Michigan?s medical-marijuana law has created a pipe-full of legal confusion.
The vaguely worded law has led to a contradictory tangle of local ordinances, law-enforcement policies and lawsuits in response to a statewide explosion of marijuana dispensaries, ?compassion clubs? and home-grow operations.
Just recently, the picture has been changing fast.? The last few weeks have seen a push at the state level for much tighter restrictions, backed by Attorney General Bill Schuette among others.
And now, a new federal policy statement has thrown Michigan?s entire medical-marijuana law into question.? Already that bombshell is having an impact on local governments.
In the Muskegon area, disagreements and confusion over the law have led to conflicts:
On April 25, drug-enforcement officers for hours detained Derek Antol and Samantha Conklin, officers of the Greater Michigan Compassion Club, after finding and seizing Conklin?s marijuana during a traffic stop in the city of Muskegon.? Both were released without being charged with a crime.? Police eventually returned the marijuana after a prosecutor?s opinion that her status as a certified caregiver required it.
In June, Muskegon Township sued to try to shut down the Greater Michigan Compassion Club, which is in the township.? The case is pending.
In Norton Shores, city officials last week refused a business license to a home-based medical-marijuana dispensary that?s been operating for months.? The owner says he?ll sue the city.
Smoke gets in your eyes
At issue is the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, as it?s officially known.? Sixty-three percent of Michigan?s voters approved it in a ballot initiative in November 2008.
Interpretations of the law vary wildly.? Some believe it allows almost unlimited sales of marijuana among caregivers who grow marijuana and patients who use it, with doctors having total freedom to decide who can be a patient.? Others argue the voters only meant to allow small-scale plant cultivation, with each caregiver helping a small number of the sickest people.
A few things about the act aren?t in dispute.
If you ignore federal law, it?s clear that ? at a minimum ? Michigan allows state-certified caregivers to grow up to 12 marijuana plants per patient, and to be compensated for doing so.? Each caregiver may serve up to five patients.? The patients need a doctor?s certification that they have a ?debilitating? illness or injury that justifies the use of marijuana, commonly for relief of pain or nausea.
Beyond that bare minimum, controversy reigns.
Many local officials argue that?s all that voters approved: five patients per caregiver, 12 plants per patient, compensation for costs and nothing more, with the word ?debilitating? interpreted narrowly to mean dire diseases such as cancer.? That?s part of Muskegon Township?s argument in its lawsuit.
But many marijuana advocates say the law is much broader.? They say it allows caregivers to sell excess marijuana not needed by their personal patients ? if the patient doesn?t need 12 plants ? to anyone holding a medical-marijuana card, at whatever price the market will bear.
That?s led to a widespread, unregulated marketplace for medical marijuana.? It includes dispensaries whose caregiver-owners sell their own marijuana ?overages,? and compassion clubs in which members buy and sell the drug while club operators get a cut of the sale price.? Both types of operations often assist prospective patients/customers with getting certified for medical-marijuana cards.
Such operations are relatively few in number in Muskegon County, as far as local authorities know: the Norton Shores dispensary; a small compassion club on Ottawa Avenue in Muskegon; and the Greater Michigan Compassion Club.
Disputes over the law?s meaning have gone to courts all over the state in a welter of lawsuits.? No clear picture has emerged yet.
Policy patchwork
In Muskegon County, local governments have taken a range of approaches to dealing with medical marijuana.
The city of Muskegon ? the area?s largest municipality ? revised its zoning ordinance to confine it to industrial areas.
Other governments, including Laketon and Egelston townships and Ottawa County?s Grand Haven, Spring Lake Township and Grand Haven Township, have adopted ?police powers? ordinances that ban commercial dispensaries and place restrictions on caregivers and patients, citing a danger of crime such as burglaries, robberies and illegal marijuana sales.
Still others, including Norton Shores and Muskegon Township, have adopted supposedly temporary ?moratoriums? that prohibit new dispensaries and clubs until an ordinance can be developed.
And some municipalities have adopted no official policies, pointing out that federal law makes marijuana illegal.
Paul Miller, a certified caregiver who?s been operating the Muskegon Medical Marijuana Dispensary out of his Norton Shores home, finds many of the restrictions misguided.? But he sees a need for better regulation at the state level.
?I think the idea of creating a better set of rules for patient certifications is a good thing,? Miller said.? ?There may be issues out there of people who are not technically eligible to get a card, getting them.?
But he argues that banning dispensaries and compassion clubs is the wrong approach.? ?I think those are two of the only ways for patients to have access to medication,? Miller said.? ?I think there are quite a few who have no idea what to do when they get their card.? They don?t know who to go to to get their card, to get medication.
