MEDICAL-MARIJUANA LAW LEADS TO CONFUSION FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, POLICE

Michigan's medical-marijuana law has created a pipe-full of legal confusion.

The vaguely worded law has led to a contradictory tangle of local
ordinances, law-enforcement policies and lawsuits in response to a
statewide explosion of marijuana dispensaries, "compassion clubs" and
home-grow operations.

Just recently, the picture has been changing fast. The last few weeks
have seen a push at the state level for much tighter restrictions,
backed by Attorney General Bill Schuette among others.

And now, a new federal policy statement has thrown Michigan's entire
medical-marijuana law into question. Already that bombshell is having
an impact on local governments.

In the Muskegon area, disagreements and confusion over the law have
led to conflicts:

On April 25, drug-enforcement officers for hours detained Derek Antol
and Samantha Conklin, officers of the Greater Michigan Compassion
Club, after finding and seizing Conklin's marijuana during a traffic
stop in the city of Muskegon. Both were released without being
charged with a crime. Police eventually returned the marijuana after
a prosecutor's opinion that her status as a certified caregiver required it.

In June, Muskegon Township sued to try to shut down the Greater
Michigan Compassion Club, which is in the township. The case is pending.

In Norton Shores, city officials last week refused a business license
to a home-based medical-marijuana dispensary that's been operating
for months. The owner says he'll sue the city.

Smoke gets in your eyes

At issue is the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act, as it's officially
known. Sixty-three percent of Michigan's voters approved it in a
ballot initiative in November 2008.

Interpretations of the law vary wildly. Some believe it allows almost
unlimited sales of marijuana among caregivers who grow marijuana and
patients who use it, with doctors having total freedom to decide who
can be a patient. Others argue the voters only meant to allow
small-scale plant cultivation, with each caregiver helping a small
number of the sickest people.

A few things about the act aren't in dispute.

If you ignore federal law, it's clear that -- at a minimum --
Michigan allows state-certified caregivers to grow up to 12 marijuana
plants per patient, and to be compensated for doing so. Each
caregiver may serve up to five patients. The patients need a doctor's
certification that they have a "debilitating" illness or injury that
justifies the use of marijuana, commonly for relief of pain or nausea.

Beyond that bare minimum, controversy reigns.

Many local officials argue that's all that voters approved: five
patients per caregiver, 12 plants per patient, compensation for costs
and nothing more, with the word "debilitating" interpreted narrowly
to mean dire diseases such as cancer. That's part of Muskegon
Township's argument in its lawsuit.

But many marijuana advocates say the law is much broader. They say it
allows caregivers to sell excess marijuana not needed by their
personal patients -- if the patient doesn't need 12 plants -- to
anyone holding a medical-marijuana card, at whatever price the market
will bear.

That's led to a widespread, unregulated marketplace for medical
marijuana. It includes dispensaries whose caregiver-owners sell their
own marijuana "overages," and compassion clubs in which members buy
and sell the drug while club operators get a cut of the sale price.
Both types of operations often assist prospective patients/customers
with getting certified for medical-marijuana cards.

Such operations are relatively few in number in Muskegon County, as
far as local authorities know: the Norton Shores dispensary; a small
compassion club on Ottawa Avenue in Muskegon; and the Greater
Michigan Compassion Club.

Disputes over the law's meaning have gone to courts all over the
state in a welter of lawsuits. No clear picture has emerged yet.

Policy patchwork

In Muskegon County, local governments have taken a range of
approaches to dealing with medical marijuana.

The city of Muskegon -- the area's largest municipality -- revised
its zoning ordinance to confine it to industrial areas.

Other governments, including Laketon and Egelston townships and
Ottawa County's Grand Haven, Spring Lake Township and Grand Haven
Township, have adopted "police powers" ordinances that ban commercial
dispensaries and place restrictions on caregivers and patients,
citing a danger of crime such as burglaries, robberies and illegal
marijuana sales.

Still others, including Norton Shores and Muskegon Township, have
adopted supposedly temporary "moratoriums" that prohibit new
dispensaries and clubs until an ordinance can be developed.

And some municipalities have adopted no official policies, pointing
out that federal law makes marijuana illegal.

Paul Miller, a certified caregiver who's been operating the Muskegon
Medical Marijuana Dispensary out of his Norton Shores home, finds
many of the restrictions misguided. But he sees a need for better
regulation at the state level.

