NILES MAN GETS PROBATION ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA 'TECHNICALITY'

CASSOPOLIS -- A Niles man with a medical marijuana card will serve a
two-year probation sentence for storing his plants in the wrong place.

Jason Kurz, 27, will spend the first 60 days of the probation on
tether, he learned at his sentencing Friday in Cass County Circuit
Court.

In June 2010, Edwardsburg police officers came to Kurz's home on
Huntly Road in Niles on a tip that fugitives may have been staying
there. When they conducted a search, they found unsecured marijuana in
his closet.

According to Michigan law, medical marijuana card holders can grow up
to 12 plants in a secured facility.

Kurz took responsibility for the mistake, but still called it a
"technicality."

Prosecutor Victor Fitz pointed to Kurz's 11 criminal convictions on
his record -- most of them related to drugs.

"A message needs to be sent: If you have a card, you have to comply,"
Fitz said.