Pubdate: Sat, 09 Feb 2013
Source: Oakland Press, The (MI)
Copyright: 2013 The Oakland Press
Contact:  http://www.theoaklandpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2114
Author: Carol Hopkins

LAW ENFORCEMENT PLEASED WITH SUPREME COURT MEDICAL POT RULING

Opinions run the gamut around Oakland County on Friday's Michigan
Supreme Court ruling on medical marijuana sales.

In a 4-1 decision, the state's highest court affir med an Appeals
Court finding that Michigan's 2008 medical marijuana law does not
allow people to sell pot to each other, even if they're among the tens
of thousands who have state issued marijuana cards.

"The Court of Appeals reached the correct conclusion that defendants
are not entitled to operate a business that facilitates
patient-to-patient sales of marijuana," the court's majority wrote.

The state's marijuana law makes no mention of dispensaries, nor does
it indicate how people should get the drug. It says people can possess
up to 2.5 ounces of "usable" marijuana and keep up to 12 plants in a
locked place. A caregiver also can provide marijuana.

Waterford Police Chief Daniel McCaw said he was glad to lear n of the
decision.

"This validates what we in law enforcement community have been saying
all along," McCaw said.

In August, 2010, a drug task force conducted raids at Waterford-based
Everybody's Cafe and a separate dispensary location on Williams Lake
Road. Several people were arrested and their cases played out in
Oakland County courts in the next few years.

"People on occasion contact me and want to open a dispensary or
distribution center," said McCaw, "but we explain it's in violation of
the law."

Southfield-based attorney Neil Rockind, defense attorney in several
recent medical marijuana cases, said people in the medical marijuana
community are panicking unnecessarily about the ruling.

"The opinion was very limited. The court is saying a patient
transferring to another patient is not entitled to immunity," he said.

"They still may come into court. But (if arrested), they can't hold up
their medical marijuana card and say, 'You can't arrest me.' It was
very limited as to what kind of transfers are entitled to
immunities."

The Supreme Court said Compassionate Apothecary in Mount Pleasant can
be shut down as a "public nuisance."

The business' owners had claimed they weren't doing anything illegal
because the law allowed for the "delivery" and "transfer" of
marijuana. The business allowed its members to sell marijuana to each
other, with the owners taking as much as a 20 percent cut.

Messages seeking comment were left with a spokeswoman for Attorney
General Bill Schuette and another with Isabella County Prosecutor Rita
Scully, who has said the state's medical marijuana statute does not
allow for dispensaries.

The attorney general called last year's Appeals Court decision "a huge
victory for public safety."

The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice Robert Young, who
was joined by Justices Stephen Markman, Mary Beth Kelly and Brian Zahra.

Justice Michael Cavanagh dissented, and Justice Bridget McCormack, who
won election in November, did not take part in the case.

The case was argued in October. 
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