Closed.

Medical marijuana dispensaries are not allowed in Michigan. The Michigan Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the medical marijuana initiative approved by voters in 2008 does not allow registered patients to sell medical marijuana to other registered patients. Patients are still allowed to grow their own medical marijuana. From the Court’s opinion:

Nevertheless, the immunity from arrest, prosecution, or penalty provided to a registered qualifying patient in § 4 of the MMMA for engaging in the medical use of marijuana can be rebutted upon a showing “that conduct related to marihuana was not for the purpose of alleviating the qualifying patient’s debilitating medical condition or symptoms associated with the debilitating medical condition, in accordance with this act.”5 Because the MMMA’s immunity provision clearly contemplates that a registered qualifying patient’s medical use of marijuana only occur for the purpose of alleviating his own debilitating medical condition or symptoms associated with his debilitating medical condition, and not another patient’s condition or symptoms, § 4 does not authorize a registered qualifying patient to transfer marijuana to another registered qualifying patient. Accordingly, while the Court of Appeals erred by excluding sales from the definition of “medical use,” we affirm on alternative grounds its conclusion that the MMMA does not contemplate patient-to-patient sales of marijuana for medical use and that, by facilitating such sales, defendants’ business constituted a public nuisance.

(emphasis mine)

The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the state so this ruling is final. To legally get medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan will likely require a new law either approved by the state legislature or adopted by the state’s ballot initiative process.

In the meantime patients in Michigan may find it more difficult to get access to medical marijuana.

Photo by O’Dea under Creative Commons license

• Detroit – After a multi-year legal battle with the city, the Coalition for a Safer Detroit finally won the right to have their initiative go before the voters. If Proposal M is approved by the city’s residents, it would remove all local penalties for adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Minor possession would still technically remain a crime under state law, but the approval of the measure would send a clear message to local officials about how voters want limited law enforcement resources used.
• Flint – The city of Flint is voting on a local ballot measure, which is sponsored by the Coalition for a Safer Flint, very similar to the one in Detroit. The initiative would make possession of up to an ounce of marijuana on private property by adults 19 and over no longer a local criminal offense.
• Grand Rapids – Proposal 2 was successfully put on Grand Rapids’ ballot by the organization DecriminalizeGR. The measure would amend the city’s charter to make marijuana possession only a civil infraction, similar to a parking ticket. The penalty for a first offense would be simply a $25 fine, a second offense would result in a $50 fine and a third offense would result in a $100 fine.
• Ypsilanti – A local measure would make minor marijuana possession the city’s lowest law enforcement priority. In the past other cities such as Denver, CO and Seattle, WA have approved similar local ballot measures to make marijuana possession the lowest priority for the police.

Detroit and Grand Rapids are the two largest cities in Michigan, and Flint ranks seventh. Combined, they contain roughly 10 percent of the state’s population. Having all the initiatives win this November would not only change the local marijuana laws for roughly a million people in state but it also would send a signal that a large segment of the state no longer believes marijuana prohibition is worth continuing.

City Commission this morning approved ballot language for a marijuana proposal that voters will consider in November. A city charter amendment sought by Decriminalize GR would make possession and use of marijuana a civil infraction enforced with a ticket, and prohibit Grand Rapids authorities from referring violations for criminal prosecution under state law.

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Decriminalize GR last week submitted to the city clerk a petition with more than 10,000 signatures calling for the city charter amendment. The clerk’s office on Monday verified that the at least 6,565 of the signatures – the minimum 5 percent of registered city voters needed to get the proposal on the ballot – were valid.

If approved it would change the city’s laws to make being caught with marijuana a civil infraction punishable with only a $25 fine for the first offense. Fines would increase modestly for subsequent offenses.

Grand Rapids won’t be the only major city in Michigan voting on marijuana this November. After a lengthy two year legal battle the Coalition for Safer Detroit has an initiative that will finally be allowed to go before the voters in the city. If approved it will eliminate all local penalties for the possession of less than an ounce. Possession would still technically be illegal under state law.

Back in 2010 the group, Coalition for a Safer Detroit, collected sufficient signatures to put their decriminalization measure on the city ballot. The measure was prevented from going before the voters by the Detroit Election Commission, which voted to keep it off the ballot.  That decision was originally upheld by the Wayne County Circuit Court. This kept the measure from appearing on the ballot in 2010, because the Coalition ran out of time for further appeals.

Recently, though, the Coalition won its appeal to the Michigan Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision. The Court of Appeals concluded the city had a clear legal duty to place the measure on the ballot regardless of whether the city law would be arguably inconsistent with state law.

The decision paves the way for the measure to appear on the ballot in Detroit this August, unless city officials decide to take the legal fight further.

If voters approve the measure it will amend the city code to remove city penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for adults over 21. Possession would still be illegal under state law, so individuals in the city could still be arrested under state law. The passage of this local ordinance would, however, be a powerful statement by the people of Detroit about how they want their limited police resources used.

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.

The unanimous ruling by the three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeals was declared a statewide precedent by Attorney General Bill Schuette, an opponent of the 2008 voter-passed law legalizing marijuana for medical use.

“The court made it clear that these dispensaries, these pot shops, have to be closed down,” he said.

In response to the ruling a few dispensaries have been raided and most of the several hundred dispensaries in the state have closed, at least temporarily, as a result of today’s ruling.

It is likely that attempts will be made to appeal the case to the Michigan Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling or refuses to take up the case, dispensaries will likely need legislative action to again operate legally.

The poll, paid for by a medical marijuana patient advocate and conducted by Marketing Resource Group of Lansing, found that 61% of voters said they would vote yes again. Proposal 1 of 2008, legalizing the possession and use of marijuana for medical reasons, won with 62.6% of the vote.

Thirty-seven percent of those surveyed said they would vote no today.

The mere 1.6 percent difference between the poll and the results for Proposal 1 is significantly less than the poll’s margin of error, meaning there has been essentially no change in the level of support.

This poll shows that there has been very little if any buyer’s remorse from the voters who approved this ballot measure. Almost everyone that initially supported the initiative now, having been able to judge the impact of making medical marijuana legally available, still think it was the right move.

Something for Montana Republicans to think about

The stable support found for medical marijuana in this recent poll in Michigan is something local politicians in Montana should examine closely. There Republicans in the statehouse are currently trying to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law, despite the fact that it was approved by 62 percent of voters back in 2004. There seems to be little reason not to believe that support for medical marijuana has also remained strong among voters in Montana.