POLICE SEIZE MEDICAL MARIJUANA PLANTS

RAPID CITY -- Police swooped in and confiscated several marijuana
plants from a man after a local weekly newspaper wrote about him
growing marijuana for medical use.

The Grand Traverse County-based Northern Express on July 27 ran a
story about Kalkaska County resident Archie Kiel and others who grow
and use marijuana.

Kiel, who lives on the outskirts of Rapid City, is authorized to grow
marijuana for himself and two patients under Michigan's recently
approved medical marijuana laws.

But officers with the state police-led, multi-jurisdictional Traverse
Narcotics Team arrived at Kiel's house last week and seized about
half of his nearly 70 marijuana plants. Authorities told him photos
in the Northern Express revealed he had more than he was authorized
to grow, Kiel said.

Kiel, 48, is allowed to have 12 plants for himself and 12 more for
each of his patients, he said. He contends the remaining plants were
intended for patients who hadn't yet obtained medical paperwork to
permit them to use marijuana, but were in the process of doing so.

"I was totally trying to stay legal in every way, shape and form ...
I'm trying to stay legal and take care of my patients," he said.

TNT Commander Lt. Kip Belcher wouldn't comment. Kalkaska County
Prosecutor Brian Donnelly said he and Belcher discussed seizing all
of the plants, but weren't comfortable going that far.

"There's not enough consensus on this ... I don't want to be in the
position where we appear to, or actually do encroach on something
that's legal," Donnelly said. "If it turns out there's a prevailing
legal (opinion) that we should have taken the rest of them, we can go
back and take them all."

Donnelly said he learned of TNT's plans to visit Kiel's property
after officers arrived there and called him. He said isn't sure if
police will seek criminal charges against Kiel.

"One thing I think is safe to say is if the situation is as such that
he was legally authorized to grow a certain number of plants and he
had more, he's almost certainly going to be charged," he said.

Kiel's excuse -- preparing for patients who soon will have medical
marijuana certification -- doesn't hold much legal weight, Donnelly said.

"If you say, 'But I'm going to have my drivers license in two weeks,
can't I drive now?' Then the answer is no," he said.

Traverse City-based reporter Anne Stanton wrote the Northern Express
story. She said she contacted Belcher prior to its publication and
assumed police wouldn't bother Kiel, though they made no such promise.

"(Belcher) didn't give me any guarantees. He acknowledged that the
people I was writing about weren't his typical targets," Stanton
said. "Maybe, because I'm a tender-hearted person, I thought that he
would leave them alone."

Kiel said he wasn't surprised when authorities arrived at his door,
though a police fly-over conducted shortly before the raid was a bit
unsettling, he said.

"They buzzed my house with a helicopter close enough to shake
everything," he said.

Neighbor Steve Saunders, 70, said those who live near and know Kiel
thought police might come knocking after the Northern Express story.

"Everyone expected something to happen," he said. "They expected
Archie to get arrested."

But neighbors were outraged when police took the marijuana, and
community support is swelling for Kiel, Saunders said.

"Archie's family is an old family here ... they'll stand by Archie," he said.