Pubdate: Sat, 10 May 2014
Source: Times Herald, The (Port Huron, MI)
Copyright: 2014 The Times Herald
Contact: http://www.thetimesherald.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.thetimesherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2570
Authors: Beth LeBlanc and Nicholas Grenke

GRAY AREAS SHADE MARIJUANA LAW

Law enforcement officials, users grapple with what's legal

Laura Rigby wants fewer limits on pot in Port Huron.

As a medical marijuana patient, Rigby can possess no more than two and
a half ounces of usable marijuana and no more than 12 marijuana plants
in a locked enclosure.

But Rigby wants more for the city. She was collecting signatures
Thursday for a ballot initiative that would make it legal for people
21 and older in the city to possess less than an ounce of recreational
pot.

As some marijuana advocates push for more liberties, officials are
working to enforce the current limits with what they say is a patchy
law that leads to misuse and abuse.

"As time has gone on, it's gotten a little bit easier, but it is still
an extremely difficult and vague law to follow, which causes police
officers, prosecutors and courts headaches every day," St. Clair
County Prosecutor Mike Wendling said.

Wendling said, in his opinion, the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act
already has extended marijuana to more people than it was ever
intended to reach.

He said medical marijuana was sold to voters in 2008 to help those
with terminal cancer or sicknesses without access to other viable
treatments. But the vague wording of the law has permitted marijuana
usage in a broader community, he said.

"What it's become now is really, for a lot of people, a recreational
drug that is portrayed as a medication," Wendling said. "The people
that I've seen come through the court system are not the people that
this constitutional amendment or legislation were intended for."

According to data from the state Licensing and Regulatory Affairs,
about 2.63 percent of Michigan medical marijuana patients in 2013
listed cancer as the debilitating condition that qualified them for
medical marijuana. About 1.03 percent listed glaucoma as their
debilitating condition.

Most medical marijuana patients - about 68.44 percent - use it for
severe and chronic pain.

People with severe and chronic pain have been the majority users since
2011.

Wendling said the law has been improved and clarified since it was
implemented, but only marginally. Medical marijuana quantities, use,
transport, and enclosure specifics are some of the clarifications made
since the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act's implementation.

But law enforcement officials say the clarifications aren't
enough.

"Every time they clarify something, it leaves a loophole for something
else," said Sgt. Jim Spadafore, a member of the St. Clair County Drug
Task Force.

Spadafore said some of those loopholes include the definition of
"usable" marijuana. The law touches on admissible quantities of
"usable" marijuana, but doesn't address what's considered usable or
unusable.

Some users claim dried marijuana is the only usable form addressed in
the law.

"There's a bunch of different definitions of what usable marijuana
is," Spadafore said.

Wendling said medical marijuana users also must remember their
certification is treated no differently from a prescription on the
road.

"If you're using marijuana and you're operating a motor vehicle, there
is no protection that is given by having a card," he said.

Medical marijuana patient and caregiver cards also are protected by
the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, St.
Clair County Sheriff Tim Donnellon said. If a neighbor calls the
police, reporting a suspected grow operation next door, authorities
can't know if the suspect has a card until they arrive at the residence.

"It's hard to know who is a legitimate caretaker growing a certain
amount of plants and who is doing it illegally in his backyard,"
Donnellon said.

The number of medical marijuana patients in St. Clair County has
decreased marginally in the past few years, with 2,424 patients in
2011, 2,293 patients in 2012, and 2,121 patients in 2013, according to
LARA data.

The number of caregivers jumped from 877 in 2011 to 909 in 2012,
before decreasing by nearly half - for a total of 468 caregivers - in
2013.

Rigby believes the decrease of caregivers has its roots in state
limitations and disappointed growers.

"I think there are three reasons," Rigby said. "First, the state
limited who can be caregivers; second, there is a lot of fear of legal
issues; and three, people are finding it's a lot more difficult than
they thought it would be to grow."

Donnellon said the advent of medical marijuana came around the same
time opiate use - in the form of prescription pills or heroin - and
methamphetamine labs became pressing issues in the community.

"Add that to crack cocaine that never left," he said.

Donnellon said the St. Clair County Drug Task Force has to determine
where to put its focus.

"A lot of our time is directed toward opiate, meth and crack,"
Donnellon said. "The marijuana cases are looked at, but they tend to
be more substantial before we get into it."

Rigby said marijuana has helped many people who were in severe pain
and had developed opiate addiction turn to a product that is safer and
natural. She said law enforcement should be arresting people using
hard drugs instead of bothering medical marijuana users.

In 2011, a federal investigation led to federal raids on medical
marijuana centers in Kimball, Worth and Denmark townships.

"They came in with 69 police officers, guns drawn threatening to shoot
the dog," said Debra Amsdill, owner of the Blue Water Compassion
Center in Kimball Township. "They destroy people's property, and when
I say destroy, I mean destroy - all over marijuana."

Charges by the state attorney general's office against Amsdill and her
family included conducting a criminal enterprise to conspiracy to
deliver or manufacture marijuana.

The Amsdills were alleged to have conspired to aid or make possible a
transfer of marijuana to patients they were not connected with through
the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act registry.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Cynthia Lane dismissed the charges in
August, ruling their actions were not criminal at the time of the
investigation.

A Michigan Supreme Court opinion issued after the investigation ruled
the actions were illegal, but the opinion could not be applied
retroactively to the Amsdills.

In October 2013, authorities raided grow operations in Fort Gratiot,
Port Huron and Riley Township, netting what they said was about $3
million in marijuana.

The county drug task force seized about 72 marijuana plants 10 to 15
feet tall, 71 marijuana plants more than six feet tall, and 50 pounds
of loose marijuana.

Forty-year-old David Price and 28-year-old Andrea Staudaker were
arraigned April 15 on several charges related to the raid. Price was a
medical marijuana patient, and Staudaker was a medical marijuana caregiver.

Staudaker is charged with two counts of manufacture and delivery of a
controlled substance and two counts of maintaining a drug house.

Price is charged with five counts of controlled substance second
offense.

Price and Staudaker's preliminary examination in St. Clair County
District Court is ongoing.

Wendling and Donnellon said they've seen abuses of patient and
caregiver cards within the county.

"I'm frustrated with the people that think they can do whatever they
want and grow and distribute marijuana whatever way they want, and
think that having the caretaker card will protect them," Wendling said.

"That's not what the law was intended to do."

Rigby and Amsdill said prosecutors and law enforcement are creating
"shades of gray" on a law that was approved by residents of the state.

Wendling said the prosecutor's office will continue to enforce the law
despite its challenges.

"There are areas and counties that have taken a position that we're
not going to bother with this anymore," he said. "That's not this county."
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