Macomb judge’s ruling makes medical marijuana one big legal gray area

Macomb judge’s ruling makes medical marijuana one big legal gray area

There’s obviously a major disconnect between Michigan prosecutors and judges when it comes to medical marijuana.

By Michael Komorn

The Oakland Press reports that prosecutors have some credible evidence against two Lenox Township men accused of running an illegal marijuana grow operation.

But what has everyone turning their heads, is Judge David Viviano’s ruling in the case that a medical marijuana caregiver card is only an “affirmative defense” against criminal charges. Or in other words, it’s a jury’s decision if a defendant’s state-sanctioned right to grow or possess medical marijuana outweighs the charges against hm.

(Related: Growing Issue: Medical Defense Denied During Trial)

Labeling the ruling absurd is an understatement. Consider it this way: If you are arrested for trespassing, when in-fact you own the property, your right to be on the property isn’t something for the jury to consider at trial.

There’s obviously a major disconnect between Michigan prosecutors and judges when it comes to medical marijuana.

(Related: Silicon Valley Is High On Innovation. And Pot)

Oct. 26, Oakland Press: Assistant Macomb prosecutor William Dailey was pleased with the ruling, saying it will help guide medical marijuana users in what they can do and police in their actions in enforcing marijuana laws in light of the state Medical Marihuana Act.

“The more courts interpret the statute and make concrete rulings, it becomes easier for people to know when they’re running afoul of the MMA,” he said. “And it provides more guidance for law enforcement.”

Clarification you ask? No kidding. Because it sounds to me like someone who is fully adhering to the medical marijuana law could find him or herself before a judge. It’s a painfully frightening and potentially expensive proposition for a citizen that’s jumping through the necessary hoops to live within the law’s boundaries, without any certainty of protection from the very same law!

(Related: Jury Selection In Marihuana Cases)

Yes, the legal process can be complicated, but that’s why we have a system in place (courts and lawyers and judges) to navigate through it. But if you’re telling me that despite a law’s overwhelming approval at the ballot box, a person has no reassurance they’re in compliance unless or until a significant body of case law is established, then the notion of “the law” is void of meaning.

If you or someone you know is facing charges as a result of Medical Marijuana prescribed to you as a Medical Marijuana patient under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, contact Komorn Law and ensure your rights are protected.

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/10/macomb_judges_ruling_makes_med.html

Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of theMichigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group with over 26,000 members, which advocates for medical marijuana patients, and caregiver rights. Michael is also the host of Planet Green Trees Radio, a marijuana reform based show, which is broadcast every Thursday night 8-10 pm EST. Follow Komorn on Twitter.

Medical Marijuana Advocates Protest In Berkeley and Launch Peace for Patients Campaign

Medical Marijuana Advocates Protest In Berkeley and Launch Peace for Patients Campaign

Fly-over action sends message to U.S. Attorney General Holder and launches advocates’ Peace for Patients.

By Michael Komorn

While U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at a UC Berkeley law school commencement ceremony, a plane flew overhead with a banner that read “Holder: End Rx Cannabis War. #Peace4Patients,” protesting the recent actions of the Justice Department in the Bay Area.

(Related: Cannabis Defense Day)

Medical marijuana advocates were handing out fake DOJ recruitment flyers outsides of the Harvest Greek Theatre, where Holder delivered his speech. The flyers detailed how the Obama Administration is using harmful tactics that are adversely affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients in California.

“Patients will not stand idly by while Attorney General Holder’s Justice Department continues to attack our community and endanger the lives of Berkeley residents” said Caren Woodson, one of theadvocates outside the ceremony. “We’re here today to call attention to the misguided policies of the Obama Administration and to ensure that his ongoing campaign against medical marijuana is stopped in its tracks.” The protest today was organized by Americans for Safe Access and California NORML.

(Related: Macomb judge’s ruling makes medical marijuana one big legal gray area)

Just a few days prior to Holder’s speech, his Justice Department served an asset forfeiture lawsuit on the landlord of Berkeley Patients Group, on the city’s oldest and most-respected medical marijuana dispensaries. Filed on May 2nd, the lawsuit was strongly denounced at a press conference Wednesday by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and four city Councilmembers.

