the law, but rather as a means to ensure patients have an uninterrupted flow of medical marijuana. 

 

"We're not designed in taking over that caregiver relationship, and we make those relationships here, as well, sometimes," Lowell said.  "Everything here is pretty small and controlled.  There's not volumes of things going on here.  And it is all well within all the parameters of the act." 

 

As far as paying the bills, Lowell said they accept donations from the private club of people from 3rd Coast to pay salaries and offset costs of the building. 

 

Security at 3rd Coast is tight, with cameras outside and a security guard checking identification at the door.  Addressing universal concerns about dispensaries generating more crime because of the nature of the business, Lowell said that by occupying what was a vacant building, developing security and more foot traffic in the area, they have had a reduction in crime. 

 

"This building hadn't been used for two years," he said.  "We created jobs.  We've fixed up the house and outside. 

 

"To have a building that's functional with cameras and security guards, people going in and out, it reduces the crime.  An empty house creates much more potential for crime." 

 

At the same time, however, Lowell said he does understand area officials having reservations about the dispensary issue because it is such a foreign concept. 

 

"It is definitely a 180-degree turn for some of these people and that's part of the problem for these municipalities," he said.  "It's just a totally different way of thinking. 

 

"In their defense, they're not bad people nor really against us, but this is totally foreign thinking to them.  This thing that they have been told for years is evil, now is suddenly being presented as good medicine and legal. 

 

"The reality is, though, we are trying to figure things out just like everybody else.  Some of the law enforcement and prosecutors, they have honest intentions and they are trying to figure things out, too.  But there are people who are distinctly opposed, and that's it and it doesn't matter what the truth is." 

 

Zoning changes and regulations being addressed by the Ypsilanti Planning Commission will have no impact on the 3rd Coast Compassion Center as it is grandfathered in, Mayor Paul Schreiber said. 

 

Once Planning Commission members develop a list of recommendations, the City Council will address the dispensary issue in earnest; but until then, it essentially is a non-issue unless they are provided further guidelines from the state. 

 

"What is going on is that we don't really have a lot of direction from the state," Schreiber said.  "The Planning Commission is in charge of determining the proper areas to have dispensaries." 

 

Schreiber said it is a fluid situation, thus prompting the city to OK a moratorium on medical marijuana-related businesses, namely dispensaries, until the issues can be sorted out at the planning level. 

 

"The only reason we have ( a moratorium ) is because we don't want to have any radical changes while the issue is being discussed by the Planning Commission," he said. 

 

In Ann Arbor, officials are going through a similar situation, having approved a four-month moratorium on dispensaries in August and delaying a Sept.  22 vote by the Ann Arbor Planning Commission on a proposed medical marijuana ordinance that was characterized as too restrictive. 

 

The moratorium ends Dec.  3, and for longtime advocates such as resident Chuck Ream, who opened his own dispensary business several months ago on Packard Road, all eyes are focused on the proposed zoning and ordinance changes that could inhibit dispensaries and how they conduct business. 

 

Ream was advised by his attorney and the Med Mar Compassionate Healthcare of Ann Arbor board of directors not to comment on this report.  He said they need to focus right now on getting medicine into the hands of their patients. 

 

The Ann Arbor area is home to what is believed to be eight or nine dispensaries serving thousands of patients.  City officials have said in previous meetings that they are sympathetic to patients' needs and rights under the statute and hope to have an ordinance approved soon. 

 

The temporary ban prohibits the start-up or expansion of any facilities on city property. 

 

This does not apply to: 

 

.  A dwelling where a qualifying patient resides and is cultivating up to the maximum number of permitted marijuana plants for personal use or possesses up to the maximum amount of marijuana permitted for personal use. 

 

.  A building, structure or other dwelling where no more than one qualified patient or primary care giver is cultivating or possesses up to the maximum number of marijuana plants or amount permitted. 

 

While officials in neighboring communities such as Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti are looking at simple ordinance amendments to regulate dispensaries, the city of Belleville has chosen to explore additional regulations on top of addressing the issue through zoning. 

 

In recent meetings, the City Council has asked its attorney, John Day, to look at not only appropriate zoning practices for a possible medical marijuana dispensary, but also a permitting process in an attempt to group marijuana-related businesses with such businesses as tattoo parlors and massage parlors. 

 

Can the City of Belleville Do That According to the Statute? 

 

"There is nothing in there that says we can't, and there is nothing in there that says we can," Day said. 

 

Like Belleville and other areas, Day said he believes most municipalities are doing their best to be proactive on the dispensary issue.  But, he is quick to point out that because of the vagueness of the law, he hopes the state Legislature will step in at some point and create more defined regulations. 

 

"( The state ) could make it so that you could have a dispensary, and they could clean up this idea about the growing," Day said. 

 

"They could set up a more regulated distribution center, maybe something like what they have done with alcohol.  And there are other ways of regulating, but most communities aren't real sure of which way to go." 

 

Day said that despite the more stringent approach the city has taken regarding the dispensary issue, it has received backlash from residents afraid that officials are legalizing marijuana in their neighborhoods. 

 

He hopes that public hearings regarding the zoning amendments, to be set in the near future, will clear up some of the misunderstanding. 

 

"We've had a lot of people come out and say by passing these regulations that we're legalizing marijuana," Day said.  "We're not.  It's still illegal. 

 

"But we have this law that provides for this structure, and if we don't address some of these things, then what is to stop somebody from putting a distribution center next to City Hall or next to a school?" 

