Jacob Bell
New Member
In the wake of Wednesday's ruling by the Court of Appeals that selling medical marijuana — as Lansing's dispensaries do — is illegal, dispensaries in Lansing are left in limbo with little guidance from city and county officials.
Attorney General Bill Schuette said prosecutors can now shut down "pot shops," but Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said he doesn't have a plan yet for applying the ruling. He has been in contact with Brig Smith, Lansing's city attorney, about the impact of the ruling on Lansing's approximately 48 dispensaries.
"I spoke with Mr. Smith this afternoon. He needs to study the opinion, I need to study the opinion," Dunnings said. "We need to think about this."
Dunnings said the ruling reinforces what he's long stated: dispensaries are illegal. However, city officials in Lansing allowed the dispensaries to operate and drafted an ordinance licensing them, leading to a complicated situation wherein businesses operated under the assumption that they were doing so legally.
That leaves the people the original law was intended to benefit in the lurch.
"My other concern is patients, who need time to transition to caregivers," Dunnings said.
That would seem to be a plausible worry, as City Pulse reported that Lansing dispensaries were responding to the ruling by closing their doors, citing dispensary Safe Harbor Alternative Medicine's closure.
But Safe Harbor's owner, Mike Malott, said that's not exactly the case. "We aren't open at this particular moment pending more information on the particulars," Malott told MLive.com. Other dispensaries are making their own choices. He said Top Shelf Budz and The Popcorn Bag, fellow Michigan Ave. dispensaries, closed.
Malott said Compassionate Apothecary of Lansing and TNT, also on Michigan Ave., were open at the time he spoke with MLive.com. MLive.com reached three additional dispensaries that remained open.
"There's no order to close so we're operating," said a man answering the phone at one dispensary. He subsequently asked that neither he nor his business be named, but did say that his dispensary was "technically open." Business was sparse.
Rocky Antekeier, owner of Helping Hands on S. Cedar St., was on his way to open his dispensary when he spoke to MLive.com. He didn't have much information on how the ruling would impact his business.
"They're not telling us to stay open or to close," he said, so he decided to remain open.
All the indecision and misinformation is frustrating for dispensary owners and patients.
Malott reported that between 35 and 40 patients had already called him, asking how they could preserve access to their medicine.
He said he was involved in the drafting of California's medical marijuana law in the 1990s. California's law, unlike Michigan's, does not allow for-profit businesses to operate dispensaries.
Malott said that's where the problem is, and the lack of clarity is something he's been concerned about for a while.
"Patient to patient transfers are legal," he said, "but once you become a business — how can it still be a patient to patient transfer?"
Malott, who authored a Michigan-specific marijuana handbook, said there should absolutely be some revisions to the state's medical marijuana law.
"I believe some safeguards should be put into it and (dispensaries) should be defined," he said.
"But I'm not for cutting off access, putting folks in the street to get medicine. They're easy targets," he added, and said he'd witnessed the victimization of sick patients in San Francisco, Calif., when cooperatives there were shut down.
If it were up to Malott, he said he'd have all the area's dispensaries band together and continue to serve their patients. But his lawyer, Matt Newburg, advised that he and other dispensary owners close for the time being.
Malott said he will re-open once an appeal is filed, which, according to his own interpretation of the law, will suspend Wednesday's ruling until the state Supreme Court makes its own ruling.
An email from City Attorney Smith at 1:30 p.m. said he was still reviewing the decision. Another email from Mayor Virg Bernero executive assistant Randy Hannan at 2 p.m. said the administration wouldn't have any comment on the ruling until it had Smith's analysis in hand.
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: mlive.com
Author: Angela Wittrock
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Michigan Live LLC.
Website: Lansing's medical marijuana dispensaries in limbo after court ruling
Attorney General Bill Schuette said prosecutors can now shut down "pot shops," but Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said he doesn't have a plan yet for applying the ruling. He has been in contact with Brig Smith, Lansing's city attorney, about the impact of the ruling on Lansing's approximately 48 dispensaries.
"I spoke with Mr. Smith this afternoon. He needs to study the opinion, I need to study the opinion," Dunnings said. "We need to think about this."
Dunnings said the ruling reinforces what he's long stated: dispensaries are illegal. However, city officials in Lansing allowed the dispensaries to operate and drafted an ordinance licensing them, leading to a complicated situation wherein businesses operated under the assumption that they were doing so legally.
That leaves the people the original law was intended to benefit in the lurch.
"My other concern is patients, who need time to transition to caregivers," Dunnings said.
That would seem to be a plausible worry, as City Pulse reported that Lansing dispensaries were responding to the ruling by closing their doors, citing dispensary Safe Harbor Alternative Medicine's closure.
But Safe Harbor's owner, Mike Malott, said that's not exactly the case. "We aren't open at this particular moment pending more information on the particulars," Malott told MLive.com. Other dispensaries are making their own choices. He said Top Shelf Budz and The Popcorn Bag, fellow Michigan Ave. dispensaries, closed.
Malott said Compassionate Apothecary of Lansing and TNT, also on Michigan Ave., were open at the time he spoke with MLive.com. MLive.com reached three additional dispensaries that remained open.
"There's no order to close so we're operating," said a man answering the phone at one dispensary. He subsequently asked that neither he nor his business be named, but did say that his dispensary was "technically open." Business was sparse.
Rocky Antekeier, owner of Helping Hands on S. Cedar St., was on his way to open his dispensary when he spoke to MLive.com. He didn't have much information on how the ruling would impact his business.
"They're not telling us to stay open or to close," he said, so he decided to remain open.
All the indecision and misinformation is frustrating for dispensary owners and patients.
Malott reported that between 35 and 40 patients had already called him, asking how they could preserve access to their medicine.
He said he was involved in the drafting of California's medical marijuana law in the 1990s. California's law, unlike Michigan's, does not allow for-profit businesses to operate dispensaries.
Malott said that's where the problem is, and the lack of clarity is something he's been concerned about for a while.
"Patient to patient transfers are legal," he said, "but once you become a business — how can it still be a patient to patient transfer?"
Malott, who authored a Michigan-specific marijuana handbook, said there should absolutely be some revisions to the state's medical marijuana law.
"I believe some safeguards should be put into it and (dispensaries) should be defined," he said.
"But I'm not for cutting off access, putting folks in the street to get medicine. They're easy targets," he added, and said he'd witnessed the victimization of sick patients in San Francisco, Calif., when cooperatives there were shut down.
If it were up to Malott, he said he'd have all the area's dispensaries band together and continue to serve their patients. But his lawyer, Matt Newburg, advised that he and other dispensary owners close for the time being.
Malott said he will re-open once an appeal is filed, which, according to his own interpretation of the law, will suspend Wednesday's ruling until the state Supreme Court makes its own ruling.
An email from City Attorney Smith at 1:30 p.m. said he was still reviewing the decision. Another email from Mayor Virg Bernero executive assistant Randy Hannan at 2 p.m. said the administration wouldn't have any comment on the ruling until it had Smith's analysis in hand.
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: mlive.com
Author: Angela Wittrock
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Michigan Live LLC.
Website: Lansing's medical marijuana dispensaries in limbo after court ruling
