TWICE BURNED

Marijuana Raids Could End Up Answering Key Legal Questions

Last week proved to be a bad one along two fronts in the ongoing
battle against the police state.

At about the same time a Wayne County Circuit Court judge was
upholding a Detroit Election Commission action to keep a
pro-marijuana measure off the November ballot, Oakland County Sheriff
Mike Bouchard and Prosecutor Jessica Cooper were holding a press
conference to triumphantly display the haul of pot, marijuana-infused
edibles and a few guns confiscated during a series of raids carried
out on dispensaries and private homes.

In all, 17 people were busted.

As we reported earlier this year, there are definite gray areas in
the medical marijuana law Michigan voters overwhelmingly passed in
2008. Last week's raids on growing operations and compassion clubs
where pot is sold could prove to be the makings of a test case.

Certain aspects of the law are etched in stone says Detroit activist
Tim Beck, who had a hand in writing the state law. Clearly, a patient
registered with the state can grow plants for personal use, and
caregivers can grow for their specified patients. Beyond that, many
aspects of the law are as gray as smoke. The Oakland Press quoted
Oakland County Undersheriff Michael McCabe saying, "There is
currently no place in the state of Michigan to legally purchase
medical marijuana."

Beck disagrees. There may be no place where it can be legally sold,
he contends, but patients, according to his reading of the law he
helped write, can buy their medicine anywhere they can obtain it. It
is only the sellers who run the risk of prosecution if they are not
caregivers supplying one of their patients.

Aside from the arcane split hairs that will get sorted out in the
courts, there is the big picture. And according to Bouchard, that big
picture doesn't include Cheech and Chong movies, which he took pains
to point out that, in his view, Michigan wants no part of.

But, as Jeffrey Perlman, a lawyer representing two of people busted
last week, points out, dozens of cops were involved in the raids. Is
this really how we want ever-dwindling resources to be spent?

Granted, it seems reasonable for municipalities to establish zoning
ordinances governing where compassion clubs or dispensaries can be
located. The same goes for larger grow operations. As weed-friendly
as this column might be, we wouldn't want someone opening a club next
to our home.

What strikes us as particularly schizophrenic is that one of the
places busted last week, Clinical Relief in Ferndale, was operating
in a city that only last week saw its City Council amend its zoning
ordinances to allow for medical marijuana businesses at specified
areas. As the Macomb Daily reported, Ferndale Police Chief Timothy
Collins had toured the clinic shortly after it opened and said at the
time it appeared to be operating within legal guidelines.

What the hell? One cop says, "Go ahead, you're legal," and another
slaps cuffs on you and throws you in the slammer. It makes you wonder
who's really been hitting the pipe.

And then you have Bouchard, a guy who still has to be stinging from
getting thrashed at the polls in a wildly failed attempt to become
the state's Republican gubernatorial candidate, telling reporters this:

"We don't want to deal with all this at all if it's within the scope
of the law. It's going to divert a lot of precious resources from
things we could and should be doing. This is not something we should
be spending a lot of time and money on."

Well, then, why do it?

We are, after all, talking about a plant. A plant that helps people
who are sick.

Our mind is boggled, and it's not from weed.

[sidebar]

DETROIT ELECTION COMMISSION'S REJECTION OF MARIJUANA MEASURE DEFIES
EVEN STONER LOGIC

Speaking of boggled minds, News Hits dodged a green bullet when no
one took us up on our offer to bet an ounce of purple kush that Wayne
Circuit Court Judge Michael Sapala would overrule the Detroit
Election Commission and order that a marijuana legalization measure
be placed on the Detroit ballot for the November election. Whew.

But we're still perplexed. Sapala ruled that, because the measure
conflicted with state law, the commission had a right to keep it off
the ballot. But back in 2004, Detroit voters passed a similar measure
allowing the city's residents to use pot for medical purposes - four
years before the state law was approved.

How could that have been allowed on the ballot? Likewise, the state's
medical marijuana law conflicts with federal law, which allows no
legal use of pot, no matter how much it might help some poor bastard
suffering from cancer and wasting away from chemotherapy. So why was
that allowed to go before voters?

Sapala will be asked to reconsider his decision, but chances appear
to be slim that he'll change his mind. And so supporters, the
above-mentioned Tim Beck being in the lead, have acquired the
services of a high-powered lawyer from the Honigman Miller firm to
take the matter before the state Court of Appeals.

But don't expect that to be done in time for November's election, says Beck.

"We're going to take our time and do it right," he promises.

All this fuss over a weed that grows wild.