Pubdate: Wed, 22 Aug 2012
Source: City Pulse (Lansing, MI)
Copyright: 2012 City Pulse
Contact:  http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4532
Author: Andy Balaskovitz

ONE YEAR LATER

Few dispensaries remain, leaving little doubt that medical marijuana 
activity has gone back underground. Now, all eyes are on the state 
Supreme Court.

Once the neon flashes of an open sign and maybe a cannabis leaf 
showed plainly in the windows of 41 storefronts across greater 
Lansing. A half-dozen or so remain. Where once 11 medical marijuana 
dispensaries operated on the 1.6-mile stretch of Michigan Avenue 
between Cedar Street and U.S. 127, one remains.

Since Aug. 23, 2011, the number of medical marijuana dispensaries 
around town dropped from 41 to at least six. Thursday marks a happy 
anniversary for opponents of Lansing's once thriving medical 
marijuana dispensary scene, which reached a critical mass last summer 
right up until the state Court of Appeals sent owners running for the 
hills. For supporters of the market, particularly medical marijuana 
patients whose access to cannabis is more limited without 
dispensaries, Thursday is a far sourer anniversary.

Consequently, dispensary owners, attorneys and law enforcement 
officials - though they can't quantify it - say the dispensary 
business has merely gone from out in the open to the underground. 
Which should seem obvious: Did we really think the demand for 
cannabis would go away simply because of an unfavorable court ruling 
for businesses?

And those few business owners refusing to crawl under a rock until 
the state Supreme Court settles this issue, for now, are doing so 
cautiously - but for the greater good of patients.

"I would have to imagine" the business went underground, said an 
employee at CA of Lansing on Michigan Avenue, who asked not to be 
identified. "That's the only logical conclusion I can come to.

"Ever since I started working here, I just expect the cops to show 
up. But there's no reason for them to - it's not like we're doing 
anything illegal here."

While the employee said that the business has moved away from the 
previous CA model of storing cannabis in lockers for patients to buy, 
he would not detail how the business is run. Some attorneys disagree 
on whether dispensaries are actually illegal: Is it sales or service? 
they argue. The Court of Appeals ruled that the patient-to-patient 
"sale" of cannabis is illegal. Yet some dispensaries operate under 
legal advice that what they do is a service, and a patient is 
compensating for the costs of being able to use or have administered 
cannabis from a dispensary. "Clearly, this is a service industry," 
Detroit-based attorney Matt Abel told City Pulse last year shortly 
after the Court of Appeals ruling.

Brandon McQueen and Matthew Taylor, who are the defendants in the 
high-profile dispensary case before the state Supreme Court, operated 
Compassionate Apothecary stores in Mt. Pleasant and in Lansing. The 
employee who spoke with City Pulse took over the Lansing location in 
April after the store closed down for a short period, but he had been 
involved previously as a grower. "The amount of business we have now 
is far less than before," he said.

The McQueen case, as it's commonly called, is the pivotal court case 
that everyone in the dispensary business is - or should be - 
following. McQueen and Taylor opened a dispensary in Mt. Pleasant in 
May 2010 by leasing lockers in which caregivers could store cannabis 
at the business. Patients would pay a membership fee and have access 
to those lockers. Members would purchase and sell the cannabis among 
members. Seven months after opening, an Isabella County circuit judge 
ruled in favor of the business after the county prosecutor sought to 
close down CA as a public nuisance. The state appellate court 
overturned the lower court's decision, ruling that the 
patient-to-patient sales of marijuana are illegal, supporting the 
attorney general's argument. Moreover, the attorney general argues 
that not only are patient-to-patient sales illegal, but any kind of 
transfers are illegal unless it's between a caregiver and his 
patient. The Court of Appeals did not rule on the broader issue ! of 
patient-to-patient "transfers" - only sales. Matt Newburg, a Lansing 
attorney representing McQueen and Taylor, argues that the Michigan 
Medical Marihuana Act - approved by 63 percent of Michigan voters in 
2008 - does not expressly prohibit the sale of cannabis, nor does the 
Public Health Code, which regulates all drugs. "Nothing prohibits it, 
nothing authorizes it," Newburg said. Still, Newburg has been 
advising dispensary owners who have sought his advice to stay closed 
in light of the Court of Appeals ruling.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal, and interested parties 
are now filing briefs with the court. Oral arguments may happen 
sometime in October, Newburg said. But a potential "wrench" in the 
case, Newburg added, is the Nov. 6 election, in which we could see 
new Supreme Court justices. The court may issue a ruling before then, 
but it may not. A new round of oral arguments could be held.

If Newburg is seeing the battle between law enforcement and 
prosecutors and patients throughout the state, he's doing so from the 
frontlines.

