Case Continues After Raid On Benzie Medical Marijuana Farm

[bobandtorey]

BENZONIA — Creg Hillier stood below a coil of barbed wire, one of the few remnants of the security system he installed to protect a flourishing medical marijuana crop he once tended in Homestead Township.

The crop is gone, torn from the ground in an August raid in which Hillier and four others were arrested on suspicion of felony drug crimes. Authorities confiscated four dump truck loads of marijuana plants from the property that day.

Hillier, who is serving a year-long probation sentence after his arrest, contended he and his fellow growers acted by the letter of Michigan’s Medical Marijuana law. They even warned patients about treating the substance like alcohol, with care not to drive after using.

 

“It’s a controlled substance,” he said. “We realize that.”

Traverse Narcotics Team detectives and authorities from Benzie County Sheriff’s Department, Michigan State Police and Straits Area Narcotics Enforcement on Aug. 24 searched three Cinder Road properties after an anonymous source alleged Ronald Snyder was operating an illegal marijuana farm, according to a police report.

They determined there was inadequate fencing and a marijuana farm that allowed too many people access to plots that were supposed to be kept separate, said Benzie County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Tang-Anderson.

“He should know he wasn’t following the rules,” she said. “It seemed to be quite a large grow operation and ... I think that was a dangerous situation.”

Detectives confiscated 363 marijuana plants, Tang-Anderson said. They confiscated processed marijuana, more than $13,000 in cash, a trail camera, cars and more during the raid, according to a police report.

Ronald Keith Snyder, 52, who was arrested in the raid, contended the bust was an overreach. He considered the suspected violations “civil infractions.”

The Cinder Road properties were under Snyder’s direction. Snyder and five others grew medical marijuana in six enclosures he said were kept locked, guarded and legal.

He said security guards walked the property all day and all night and plants were tagged with patients’ numbers to ensure there weren’t too many growing at once.

The farm was extensive, Snyder said. But he saw himself as providing medicine to his patients at little- to no-cost, driving down the state’s medical marijuana prices and creating a home for the people who helped secure and care for the property.

He said he was a “stickler” for legality.

“It grew out of control,” Snyder said. “It got way bigger than I thought it would get. I didn’t intend to do this.”

Michigan State Police Lt. Kip Belcher helped search the Cinder Road properties. He said Snyder’s farm looked like a commercial operation, not run by amateurs.

“These were what I would characterize as being extremely high quality marijuana plants with the potential to produce a significant amount of end product,” he said.

Belcher argued the state’s medical marijuana law is aimed at allowing for small growers, not commercial operations. While large farms such as Snyder’s can be legal, size sometimes suggests violations.

Snyder argued the detectives who searched his property didn’t go far enough to check into whether he and his fellow growers abided by the state’s medical marijuana law.

“I think if they had just listened to what’s going on, checked our credentials, checked our cards, checked our plant cards, everything would have been smooth,” he said.

Belcher countered that the search was by the book, not an overreach. He said the two rifles found on the property supported the need for detectives to conduct such raids. He surmised they were used for security, although they could have been hunting rifles.

“You would have to ask yourself, with regards to loaded firearms being on the premises, what other purpose could you fathom?” he said.

Snyder contended he is “anti-gun” and didn’t allow security guards to carry weapons.

Everyone but Snyder arrested during the raid finished their cases in Benzie County’s 85th District Court. They were offered plea agreements that dismissed the felony charges and left them with minor misdemeanor convictions, violations of the public health code, but still with probation, court fees and a lost 2016 crop.

Tang-Anderson said she charged the suspects with felonies according to what evidence she had. She said the plea agreements to public health code violations help build her case against Snyder. She said she aims to stop Snyder from growing.

“The people who have already pleaded guilty have promised to testify truthfully if needed in any of the other cases that are still outstanding,” she said.

Two cases, including Hillier’s, disappeared from public records under a state statute that allows first-time suspects to receive deferred criminal proceedings. The charges are wiped from the court records if suspects complete probation. Suspects are convicted if they violate their probation terms.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have no drug conviction on your record,” said Hillier’s attorney Dennis Swain.

Hillier disagreed. He said he felt “rail-roaded” into the decision, which he contended limits his opportunity to file a civil suit to be reimbursed for his lost plants.

