PROTESTERS IN WATERFORD DEFEND MEDICAL MARIJUANA USE

More than 200 protesters gathered this afternoon to defend their use
of medical marijuana outside the Waterford District Court, while
inside a judge set hearing dates for 10 medical marijuana defendants
in cases that experts say could land in the state Supreme Court.

District Judge Richard Kuhn Jr. set preliminary exam dates of Nov. 4
for four defendants, and Nov. 19 for six others, all arrested during
raids in August of a medical marijuana dispensary -- where patients
bought the drug -- and a compassion club where they socialized while using it.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys say state law allows dispensaries
and compassion clubs, but Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper
and Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard have said they said they
are illegal. Bouchard also has said the raids were necessary because
undercover officers found drug abuse and drug dealing at the sites.

On Wednesday, state Department of Community Health spokesman James
McCurtis said that the department was unsure whether such
establishments were allowed under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act,
which voters approved in 2008.

In the courthouse parking lot, inside a ring of hundreds of
protesters, Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine editor Rick Thompson
said, "God bless you all for coming," after his magazine provided
t-shirts, lunches and bus rides for many of them.

Sitting in a wheelchair was Cathy Greer, 51, of Center Line.

"I just had a surgical procedure yesterday and I'll be at things like
this or I'll be 6 feet underground," said Greer, a state-approved
legal marijuana user who said she is a survivor of three types of cancer.

Greer said since using marijuana she has cut her pain medication use in half.