WOMAN EVICTED FROM FEDERALLY SUBSIDIZED APARTMENT FOR USING MEDICAL MARIJUANA

At 25 years old, Shannon Sterner said she lives with pain.

The Leoni Township resident has tried medications to manage the
effects of fibromyalgia and reactive arthritis brought on by an
infection. For the last nine months, she has been using a new method
to deal with the discomfort caused by her conditions: marijuana.

But her use of the drug, allowed under Michigan's medical marijuana
law, resulted in eviction from her federally subsidized apartment this week.

"They said I violated my lease for having an illegal substance," said
Sterner, who was ordered to vacate her home at Ridgewood Vista
Apartments by Wednesday afternoon. "For me, I was under the
assumption it was legal and I didn't do anything wrong."

The incident highlights confusion with the 2008 Michigan law,
especially as it relates to conflicts with the federal government,
which considers the substance an illegal drug.

Sterner and her attorney, Michigan Medical Marijuana Association
President Michael Komorn, argue she was not breaking the law. But
housing complex managers contend they must comply with federal rules
to continue to provide federally subsidized housing.

Tenants must keep their homes free of illegal drugs when they sign a
lease, said Gary Offenbacher, executive vice president of Bingham
Farms-based Continental Management, which owns Ridgewood Vista.

Offenbacher said Sterner's neighbors had complained about a smell of
marijuana smoke. The Jackson Narcotics Enforcement Team responded to
her apartment at 5340 Ridgewood Vista Drive on July 28 and seized
five marijuana plants from the back porch, said Michigan State Police
Detective Lt. Dave Cook, who leads JNET. The case is pending review
from the county prosecutor, Cook said.

Sterner was not arrested and denies growing the plants on her porch.
She said seeds might have fallen into a potted rosebush while she was smoking.

Offenbacher said the housing complex was forced to act.

"I can't dispute her legal use within the state, but there are
certain agreements tenants make when they live on federally
subsidized property. She was not abiding by that," Offenbacher said.
"The federal government holds us to different standards."

District Judge Michael Klaeren sided with the housing complex in
December in a legal dispute over the eviction. Sterner received an
eviction notice Monday.

"It's distressing because Shannon is sick," said Komorn, who is
considering an appeal. "She is being singled out for her choice of
how she wants to treat her medical condition. She was doing nothing wrong."

Under state law, a patient can have 2.5 ounces of marijuana. If they
do not have a specified caregiver, patients can keep 12 plants in an
enclosed, locked facility, according to the law.

Federal law requires housing complexes that receive subsidies to have
lease provisions that allow them to evict tenants for using illegal
drugs, such as marijuana. Still, they can use discretion, according
to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

"While there is a requirement that (public housing agencies) and
landlords have lease provisions that give them the right to evict,
the decision is theirs and theirs alone," HUD spokeswoman Laura
Feldman said in an e-mail.

Sterner, who has a designated caregiver to grow marijuana for her,
said she does not know where she will stay.

She said she grew up in foster care and has no family to stay with
locally. She hoped friends would take her and her two children in,
and planned to spend Wednesday night with a neighbor, but she did not
know where she would go next.

Her boyfriend's minivan was crammed with bags of her belongings.
Anything that did not fit was given away, thrown away or packed into
a friend's storage unit, she said.

Sterner, who attended Jackson Community College before the onset of
her ailments and volunteers at the Jackson County Compassion Club,
said pain prevents her from maintaining a full-time job, so the
rent-free housing was essential.

She said she offered to stop using medical marijuana and return to
traditional methods of pain management if she could keep her apartment.

"I'm trying not to lose my normal life," she said.