Pubdate: Tue, 02 Oct 2012
Source: Oakland Press, The (MI)
Copyright: 2012 The Oakland Press
Contact:  http://www.theoaklandpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2114
Author: Dave Herndon

POLICE RAID TWO MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES IN ALLEN PARK

ALLEN PARK - Police say a pair of medical marijuana dispensaries they
raided Sept. 25 were operating illegally.

One dispensary was in a shopping complex at the corner of Reeck Road
and Maylawn Avenue.

Interim Police Chief James Wilkewicz said that site was doubly in the
wrong because the operators lied on the certificate of occupancy filed
with the city. According to their filings, they were operating a car
service, he said.

The other dispensary was on Ecorse Road between Allen and Pelham in a
small building next to a store that sells smoke supplies. It was
operating without a certificate of occupancy at all, the police chief
said

Attorney Denise Pollicella represents the Downriver Wellness Group,
which operated on Ecorse Road. She said her clients were not doing
anything outside the law.

"The owners were employing people and creating commerce," she said.
"The employees are all well trained in the law."

Dispensaries are not currently defined under the Michigan Medical
Marijuana Law; however, the law does say that to sell marijuana to a
patient there has to be a patient/caregiver relationship.

Wilkewicz said that was not the case at either dispensary that was
raided.

Wilkewicz said police used a combination of tips and confidential
informants to prove that the shops were operating illegally.

"Under the law, you have to have a patient/caregiver relationship," he
said. "We had people go in there with medical cards and no other
relationship that were able to buy right away."

The Downriver Wellness Group was raided by the Downriver Area
Narcotics Organization earlier this year. It has been in that location
since January 2011.

Police handled the raid without the assistance of any other law
enforcement groups, they said, mainly because they had to pull their
officer out of DRANO after budget and personnel cuts.

Department officials confiscated money, equipment and "a large amount"
of marijuana, according to Detective Bill Miller, the lead
investigator in the case.

Officers declined to release further specifics on what was
taken.

"I can't get into exact amounts right now," Miller said
yesterday.

No arrests have been made, but, according to Wilkewicz, information
that could lead to warrants will be sent to the Wayne County
Prosecutor's Office "soon."

"I have officers working on building a case," he said.

Miller said he is working with the prosecutor's office toward possible
arrests.

Wilkewicz stressed that dispensaries are currently illegal, and that
the department will continue to shut down any that open in the city.

"They can go somewhere else," he said. "If they open here, we'll keep
closing them down."

Pollicella said she is one of the "few" experts on the medical
marijuana law in the state, and that dispensaries are not illegal.

"There is no case law that supports that," she said. "What you have is
an opinion from the attorney general that law enforcement agencies are
taking as law. That's not right."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt