JUDGE: NO MARIJUANA FOR PATIENTS ARRESTED IN OAKLAND COUNTY RAIDS

Despite impassioned pleas by several defense attorneys, Waterford
District Court Judge Richard Kuhn Jr. refused today to allow medical
marijuana patients to use the drug while out on bond-a decision met
with low hisses in a courtroom packed with 13 defendants, their
lawyers and supporters today.

The 13 faced hearings following last week's raids of a medical
marijuana dispensary and a compassion club for patients in Waterford.

The defendants' pre-trial conferences, scheduled for today, were
postponed until Oct. 7 for most of them, and until later in October
for a few, because prosecutors had not yet shared all of their
information with defense attorneys. Another four people arrested in
the raid have not yet been arraigned, and weren't present today in
court, officials said.

Before the hearings today, about 60 people defendants, their lawyers,
and supporters of medical marijuana gathered in front of the
courthouse to complain that their arrests were politically motivated
by county authorities hostile to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

About two dozen people in the crowd wore shirts that bore the
wording, "This is Michigan, not a Cheech and Chong movie!"

That referred to the statement last week by Oakland County Sheriff
Michael Bouchard, who in the course of criticizing medical marijuana
establishments his officers raided in Waterford and Ferndale, said,
"This is Michigan, this is not a Cheech and Chong movie."

He meant the classic stoner movie duo.

Bouchard said his comment was meant to indicate that notwithstanding
the state law allowing medical marijuana, his officers found
widespread drug dealing and abuses at the locations a contention
vigorously disputed today by a dozen defense attorneys, including
former Oakland County prosecutor and vehement drug foe David Gorcyca.

In Waterford, the restaurant where medical marijuana patients had
been gathering each day at 4 p.m. no longer can host the gathering as
a condition of the owners' bond, attorneys Jeff Perlman and Michael
Komorn said.

However, the eatery, Everbody's Cafe on Airport Road in Waterford, is
open for food from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, said co-owner Candi Teichman.

She and her husband, William Teichman, also owned a dispensary nearby
that sold medical marijuana to patients, and also has been shut down
by authorities.