MEDICAL POT ADVOCATES TO PROTEST ARRESTS, RAIDS

Following a protest Wednesday by more than 150 people at the Oakland
County courthouse, medical marijuana advocates said they plan to
gather Monday in Pontiac and Lapeer for more protests against the
arrests of patients and raids on dispensaries selling the drug.

Oakland County authorities said the protests would not alter their
tactics, such as last month's raids that shut dispensaries in
Ferndale and Waterford, and closed a center in Waterford where
patients gathered to use the drug.

A protest is to be held at 12:30 p.m. Monday outside the Lapeer
County Sheriff's Office and a second is to be at 3:30 p.m. outside
the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, Rick Thompson of Oak Park-based
Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine said Friday.

Southfield attorney Michael Komorn, who helped organize the protests,
is defending some of those arrested in Waterford.

"The idea that it's acceptable for law enforcement to beat down
doors, hold weapons at patients' heads, discuss killing family pets
in front of children -- all that has to stop," he said.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the protests wouldn't
alter his opinion that dispensaries are illegal.

"The Michigan Department of Community Health has said dispensaries
are not legal. Our county prosecutor has said dispensaries are not
legal," Bouchard said Friday. Those who disagree "need to go to
Lansing" to change the law, he said.

Michigan Department of Community Health spokesman James McCurtis has
said in interviews this year that the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act
- -- passed by voters in 2008 -- is unclear about whether dispensaries are legal.