LETTER OF THE LAW

Oakland County a Frontline in the Battle Against Medical Marijuana

Oakland County continues to be one of the toughest battlefronts
around medical marijuana in the state. There seem to be more
high-profile cases around the issue there because County Prosecutor
Jessica Cooper and County Sheriff Mike Bouchard have decided to take
on medical marijuana in a very high-profile manner. But maybe they're
just taking cues from the head guy. Last week, during a Michigan Town
Hall Meeting in Troy, sponsored by the Oakland Press and cablecast on
CMNtv, County Executive L. Brooks Patterson appeared via video
saying, "That medical marijuana law is the worst piece of legislation
I've ever seen."

That doesn't sound like someone who wants to make things any easier
on medical marijuana patients than he has to - which brings us to the
case of Barb Agro.

Agro is a 70-year-old medical marijuana patient and caregiver with
debilitating arthritis and diabetes. She worked as a 911 operator for
the city of Lake Orion for 38 years. She also faces charges and
possible jail time for growing marijuana - but the words medical
marijuana, medicine, patient and caregiver cannot be used in her
defense. Why? Here are Agro's own words from an article she wrote for
the Midwest Cultivator, an Ann Arbor-based medical marijuana publication:

In June of 2010, after receiving our recommendations from a
physician, we began to grow 20 medical marijuana plants in the
basement of our home. It is important to note that neither my husband
nor I actually smoked marijuana; rather we chose to consume it as
medibles, as we both found it had longer pain-relieving results.

On Aug. 25, 2010, our home, along with multiple others, including
both of my sons' homes, also medical marijuana patients, was raided
by masked gun-wielding officers from Oakland County Michigan's
Narcotic Enforcement Task Force. In this raid our home was torn into
pieces. Mattresses ripped apart, clothing, cabinets emptied, plants
ripped from their pots and dirt thrown across rooms and even into our
bed. Approximately $11,270 dollars was taken from our home, money
that had been saved and withdrawn to purchase a vehicle. My two sons'
homes were raided at the same time ...

A neighbor of my son was brave enough to leave the scene and drive to
my home where he informed my husband of the raid. In his frenzied
haste, my husband grabbed his car keys, leaving his wallet and our
home unlocked and unsecured. After arriving to my son's residence and
checking on his daughter-in-law and grandchildren to ensure they were
protected he returned back home to find his house raided by the same
narcotic enforcement detail.

Because the door to their home was unlocked when police arrived,
prosecutors say that Barb Agro was not in compliance with the
Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, which requires that all growing
facilities be inside a "locked enclosed space." Sal, her husband of
45 years, doesn't have to worry about it. He died from a heart attack
at age 67 about a week after the raids.

"Our belief is that it was due to the stress from watching his wife
and kids being wrongly prosecuted by an overzealous prosecutor and
sheriff," wrote Agro.

Police don't seem inclined to cut her any slack. The Agros also
worked at the Clinical Relief medical marijuana facility in Ferndale
that was busted earlier the same day her home was raided. That was
probably what led to the raids that night. Their son Nick Agro, of
Lake Orion, is a co-owner of Clinical Relief. In all 16 people were
charged from the day's raids including those associated with Herbal
Remedies and Everybody's Cafe in Waterford Township.

"She worked the front desk [at Clinical Relief] to make sure nobody
nefarious got through, to make sure they were properly credentialed,"
says her son Nick Agro.

Nick has his own problems. He says that police didn't find anything
at his home the night of the raid and that he never personally sold
anything at Clinical Relief.

"I've been charged with conspiracy to manufacture an analog
substance, brownies made with chemical THC," says Nick. "They're
saying that marijuana butter used to make marijuana brownies is in a
category like crack cocaine. There was nothing at my house so they're
trying to tie me to Clinical Relief because I'm a chef."

Agro is a partner in a Denver, Colo., catering company, although he
had relocated back to Michigan before last August's raids. An analog
drug, also known as a designer drug, is one that is made to get
around existing drug laws yet create effects similar to illegal
drugs. Agro says he expects his charges to be dropped, possibly as
early as this week.

The charges against Barb stemming from the raid at her home are
moving through the court faster than the charges related to Clinical
Relief. Since she is forbidden any mention of medical marijuana in
her defense, activists have taken the tactic of flooding court
entrances with people wearing clothing such as T-shirts with medical
marijuana slogans on them in order to get the message across. They
tell people entering the building the same thing. They did this on
April 27, at the Oakland County Municipal Court in Pontiac, for
Barb's hearing. The judge then postponed the hearing until May 9.
There is no indication that the presence of activists had anything to
do with the postponement, but they intend to keep it up in support of
Agro and others.

After Agro's hearing was postponed, activists went to another
courtroom where attorney Matt Abel was defending in another medical
marijuana case. The judge made the activists remove their T-shirts
and move to another area in the courtroom during a break in the trial.

"We have three or four other cases in Oakland County where judges
have ruled that we can't use a medical marijuana defense," says Abel.
"They all need to be corrected, and they're wasting a lot of taxpayer
money in the meantime."

That's where things stand right now. If you are a medical marijuana
patient in Michigan right now (especially in Oakland County) take
pains to stay in compliance with the law, because if you are not it
may disqualify a medical marijuana defense. It seems that law
enforcement is looking to charge patients and caregivers for any
small deviation from the law - one too many plants, a gram over the
legal amount.

Barb Agro has run into the tactic with terrifying results.

"I don't know how they're able to circumnavigate the law. ... They're
scaring people out of the medical marijuana program with the way
they're prosecuting these cases. People are intimidated across the
state. Oakland County is the battleground. ... There's no defense
these patients can put up. Anything alluding to medical marijuana is
being suppressed by prosecutors," Agro says, adding that his mother
isn't doing well. "I'll be honest with you. She lost her partner, my
father. She's broken mentally and physically. These prosecutors don't
care what they're doing."

I think they know exactly what they're doing.