This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on June 8, 2011.
MLive.com with audio – A 70-year-old medical marijuana patient convicted for delivering/manufacturing marijuana should have her case overturned in appeals court, according to one expert.
Matthew Abel, a Detroit attorney who specializes in marijuana defense cases, told MLive Detroit he believes the four-year felony conviction of Barbara Agro, a Lake Orion resident, will be reviewed, and overturned.
“That case is likely to be appealed, likely to be reversed, and then it’s a huge waste of tax dollars,” said Abel, of Cannabis Counsel PLC.
Abel, who is not involved in the case, said he believes judges in cases like Agro’s are not allowing lawyers to use medical marijuana as a defense when they believe the patient is violating the law.
According to reports, Oakland Circuit Judge Wendy Potts previously granted a motion from prosecutors seeking to preclude Agro from referencing the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act during the trial.
June 8, The Daily Tribune: “The former Lake Orion police dispatcher worked as a receptionist at a medical marijuana dispensary in Ferndale called Clinical Relief. When the facility was raided on Aug. 25, 2010, Agro told deputies that she had marijuana plants growing at her house. Deputies found 19 marijuana plants and other items during a search of her Lake Orion home.”
Under Michigan’s law, a certified medical marijuana patient can cultivate up to 12 plants. A caregiver can have 12 plants for each patient, according to the law.
“I’m guessing the judge granted the prosecutor’s motion because they were over 12 plants, that they were in violation of the law,” Abel said. “Therefore they don’t have a medical marijuana defense.”
Abel said he previously had the same type of thing happen in one of his cases, but he expects Agro and his clients cased to be overturned.
The newspaper reports Agro faces sentencing July 13.
Agro is the latest in a long-line of people to be involved with litigation surrounding the state’s medical marijuana law.
Cultivation, possession and distribution of marijuana — even for medicinal reasons — remains illegal under federal law
Many municipalities in the state have enacted moratoriums, or temporary laws, involving medical marijuana and dispensaries.
Last month, a Ferndale judge ordered eight people associated with a medical marijuana clinic in Metro Detroit to stand trial on drug charges; and the Royal Oak City Commission approved up to $18,000 in legal defense spending, for a lawsuit that stems from a controversial ordinance that allows medical patients to use — but now grow — marijuana within city limits.
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