 

Is Medical Marijuana Legal? 

 

Even with a voter-approved referendum law, a set of guidelines allowing for the exchange and use of medical marijuana and non-profit businesses springing up in a number of areas across the state answering the question of whether medical marijuana is "legal" in Michigan is still challenging, at best. 

 

To complicate matters, a recent opinion written by Judge Peter O'Connell on an Oakland County medical marijuana defense case argues that there are a number of contradictory areas in the act and prescribed violations of the Public Health Code. 

 

O'Connell makes it clear that his interpretation of the act, which is in no way legally binding, is that the MMMA does not legalize medical marijuana.  It simply sets forth a broad set of guidelines for patients with debilitating illnesses to be protected from prosecution under the law for possessing and using marijuana. 

 

"The MMMA does not create any sort of affirmative right under state law to use or possess marijuana," O'Connell says.  "Although these individuals are still violating the public health code by using marijuana, the MMMA sets forth particular circumstances under which they will not be arrested or otherwise prosecuted for their lawbreaking." 

 

The problem with the act, O'Connell says further, is that it is "inartfully drafted," and has created confusion at all levels of government. 

 

He advises residents to be wary of taking liberties with the act. 

 

"Accordingly, the confusing nature of the MMMA, and its susceptibility to multiple interpretations, creates an untoward risk for Michiganders," O'Connell's opinion says.  "Reading the statute carelessly or out of context could result in jail or prison time for many of our citizens." 

 

Attorney Day agrees, for the most part, with O'Connell's conclusions, but cautions that the opinion itself is merely advisory, at best, and will have very little effect on future litigation. 

 

He said that from the standpoint of the city of Belleville, officials are concerned with how the act will impact zoning and ordinance amendments that could open the doors for a medical marijuana dispensary within city limits. 

 

But Day also has problems with the MMMA and suggests, because of all the confusion the statute has caused, that parts of the act could be addressed by the Legislature in the near future. 

 

"It's possible that some of this legislation would be struck down, and O'Connell is very clear about this that the use, possession and sale of marijuana is still illegal," Day said.  "And we are stuck with the situation of because of these laws, we are possibly passing zoning where we can allow someone to possess, handle and store medical marijuana." 

 

As for the dispensary issue, Day points to language in the MMMA that covers distribution of medical marijuana through the patient-caregiver relationship, but it doesn't cover selling. 

 

"Nowhere in the statute does it cover the right to sell," Day said.  "They talk about distribution, but they never talk about selling.  And now people are starting these medical marijuana distribution things and we're kind of stuck.  Do they have the right to sell? Do they not have the right to sell? That's the whole abyss we're in." 

 

Jamie Lowell of Ypsilanti's 3rd Coast Compassion Center said those who question the validity and use of the MMMA, are taking a very narrow interpretation of language governing patients and caregivers, while ignoring the entire spirit and intent of the law itself.  He said the entire concept of the dispensary is to provide an uninterrupted flow of medicine to state-qualified patients.  He said it's more of a human rights issue than a question of the law. 

 

"There are opposing forces who claim, by a philosophical difference of the interpretation of the law, what places do that are dispensing models of some kind are inherently illegal because it steps outside of the patient-caregiver relationship," Lowell said.  "What they are trying to say is that is the only situation in which you can dispense within; however, that would mean that patients would have go for long periods of time before they can get to any medicine. 

 

"The whole point of the law is to provide a broad set of protections to allow for people to help facilitate to get this medicine to the patients and you have to do that in reasonable amounts." 

 

Lowell said it typically takes four to six months for caregivers to grow the product and, during those times in between harvesting, patients can get medicine at the dispensary. 

 

"What we do here is absolutely aboveboard," he said, "and everything we do here carries out the spirit and intent of this law and the spirit and intent of what voters overwhelmingly approved in 2008 and that is all that we do here. 

 

"We do not step outside of the parameters of this Michigan Medical Marihuana Act." 

 

Day argues, however, that before businesses such as dispensaries are given free license to administer provisions set forth in the MMMA, some of the issues need to be tested in court, including how to verify the initial doctor-patient relationship so that Michigan can avoid "pot-docs." 

 

"The reality is the law says it still is illegal," Day said.  "You can still get arrested, still get prosecuted and you can still get brought to trial. 

 

"But then you have to prove in court, by evidence, that you are, in fact, using it for medical purposes.  ( The MMMA ) gives you a defense, but it doesn't prevent you from being arrested or keeping you from going to trial." 

 

Lowell, interestingly enough, agrees that the issues surrounding the MMMA need to be weighed in court in a civil manner rather than conducting any more police raids as happened in Oakland County. 

 

"They want to paint this as being very vague and gray areas and difficult to understand," Lowell said.  "And there are things that people wish could have been made a little more directly clear.  But, that being said, the patient needs a place to safely get medicine, and if you interpret ( the act ) that it's OK to have patients go without their medicine, that does not fit into the whole spirit and intent of this law." 

 

Through such groups as the Michigan Association of Compassion Centers, Lowell hopes to be able to provide legal help to patients who are in trouble. 

 

"Some of these people in positions of power don't take this seriously as health care," Lowell said.  "There needs to be a means where we are aware of these things and we can help by getting the proper lawyer in the right positions to either defend somebody or sue somebody. 

 

"That's the way we are going to get the spirit of this law fulfilled.  That's not what we would like to do.  We would rather do it through communication and education."

 

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n850/a03.html?4999

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