"I think the idea of creating a better set of rules for patient
certifications is a good thing," Miller said. "There may be issues
out there of people who are not technically eligible to get a card,
getting them."

But he argues that banning dispensaries and compassion clubs is the
wrong approach. "I think those are two of the only ways for patients
to have access to medication," Miller said. "I think there are quite
a few who have no idea what to do when they get their card. They
don't know who to go to to get their card, to get medication.

"If you do away with the dispensaries or the compassion clubs, what's
the patient going to do, get it out on the corner?"

Just last week, Norton Shores refused Miller's request for a business
license. Miller said he will sue the city while continuing to operate
his business in a roundabout way: letting customers come in to
examine his product, but only making actual sales after delivering
the marijuana to the customer.

In the city's view, federal law trumps Michigan's.

"The city has taken a position that a dispensary is inconsistent with
federal law and therefore not allowed in the city of Norton Shores,"
city Administrator Mark Meyers said.

Norton Shores officials, like Muskegon Township's, also take the
position that "overage" sales aren't allowed under the state's law.

Meyers said his city welcomes recent moves by Schuette and others to
clarify and tighten the state law, including bans on dispensaries.
"It's an important issue to local governments, and there's a lot of
gray area currently," he said.

Besides the actual dispensaries and clubs, the Michigan Medical
Marihuana Act has generated a cottage industry of businesses that
advertise help with getting certified or other issues related to
medical marijuana.

One is Grand Haven Legal P.L.C., an attorney-paralegal business
operating since last August. The business, which recently moved into
the Piano Factory building, assists patients with certifications and
clubs with setting up legally.

"In one word, I call myself a facilitator," said paralegal Susan
Bradley. "I help people connect. ... We all work as the center of a
wheel helping people."

Muddy waters

Michigan's medical-marijuana law hasn't made life any easier for law
enforcement.

"It's limiting and confusing both," said Tony Kleibecker, Muskegon's
public safety director. "It's one of the most poorly written pieces
of legislation I've ever seen.

"The vote was under the guise of medical marijuana," Kleibecker said.
"It's gone far beyond that. Who are we kidding here? There's all
kinds of widespread sales going on, and anybody can get a
medical-marijuana card, they're so easy to get hold of."

Like many local officials, Kleibecker would welcome a clarification
of the law by the Legislature or the courts. "The waters are surely
muddy," he said. "We need some clarity."

Agreeing with that is First Lt. Chris McIntire, chief of the Michigan
State Police Grand Haven and Rockford posts. He's also former chief
of the Metropolitan Enforcement Team, a Grand Rapids-based
drug-enforcement unit.

McIntire said the law has made it tougher to do drug-law enforcement.
With much of that work based on tips, "we may have information
there's marijuana growing at a house. We get a valid search warrant
for this house, only to find the grower has a valid caregiver card.
.. No harm has been done, but my guys have wasted a lot of time.

"What we're telling our guys is, before you waste time on this
investigation, be reasonably sure this person doesn't have a
medical-marijuana card," McIntire said. That's not always easy, given
that the state Department of Community Health won't tell police who
they've issued caregiver cards to.

But he said the law hasn't caused drug teams to back off on
marijuana-law enforcement -- just to examine each potential case more
closely before pursuing it. "Backing off is tough for us, because
there is just an incredible amount of violence that comes along with
(illegal) marijuana like any other drugs."

Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler, too, wants to see clarification
of the law "to make it easier on everybody. It's much easier for us
to do our job when we know what we're supposed to do."

Roesler said medical marijuana, unlike conventional prescription
medicine, is not allowed in the Muskegon County Jail.

Game changer?

On June 29 the U.S. Department of Justice weighed in with a memo to
U.S. attorneys nationwide, saying no marijuana grower or distributor
is safe from federal prosecution just because their state allows
medical marijuana.

It appears to be a major policy shift from a 2009 memo indicating
that the Obama administration would be lenient with the
medical-marijuana community in states where it's legal.

It's too early to be sure, but the new memo may change everything.

Whatever the feds end up doing, the new statement is already
affecting local policymakers.

In Norton Shores, "we're watching what's happening on the federal
level," Meyers said.

In Muskegon Township, officials are postponing consideration of a
medical-marijuana ordinance, partly in response to the Justice
Department memo, Supervisor David A. Kieft Jr. said.

"We're going to extend our moratorium again," Kieft said. "We're just
waiting to see what happens with the federal government."