Lansing Judge Declares Dispensaries Legal

This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on November 29, 2012.

In yet another judicial decision, a Lansing judge has re-affirmed the legality of dispensaries in the State. This case is in line with every other decision regarding dispensaries and their legality, all judges say, “they are legal”. Not one case has been successfully prosecuted against a dispensary. Will certain elements of law enforcement now get the message?

A district court judge has thrown out charges against four employees of two Lansing medical marijuana dispensaries, saying they were following Michigan’s 2008 medical marijuana law, a law that needs clarification.

District Court Judge Hugh Clarke Jr. issued a 19 page written opinion last week dismissing drug-dealing charges against the HydroWorld employees. He says the state’s medical marijuana law “screams for legislative clarification.”

“Absent that clarification,” Clarke said in the opinion, “this court concludes that the transactions that took place here were undertaken in accordance with the (law).”

The case surrounded multiple purchases of marijuana last year by four undercover police officers at HydroWorld locations on South Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and West Barnes Street.  They bought about 1/8-ounce of marijuana at each visit, without state-issued medical marijuana cards.

According to the officers’ testimony, they filled out applications for medical marijuana cards at the dispensaries, which were then approved by a doctor without having seen them as patients.

Clarke said that, based on a recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling, certification by a doctor “is sufficient to allow medicinal (marijuana) if, for whatever reason, the qualifying patient has not (yet) obtained a registry card.”

Judge Clarke ruled that defendants Zebediah Dewey, 32, Daniel Corbin, 46, Rick Gouin, 30, and Michael Lewis Jr., 35  were engaged in the medical use of marijuana as defined under state law.

HydroWorld’s owner Danny Trevino calls the ruling a victory against an overzealous attorney general, adding that when his dispensaries first opened they were visited by state inspectors who said he was in compliance with state laws.

The state attorney general’s office brought the charges and is considering an appeal.