?If you do away with the dispensaries or the compassion clubs, what?s the patient going to do, get it out on the corner??
Just last week, Norton Shores refused Miller?s request for a business license.? Miller said he will sue the city while continuing to operate his business in a roundabout way: letting customers come in to examine his product, but only making actual sales after delivering the marijuana to the customer.
In the city?s view, federal law trumps Michigan?s.
?The city has taken a position that a dispensary is inconsistent with federal law and therefore not allowed in the city of Norton Shores,? city Administrator Mark Meyers said.
Norton Shores officials, like Muskegon Township?s, also take the position that ?overage? sales aren?t allowed under the state?s law.
Meyers said his city welcomes recent moves by Schuette and others to clarify and tighten the state law, including bans on dispensaries.? ?It?s an important issue to local governments, and there?s a lot of gray area currently,? he said.
Besides the actual dispensaries and clubs, the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act has generated a cottage industry of businesses that advertise help with getting certified or other issues related to medical marijuana.
One is Grand Haven Legal P.L.C., an attorney-paralegal business operating since last August.? The business, which recently moved into the Piano Factory building, assists patients with certifications and clubs with setting up legally.
?In one word, I call myself a facilitator,? said paralegal Susan Bradley.? ?I help people connect.? ?? We all work as the center of a wheel helping people.?
Muddy waters
Michigan?s medical-marijuana law hasn?t made life any easier for law enforcement.
?It?s limiting and confusing both,? said Tony Kleibecker, Muskegon?s public safety director.? ?It?s one of the most poorly written pieces of legislation I?ve ever seen.
?The vote was under the guise of medical marijuana,? Kleibecker said.? ?It?s gone far beyond that.? Who are we kidding here? There?s all kinds of widespread sales going on, and anybody can get a medical-marijuana card, they?re so easy to get hold of.?
Like many local officials, Kleibecker would welcome a clarification of the law by the Legislature or the courts.? ?The waters are surely muddy,? he said.? ?We need some clarity.?
Agreeing with that is First Lt.? Chris McIntire, chief of the Michigan State Police Grand Haven and Rockford posts.? He?s also former chief of the Metropolitan Enforcement Team, a Grand Rapids-based drug-enforcement unit.
McIntire said the law has made it tougher to do drug-law enforcement.? With much of that work based on tips, ?we may have information there?s marijuana growing at a house.? We get a valid search warrant for this house, only to find the grower has a valid caregiver card.? ..? No harm has been done, but my guys have wasted a lot of time.
?What we?re telling our guys is, before you waste time on this investigation, be reasonably sure this person doesn?t have a medical-marijuana card,? McIntire said.? That?s not always easy, given that the state Department of Community Health won?t tell police who they?ve issued caregiver cards to.
But he said the law hasn?t caused drug teams to back off on marijuana-law enforcement ? just to examine each potential case more closely before pursuing it.? ?Backing off is tough for us, because there is just an incredible amount of violence that comes along with ( illegal ) marijuana like any other drugs.?
Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler, too, wants to see clarification of the law ?to make it easier on everybody.? It?s much easier for us to do our job when we know what we?re supposed to do.?
Roesler said medical marijuana, unlike conventional prescription medicine, is not allowed in the Muskegon County Jail.
Game changer?
On June 29 the U.S.? Department of Justice weighed in with a memo to U.S.? attorneys nationwide, saying no marijuana grower or distributor is safe from federal prosecution just because their state allows medical marijuana.
It appears to be a major policy shift from a 2009 memo indicating that the Obama administration would be lenient with the medical-marijuana community in states where it?s legal.
It?s too early to be sure, but the new memo may change everything.
Whatever the feds end up doing, the new statement is already affecting local policymakers.
In Norton Shores, ?we?re watching what?s happening on the federal level,? Meyers said.
In Muskegon Township, officials are postponing consideration of a medical-marijuana ordinance, partly in response to the Justice Department memo, Supervisor David A.? Kieft Jr.? said.
?We?re going to extend our moratorium again,? Kieft said.? ?We?re just waiting to see what happens with the federal government.?
Source: Muskegon Chronicle, The (MI)
Copyright: 2011 The Muskegon Chronicle
Contact: http://www.mlive.com/mailforms/muchronicle/letters/index.ssf
Website: http://www.mlive.com/muskegon/
Author: John S. Hausman
Other Posts of Interest:
Source: http://www.cannabisnews.org/united-states-cannabis-news/medical-marijuana-law-leads-to-confusion/
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