Medical Marijuana Dispensary, Cooperative Grow Rejected By Appeals Court

[bobandtorey]

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The state's medical marijuana law offers no defense for the owner of a dispensary or a man who ran a cooperative grow operation, the state Court of Appeals said.

The defendants in the Grand Rapids cases contended they acted legally under Section 8 of the medical marijuana law. It allows assertion of the defense even if they are not registered patients or caregivers if they can show their use of marijuana was for a medical purpose.

"Accordingly, we hold that a defendant who possessed, cultivated, manufactures, sold, transferred, or delivered marijuana to someone with whom he was not formally connected through the MMMA (Michigan Medical Marihuana Act) registration process may be entitled to raise an affirmative defense under Section 8.

"However, we also hold that in order for such a defendant to be entitled to raise an affirmative defense under Section 8, he must qualify as a 'patient' or 'primary caregiver,' as those terms are defined and limited under the MMMA," the appeals panel wrote.

"As such, we hold that to be in compliance with the MMMA – and therefore to be eligible to raise a defense under Section 8 in a prosecution for marijuana-related conduct – an individual must either be a 'patient' himself or the 'primary caregiver' of no more than five qualifying patients, as those terms are defined and understood under the MMMA."

Justices Jane Markey, Michael Riordan and Henry Saad issued the ruling on Wednesday, May 18, after a hearing earlier this month.

Ryan Bylsma, who had a cooperative grow, and David Overholt, who ran a dispensary, were prohibited from using the medical marijuana law at trial in Kent County Circuit Court.

Overholt pleaded no contest to delivery or manufacture of marijuana after police in 2013 raided his dispensary, Mid-Michigan Compassion Club on Leonard Street NW.

Bylsma pleaded guilty to a high-court misdemeanor of maintaining a drug house and possession of marijuana for operating a collective grow operation in 2010. His attorney, Bruce Block, said he was only helping other caregivers and patients grow marijuana in a Grand Rapids warehouse.

The appeals panel said that many of his "patients" had designated themselves or others as primary caregivers, so Bylsma could not be their primary caregiver. He was also cultivating marijuana for other caregivers who were not patients and thus had no medical need themselves for marijuana.

Medical marijuana was approved by Michigan voters in 2008. Proposals to legalize recreational use are expected to be on the fall ballot.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/05/medical_marijuana_dispensary_c.html

[bobandtorey]

http://publicdocs.courts.mi.gov:81/opinions/final/coa/20160517_c317904_59_317904.opn.pdf

[trichcycler]

like to help marijuana patients?  best thing you can do for them, yourself and

the rest of our community is to

1) register up to five legal patients, you know, to help, and

2)follow the lara rules, like the rest of us do.

no dispensary/club/gro op court fight has helped our cause

 

dispensary planner ------"hey lawyer, can I open a dispensary and make oodles of cash without getting in trouble?"

lawyer -----------------------"maybe, for awhile, I have an expensive solid defense for you,  and  plea bargains are an affordable option"

 

see #1 for best results

[bobandtorey]

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It looks like the state Court of Appeals has pounded another nail into the coffin of marijuana dispensaries in Michigan.

A pair of West Michigan men who faced little to no jail time after they reached plea deals for distributing medical marijuana appealed their cases, which took a circuitous route through court system.

The result is the new decision severely limiting how marijuana can be obtained under the voter-approved Michigan Medical Marihuana Act.

“It’s confusing, even just speaking it, you go, ‘Well, wait a minute, this doesn’t make any sense,” said Matt Hoffmann, a self-described expert in the medical marijuana industry.

Under the ruling, it appears that the only way that medical marijuana patients can get their weed is by either growing it themselves or getting it from an approved caregiver who can serve no more than five patients.

>>PDF: The court’s ruling

It’s a blow to dispensaries in Michigan, which were already operating under a shadowy system of enforcement that varies from one county to another. In Kent County, for example, dispensaries have been the subjects of raids and prosecutions that have all but eliminated them. But in Ingham County, the attitude is to allow them to operate until there is clear direction from the legislature or judiciary.

Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Gary A. Moore, who represented the county in the appeal, said there is nothing in Michigan’s act that allows for dispensaries.

Hoffman, who has experience in the medical marijuana industry, said the new limits do not create a reliable or financially sustainable way to get medical marijuana to patients who are licensed to get it.

“Yeah, it’s unfortunate to see the rights be eroded in the way they are,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman said it’s important to have people who know what they are doing grow and distribute the marijuana.

“People can know what they’re getting and know it’s coming from a reliable source and when they find something that works for them — that cures their insomnia or makes their back stop hurting or whatever — that when they come in next week it’s going to be the same,” he said.

He said the ruling could result in people turning to the traditional market for marijuana: illegal sales.

“I don’t think that’s the intention of the act, to make people who are law-abiding citizens break the law to access something the law said they could access,” Hoffman said.

The men involved in the case can still ask the Michigan Supreme Court to examine the case again and they probably will — but it is unlikely Court of Appeals’ decision will be overturned.

