Michigan Medical Marijuana Law Tested
Michigan has some new laws on the books, and one concerns medical marijuana.
Detroit Free Press reports in Medical Marijuana Law Put To Test: Michigan’s medical marijuana law is getting two tests in metro Detroit, with a Madison Heights couple arraigned Tuesday on drug manufacturing charges and a Chesterfield Township man using it to fight an arrest for possession.
Why should anyone who needs medical marijuana be arrested and denied their medicine?
Both cases have the potential to set precedents under the medical marijuana law, which went into effect Dec. 4.
In the March 30 raid of the home of Robert Redden, 59, and Torey Clark, 47, Madison Heights police seized 21 plants. Redden and Clark said they use marijuana for pain relief and, per the law, have letters from their doctors recommending its use.Each faces felony manufacturing charges, and because of prior convictions, each faces up to 14 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million if convicted.
14 years in prison for following a doctor’s orders? Imagine if the police kicked in an elderly patients door and arrested their for their prescription Vicodin? That is essentially what this amounts to. These people are growing their own safe and effective medical cannabis. Supplying themselves with their own natural medicine and they are being treated as criminals!
The raid came just days before a state program to issue official ID cards for people allowed to use medical marijuana began, and Madison Heights Deputy Police Chief Tony Roberts said having letters “doesn’t fulfill the legal requirement.”
The couple’s lawyer, Rob Mullen, said of police: “They’re not recognizing the law.”
Robert Dickson, a 53-year-old Chesterfield Township man with liver problems, is trying to use the law to fight a May 2008 arrest for marijuana possession. His case was adjourned Monday for 30 days while Dickson applies for his ID card.
His lawyer, Joe Biondo, said the law opens the door for a medical marijuana defense.
Now that the state has a medical marijuana program people like this need to be removed from the justice system and allowed to remain free and grown their own medicine.