"I've probably been more busy since McQueen came out (of the 
appellate court) than before doing criminal defense work," Newburg 
said. "I don't know if there's a correlation there or not." To get an 
idea of Newburg's case load since the McQueen ruling shut down a 
majority of Lansing dispensaries, he said "probably 90 percent" of 
new medical marijuana cases involve "the exchange of marijuana 
between patients or with an undercover officer." Newburg said he gets 
calls from potential new clients every two to three days.

When asked if he's seeing the trade move back into the shadows, 
Newburg said: "I have no direct knowledge of it, but I'm sure it has."

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth, who believes dispensaries 
are illegal, agrees that transactions are surely moving to more 
secretive areas. Isn't that more of a challenge from a law 
enforcement perspective? "I don't know. They're gonna do it one way 
or another. That's always the case," he said. "It created a huge 
problem for law enforcement because of the way the law was written. 
It made prosecution difficult. Underground or in a building doesn't 
make a difference, you still have the issue of whether it's between a 
caregiver and a patient or not."

Wriggelsworth and Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III agree 
on the notion that the law is vague. Wriggelsworth called the 
legislation, as written, "mumbo jumbo;" Dunnings called it "chaos."

While courts can rule on narrow questions of the law on a 
"case-by-case" basis, Dunnings said, the Legislature has the ability 
to speed up the process by amending the law itself - which would take 
a three-fourths majority of both chambers.

"I really hope the Legislature could come in and bring some order to 
this chaos. If we have to do this case by case in the Supreme Court, 
it could take years," Dunnings said.

The dispensaries that still operate in Lansing do so because law 
enforcement officials have not requested his office to prosecute 
them, Dunnings said. Those requests would come from the Lansing 
Police Department or the Tri-County Metro Narcotics Squad. Other 
times, it's from Attorney General Bill Schuette. Employees at one 
dispensary, HydroWorld, are being charged with felony drug crimes by 
the state Attorney General's Office. The Lansing State Journal 
reported last week that, based on testimony, four employees 
repeatedly sold cannabis to undercover police officers. The case is 
pending in Lansing district court. The Journal also noted that 
Schuette filed a civil suit against HydroWorld in December, saying 
the businesses didn't comply with the Medical Marihuana Act.

The brave ones?

Meanwhile, of the 41 dispensaries that once operated in greater 
Lansing, at least six remain today, all within the city limits.

For Rocky Antekier, owner of Helping Hands at 4100 S. Cedar St., 
staying open was his livelihood: "I didn't have a choice. I would 
lose everything or stay open."

Helping Hands did close for two to three months after the McQueen 
ruling, he said, but he "followed suit" when he saw others stay open. 
But that doesn't mean he's not concerned.

"I worry about it everyday," he said of possibly being shut down. 
"It's just a decision I had to make. I made it, and I live with the 
decision." Antekier added that he's "phasing out" the sale of medical 
marijuana in the store, focusing instead on a delivery service and 
selling new and used growing equipment. But it's not all about his 
own bottom line, he said. Antekier, a frank talker, realizes the 
McQueen ruling "screwed" a lot of patients who may not have 
caregivers or readily available access to cannabis without dispensaries.

"We try to help them out," he said, noting that he's heard of 
patients going to "convenience stores" and "gas stations" to acquire 
meds. "It's easier to come to a secured location."

Steve Green, of Star Buds at 2012 N. Larch St., said the decision to 
stay open was strictly for the needs of patients - particularly older 
ones. "Those are the ones that we're here for: People who are really 
limited (in mobility) and don't have access and there isn't a 
storefront for them," he said. And even if the Supreme Court upholds 
the appellate court's McQueen decision: "I would say that we're going 
to be open until we get a letter that says we can't be open."

Jeff Gibson, president of Superior Growers Supply, comes at it from a 
different perspective. SGS is an indoor gardening supply shop that 
has four locations throughout the state, three of which are in 
greater Lansing. A fifth location in Howell recently closed because 
the market there couldn't support it. SGS celebrated its 29th 
anniversary this year and was one of the early indoor gardening 
supply stores in the country. Naturally, it has a loyal customer 
base. And naturally, some of those customers grow medical marijuana.

 From his view, the McQueen ruling phased out large-scale grow 
operations. More customers are looking for equipment and nutrients to 
support small gardens for one or two patients, he said. More 
dispensaries allowed growers to sell off overages to the business to 
be sold to businesses. "They were able to supply the dispensaries and 
in turn supply the patients," Gibson said.

Without dispensaries, patients' only realistic alternative is to find 
a caregiver who can grow well or to grow it themselves, he said.

"It's really an imposition on the patients," Gibson said. "Hopefully 
the authorities will come to their senses and do what they can to 
help the sick."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom