The Michigan appeals court barred medical marijuana sales through dispensaries.
The court ruled Wednesday in a case from mid-Michigan’s Isabella County where people with medical marijuana cards sold pot to each other. The three-judge panel says the 2008 law and the state’s public health code do not allow such sales. Medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan may have to close their doors after a potentially far-reaching court decision Wednesday declared Compassionate Apothecary in Mt. Pleasant a public nuisance.
Many of the nearly 100,000 Michiganders certified and are allowed to use medical marijuana for pain relief go to dispensaries. Patients also can grow their own marijuana or get it from a ‘caregiver’. Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine estimates 400 to 500 dispensaries are in business statewide. Many of Lansing’s medical marijuana shops were closed Wednesday following a Court of Appeals ruling that bars commercial sales of marijuana.
It is the first time the appeals court has ruled in a case involving pot dispensaries. The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to hear appeals on other aspects of the medical marijuana law.
Michigan Court of Appeals : Sell of Medical Marijuana barred
A Mount Pleasant marijuana dispensary has been ruled a public nuisance by the Michigan Court of Appeals and can be shut down, overturning a previous ruling by an Isabella County trial judge.
In a 17-page opinion released Wednesday, a three-judge panel stated the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act does not allow the sale of medical marijuana — either by licensed caregivers or licensed patients. Instead, it only creates an exception for marijuana use by such permit holders, according to official court documents.
The case stemmed from efforts by Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick to close Compassionate Apothecary of Mount Pleasant, 311 W. Michigan St. In a December 2010 opinion, county Judge Paul H. Chamberlain ruled the dispensary to be legal and stated the MMMA does not specify how medical marijuana can be distributed. The appeals court ruling against CA of Mount Pleasant can now be used as a precedent for other marijuana cases in Michigan. The opinion can still be appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority over the general courts in Michigan.
Medical Marijuana sell : A lucrative business
The Mount Pleasant dispensary is called Compassionate Apothecary. It allows people to sell marijuana to each other, with the owners taking as much as a 20 percent cut. In less than three months, the business earned $21,000 before expenses after opening in 2010. But business was steady at TNT Industries MMP Resource Center on Michigan Avenue, which doesn’t consider itself a medical marijuana dispensary. In addition to providing marijuana to card-holding patients, people working there said it’s a resource center that offers services like doctor referrals and growing assistance.
Medical marijuana defense attorneys disagreed, saying dispensaries could stay open under certain conditions.
“We think the Court of Appeals kind of missed the point,” said James Rasor, a Royal Oak attorney who specializes in the murky medical marijuana law. “This ruling does nothing but impermissibly infringe on the rights of the voters. I think this is political.”
The ruling stemmed from a Isabella County case. Authorities went to court to shut down a dispensary in that county but a judge refused, saying the medical marijuana law allowed the transfer of marijuana from patient to patient.
“All of the marijuana is going to go back on the streets, back into the neighborhoods, where we don’t want it,” she added. “People need safe places to acquire their medicine.”, the authorities expressed their growing concerns on Michigan Court of Appeals ruling.
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