“I think it’s time for the federal government, the president and the attorney general to wake up and stop these kinds of actions,” Mayor Bates said at the press conference. “Here is a group of people who have played by the rules and have had no problems in the city with the way they or their patients conduct themselves.”

(Related: Medical Marijuana Supporters Campaign for Limited Legalization In Michigan)

Saturday’s efforts were also aimed at launching the Peace for Patients campaign, which calls on Congress to “end the war on patients.” The Peace for Patients campaign (#Peace4Patients and http://PeaceForPatients.org) has begun as a petition drive to help put pressure on Congress, but will expand to include a broader effort this summer using social media and grassroots meetings with legislators in order to help change federal policy.

If you or someone you know is facing charges as a result of Medical Marijuana prescribed to you as a Medical Marijuana patient under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, contact Komorn Law and ensure your rights are protected.

Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of theMichigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group with over 26,000 members, which advocates for medical marijuana patients, and caregiver rights. Michael is also the host of Planet Green Trees Radio, a marijuana reform based show, which is broadcast every Thursday night 8-10 pm EST. Follow Komorn on Twitter.

Read more: http://www.enewspf.com/opinion/commentary/43064-medical-marijuana-advocates-protest-u-s-attorney-general-holder-s-speech-in-berkeley.html

Medical Marihuana Review Panel Dissolved, Michigan Admits Embarrassing Mistake

Medical Marihuana Review Panel Dissolved, Michigan Admits Embarrassing Mistake

“After a careful review of the Medical Marihuana Act… the make-up of the current Medical Marihuana Review Panel does not meet the administrative rule requirements…”

By Michael Komorn

After spending close to four years to convene the Medical Marihuana Review Panel, it has been dissolved by the Agency who created it. Why you ask? They failed to follow Michigan Law when creating the panel…

“After a careful review of the Medical Marihuana Act… the make-up of the current Medical Marihuana Review Panel does not meet the administrative rule requirements… As a result, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs will be appointing a new panel that complies with the law. No further meeting of the review panel will be held until the new panel is appointed,” said the government in a private communication sent to a select few individuals.

(Related: Medical Marijuana Advocates Protest In Berkeley and Launch Peace for Patients Campaign)

The Panel’s deconstruction was revealed in a letter sent to Panel participants on April 29, 2013 as was recently obtained by The Compassion Chronicles.

Medical marijuana patients who participated in the sessions of the Panel were not notified and may still be under the false pretenses that the LARA’s promises were stil going to be honored.

(Related: Cannabis Defense Day)

The issue with the Panel is the composition of the membership. Per the LARA letter:

R 333.131 requires the review panel to include not more than 15 members and must include the Michigan chief medical executive and seven members of the Advisory Committee on Pain and Symptom Management. These seven members must include four licensed physicians and three non-physicians… As a result, the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs will be appointing a new panel that complies with the law.”

Not only are the physicians and other participants in the previous Panel asked to reapply for membership in the new Panel, but LARA also has a new director, Steve Arwood. Former head of the Medical Marihuana Program, Celeste Clarkston, retired less than three weeks ago – around the same time Panel members were notified.

The inability to assemble a correct Panel is a colossal embarrassment to the State Government.

“Why has it taken LARA so long to put the panel together? Celeste Clarkson, who heads up the state’s medical marijuana program, told The Huffington Post the agency had to finalize the language for petition forms and do the legwork necessary to assemble a fair and balanced panel. She also noted that for a time, the state lacked a chief medical officer.”

The Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs is responsible for administering the
Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. Contained within the language of the 2008 Act is a requirement that new conditions be reviewed and added to the list of illnesses that could qualify a Michigan citizen for the medical use of marijuana. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act requires that the panel meet no more than six months after a petition to add a new ailment has been received by the department responsible for running the program.

(Related: Medical marijuana groups urge Michigan lawmakers to protect patient rights)

The Medical Marihuana Act was previously was administered by the Department of Community Health but Gov. Snyder shifted those responsibilities to the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs shortly after taking office. Activists have submit petitions to have conditions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder added to the list of qualifying conditions since 2009, when the administrative rules were made public.

Since the Panel met in 2012 they have determined that both PTSD and Parkinson’s Disease should be added to the list of qualifying conditions. They had already announced the next two illnesses to be considered: autism and asthma..