State Rep. Mike Callton, R-Nashville, has introduced a bill that would create regulation and taxation for medical marijuana exchanges. That bill sailed through the Michigan House of Representatives and is now before a Senate committee.

Meanwhile, efforts to put the legalization of marijuana on the ballot seem to have stalled out.

What this all adds up to is that despite the Appeals Court decision, the debate over marijuana in Michigan is far from settled.

 

http://woodtv.com/2016/05/19/court-ruling-puts-the-lid-on-medical-marijuana-dispensaries/

[bobandtorey]

like to help marijuana patients?  best thing you can do for them, yourself and

the rest of our community is to

1) register up to five legal patients, you know, to help, and

2)follow the lara rules, like the rest of us do.

no dispensary/club/gro op court fight has helped our cause

 

dispensary planner ------"hey lawyer, can I open a dispensary and make oodles of cash without getting in trouble?"

lawyer -----------------------"maybe, for awhile, I have an expensive solid defense for you,  and  plea bargains are an affordable option"

 

see #1 for best results

 

Thanks

 

But you could go to Ingham County,or Wayne County, 

 

Can a  patients still get their cannabis from anyone ? or has that also changed ?

[trichcycler]

 

 

“People can know what they’re getting and know it’s coming from a reliable source and when they find something that works for them — that cures their insomnia or makes their back stop hurting or whatever — that when they come in next week it’s going to be the same,” he said.

 

 

EXACTLY!!!   This is what LARA has outlined for us. Its called the Caregiver patient registration!   It works great, is legal and safe.

 

 

so a dispensary buys up all of the garbage on the street, at the lowest cost possible, then renames it and sells it to people who walk in.

 

get it through your thick greedy heads....it appears that the only way that medical marijuana patients can get their weed is by either growing it themselves or getting it from an approved caregiver who can serve no more than five patients.

 

lara says that on their front page duhhhhhhh!!!  seems dispensary operators are not required to read!...that explains it all!!!! lol

 

there is NO knowledge necessary to resell marijuana. It will not necessarily be the same next time, even if its named the same, what a silly notion.

[trichcycler]

Thanks

 

But you could go to Ingham County,or Wayne County, 

 

Can a  patients still get their cannabis from anyone ? or has that also changed ?

what?  nothings changed.

do you know of  a court ruling that patients will not be allowed to support cartels or illegal dispensaries too  while procuring their supply?

 

Legal caregivers can register patients in any county in MI. If patients want to support the illegal drug trade thats up to them, caveat emptor.

 

Courts say selling cannabis to more than your five registered patients is illegal. rinse, repeat. selling cannabis to more than your five registered patients is illegal.

literacy is a beautiful thing, I hope aspiring drug re sellers consider this before causing more court rulings that further restrict patient freedoms.

[Greg Rx]

what?  nothings changed.

do you know of  a court ruling that patients will not be allowed to support cartels or illegal dispensaries too  while procuring their supply?

 

Legal caregivers can register patients in any county in MI. If patients want to support the illegal drug trade thats up to them, caveat emptor.

 

Courts say selling cannabis to more than your five registered patients is illegal. rinse, repeat. selling cannabis to more than your five registered patients is illegal.

literacy is a beautiful thing, I hope aspiring drug re sellers consider this before causing more court rulings that further restrict patient freedoms.

Love yea GM but this does not work for a majority of new users. You know that the law was never intended to limit pt to pt or caregiver to caregiver exchanges. You are correct in that dispensaries are responsible for this mess but to EVER admit or believe that the act meant to limit the exchange to linked patients, is heresy. Any reasonable person, reading the act, can see that section 8 was meant to protect any qualifying patient AND any doctor, nurse, relative or neighbor, willing to procure cannabis for a bedridden(for example) patient.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE LAWYERS  IN THIS STATE?

Edited May 20, 2016 by Greg Rx

[trichcycler]

Love yea GM but this does not work for a majority of new users. You know that the law was never intended to limit pt to pt or caregiver to caregiver exchanges. You are correct in that dispensaries are responsible for this mess but to EVER admit or believe that the act meant to limit the exchange to linked patients, is heresy. Any reasonable person, reading the act, can see that section 8 was meant to protect any qualifying patient AND any doctor, nurse, relative or neighbor, willing to procure cannabis for a bedridden(for example) patient.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE LAWYERS  IN THIS STATE?

 

yes, I agree....but today, the law and court decisions have defined it in a new way. No matter if I agree with those court opinions or not. I dont dispute my disagreement one bit, however........is what it is, today.  I feel for patients, anyone with legal troubles  related to cannabis, but I cant support the notion of opening or operating a dispensary today in any city until the court/law/fed says it is safe to do so.  I will sign a petition to allow them perhaps. The feds said they'd leave us alone if we followed those rules. I hope they keep their word.

 

Has a section 8 defense ever been used successfully? 

 

lawyers helped to solidify the ambiguity, wonder why......  may be an end game in mind. maybe ten dispensaries, all lawyer owned, will pop up as the only ones allowed to grow......

 

peace