Swain said Hillier was treated fairly by the letter of the law, but that his case reflects a philosophical question Michiganders will contend with in coming years.

“The whole question of marijuana is in a state of flux,” Swain said. “In terms of legally, certainly (Hillier) was treated fairly. What do I think of our marijuana laws in general? I think we’re wasting a great deal of time and money chasing after people who want to smoke an herb.”

Snyder still faces eight counts of felony drug crimes, including conducting criminal enterprises, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He intends to fight.

“They’ve pushed this too far,” Snyder said. “I’m in it to win it, now.”

Snyder’s attorney Jesse Williams said it’s too early for him to know the evidence prosecutors have to support Snyder’s drug charges. Snyder is scheduled for a Feb. 6 preliminary examination in district court.

Williams contended medical marijuana cases are wastes of authorities’ time and resources. He argued no one is hurt by medical marijuana.

 

“Please, someone point out one victim in this case,” he said.

Snyder, Hillier and the Cinder Road troupe are just a few of many medical marijuana growers and patients to be charged since Michigan voters passed the state’s medical marijuana act in 2008. The act allows licensed patients and caregivers to grow, sell and use marijuana. It limits the number of patients and plants each caregiver can possess.

Violating the act means violating the state’s drug laws, Belcher said. Marijuana is a schedule 1 controlled substance, grouped in a category with heroin and ecstasy.

“It means they can be charged with a felony if they don’t follow the rules,” he said. “Essentially that they won’t be granted the protection of that act if they don’t follow the rules within it.”

Troopers emphasize searching for opioids and methamphetamine, but can’t ignore complaints about non-conforming medical marijuana farms, Belcher said.

“(Marijuana) has progressively been a smaller number of cases as each year transpired, within the last five years for certain,” he said.

Prosecutors, detectives, growers and patients will contend with changes to Michigan’s medical marijuana law in December 2017, when recently passed amendments to the law take effect.

The amendments create licenses for dispensaries, growers, processors and other medical marijuana facilities, imposes a 3 percent tax on retailers’ income and creates a “seed-to-sale” tracking system for medical marijuana.

A state fiscal analysis estimates the tax could raise about $24 million per year.

Local municipalities can dictate how many licensed marijuana facilities to allow within their borders under the amendments. Caregivers and patients won’t have to be licensed.

Tang-Anderson expects the amendments to complicate the state law.

“The new laws are going to take I think a lot of work to implement, and I don’t totally know how that’s going to be accomplished,” she said. “As a prosecutor I’m not looking forward to having to know those laws inside and out because I think what we have right now isn’t terribly easy. As a lawyer I know what the rules are, but I don’t think it’s as easy for a layperson to know all the rules.”

Williams suspects the new laws point to a state more accepting of medical marijuana as an established, standardized industry. He said Michiganders don’t care about marijuana use, especially compared to other issues. He argued marijuana should be re-classified so it is no longer a schedule 1 controlled substance, which requires drugs have no medicinal purpose.

“These new laws really make it very clear that care providers do not have a part in the standardizing of the cannabis industry in Michigan,” he said.

But Snyder, depending on the outcome of his court proceedings, plans to rebuild. He wants to sue for reimbursement for his and his patients’ lost property and grow marijuana again at his farm.

Snyder aims to see marijuana someday legalized for recreational use. He envisions it in grocery stores displayed next to cans of coffee.

Hillier agreed. He likened marijuana to caffeine or alcohol — sometimes useful, but not benign.

“There’s good and bad to everything, we all know that,” Hillier said. “We were trying to be in this for the good.”

 

http://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/case-continues-after-raid-on-benzie-medical-marijuana-farm/article_738922a2-012f-5b04-b78c-2f25b8735b4c.html

[king cannabis]

Bob your the man

[Wild Bill]

Acted by the letter of the law with 363 plants. Regrettable.

[williams2311]

Acted by the letter of the law with 363 plants. Regrettable.

6 different enclosures and 6 caregivers. No different then people in Detroit renting warehouse space to multiple caregivers.I wouldn't ever be associated with a place like that but i don't feel he should be punished.

[Wild Bill]

No one should be punished for possessing a plant.

[Apollo]

No one should be punished for possessing a plant.

While I agree 100%, anyone doing this type of thing or opening a dispensary are signing up to be a test case in court.