View the complete letter:

LARA eliminates new conditions panel

If you or someone you know is facing charges as a result of Medical Marijuana prescribed to you as a Medical Marijuana patient under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, contact Komorn Law and ensure your rights are protected.

Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of theMichigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group with over 26,000 members, which advocates for medical marijuana patients, and caregiver rights. Michael is also the host of Planet Green Trees Radio, a marijuana reform based show, which is broadcast every Thursday night 8-10 pm EST. Follow Komorn on Twitter.

Read more: http://www.thecompassionchronicles.com/2013/05/13/michigan-admits-major-error-dissolves-new-marijuana-conditions-panel/

Boston Marathon Bombing Terrorism Police Storm Into Homes of Marijuana Growers

Boston Marathon Bombing Terrorism Police Storm Into Homes of Marijuana Growers

Medical Marijuana Patients in Watertown were were both terrified and terrorized, but not just by the Tsarnaev brothers, but by their own government officials.

By Michael Komorn

The actions of terrorists Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his now-dead brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev to kill and injure innocent people at the Boston Marathon was both sickening and tragic. But not to be overlooked are the actions of the police and politicians to catch these guys, who declared a form of martial law and busted their way into a number of homes in Watertown, Mass.

At least one of those homes had a medical marijuana garden growing in it. Yes, while looking for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev police had 10,000 armed local, state, and federal agents move into Watertown like it was Baghdad or Vietnam, lockdown the citizens, and perform relentless house to house searches.

(Related: Medical Marihuana Review Panel Dissolved, Michigan Admits Embarrassing Mistake)

Free of search warrants and do process, armed government officials at gunpoint ordered a married couple out of their house and stormed in.

There was no time to take down their marijuana garden. Little indication was given that authorities were coming to search every house before doing so, and even with enough warning, they were not permitted to leave their house or be in the street, rendering it impossible to have moved their marijuana plants and grow lights. They were imprisoned in their homes by the martial law-like manhunt for the terrorism “suspects”.

Frightened beyond belief, most Watertown citizens believed that the younger Tsarnaev was wounded and either dead, dying, or had fled from the Boston area. There is no disputing that they wanted him to get caught, but that doesn’t mean they want to forfeit their constitutional rights so police could storm their home and take a look at their entire lives.

(Related: Medical Marijuana Advocates Protest In Berkeley and Launch Peace for Patients Campaign)

An arm comprised of FBI, National Guard, State Police, outfitted SWAT teams with thermal helicopters, armored personnel carriers, and a plethora of other military hardware gave all indications that war had been declared in Watertown.

Despite telling the authorities that they’d been indoors with all the doors and windows locked and no terrorist had come inside, they screamed at them to put their hands up and “get the fuck out of there, now.”

They were immediately frisked, and his wife later told him that one of the men put his hands all over her in a way that more closely resembled groping than frisking.

They were both terrified and terrorized, but not just by the Tsarnaev brothers, but by their own government officials.

They held one another, shaking in fear and praying that they wouldn’t be arrested for growing medical marijuana.

But as the lead officer put it, “we have other things to do right now.” However he did add, “We have to report all violations of law, just so you know.”

(Related: Cannabis Defense Day)

When authorities finally cornered the terrorist younger Tsarnaev hiding in a boat a few blocks from his house, he exalted the loudest cheers in Boston because the police would be leaving his area and he could go outside without conflict and move his marijuana plants to another location.

To this day, he hasn’t been arrested, but both him and his wife spend every waking moment living in fear.

And they also want to start a conversation about what happens to marijuana grow room security when the government decides to suspend the fourth amendment to the constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

If you or someone you know is facing charges as a result of Medical Marijuana prescribed to you as a Medical Marijuana patient under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, contact Komorn Law and ensure your rights are protected.

Michael Komorn is recognized as a leading expert on the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. He is the President of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association (MMMA), a nonprofit patient advocacy group with over 26,000 members, which advocates for medical marijuana patients, and caregiver rights. Michael is also the host of Planet Green Trees Radio, a marijuana reform based show, which is broadcast every Thursday night 8-10 pm EST. Follow Komorn on Twitter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LrbsUVSVl8