MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATES TO PROTEST OAKLAND COUNTY POLICIES

Medical marijuana users and caregivers say they'll gather Monday
outside the Oakland County Circuit Court to protest tactics being
used against them by county authorities.

The demonstration was to mark the start of the trial of registered
patient Barb Agro, 70, who is charged with illegal drug dealing. But
her attorney, Jerome Sabbota, said Saturday that Monday's hearing
would be adjourned.

Still, the protest isn't just for Agro, but "for all defendants being
denied their rights," said Jamie Lowell, who runs Third Coast
Compassion Club in Ypsilanti and helped to plan the demonstration.

More than two dozen other medical marijuana defendants currently face
trials in Oakland County, Lowell said.

Agro of Lake Orion is a retired school bus driver and former
dispatcher for the Lake Orion police who has severe arthritis, her
attorney said. She is charged with conspiracy and possession of
marijuana with intent to deliver.

Oakland County drug investigators raided her home for marijuana
plants on Aug. 25, the same day they raided numerous other patients'
homes and medical marijuana establishments. Prosecutors contend Agro,
her late husband, Sal Agro, and their two sons were all medical
marijuana users tied to commercial sales of the drug, which amounted
to illegal drug dealing.

On Friday, eight of nine defendants arrested in connection with
Clinical Relief -- a former medical marijuana dispensary in Ferndale
- -- were bound over for trial by Ferndale District Judge Joseph Longo
on charges of drug delivery and conspiracy. Longo dismissed charges
against Stacey Ellenbrook, 41, of Chesterfield Township, a
secretary-receptionist for Clinical Relief.

County drug investigators, who admitted to using phony state medical
marijuana ID cards to get inside Clinical Relief, said they found
evidence of drug dealing there.

In cases resulting from the raids, circuit judges were expected to
rule on whether state law allows medical marijuana users to be served
by commercial establishments. Those would include dispensaries such
as Clinical Relief that sell the drug, and compassion clubs that
provide social space for using it, attorney Paul Tylenda said.

But that issue might not be decided because, in recent cases,
prosecutors argued that defendants can't even be identified as
approved medical marijuana users in the courtroom, said Tylenda, who
defended Ellenbrook.

"The Oakland County prosecutor has successfully barred the mention of
medical marijuana to juries numerous times. Funny how this is only
happening in Oakland County," he said Friday.

Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper responded that "the judges
are the individuals who are making these decisions" about whether
defendants can use provisions of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act
as a legal defense.

"Obviously, (judges) make their determinations based on the law,"
Cooper said Friday.