OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. – The evidentiary hearing originally set for Nov. 5 has been dropped in the case involving a medical marijuana patient charged with a disputed felony for synthetic THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
The Ottawa County Assistant Prosecutor filed motions to quash, or suppress, the defense’s subpoenas, and adjourned the Nov. 5 hearing until a later date. Essentially this move buys the prosecution more time before explaining this issue of possible politicking in Michigan State Police Forensic Science crime labs’ marijuana reporting.
Since February, FOX 17 has covered this case involving the defendant, Max Lorincz, a Spring Lake father charged with a felony for having medical marijuana. His attorneys with Komorn Law PLLC argue Lorincz’s “smear” amount of butane hash oil is covered under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act as “usable marijuana,” or specifically the “mixture of preparation” of the marijuana plant.
Since last week FOX 17 is leading statewide coverage of a major development in the case: the defense’s claim that state police crime labs are misreporting marijuana test results. This results in ambiguous crime lab reports leading to felonies charged, despite no credible proof beyond a reasonable doubt of what the substance actually is.
The prosecution filed a motion to quash the defense subpoenas in rebuttal to the defense’s motion to quash Lorincz’s bindover and well as their motion to show cause to produce evidence and testify against incriminating emails that spell out a debate among law enforcement, scientists, and prosecutors associated with the Attorney General’s office in reporting marijuana forensically.
Earlier, the defense’s motion to show cause subpoenaed 13 people to appear in court this Thursday: 11 MSP crime lab employees, one West Michigan Enforcement Team member, and the one prosecutor with the AG’s office. The defense had ordered the named people to show lab reports, communications, and marijuana related forfeitures, all of which would produce important testimony.
However, Assistant Prosecutor Karen Miedema in her motion to quash subpoenas argued whether these people should even testify, and wrote that this would take too much time: citing Lorincz’s preliminary exam last spring, which took three hours to hear two witnesses.
Although Miedema filed this motion Oct. 30, the defense told FOX 17 they just received a phone call Tuesday adjourning Thursday’s evidentiary hearing. The defense plans to file further motions and call for a hearing likely in December.
FOX 17 reached out to the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s office and has not heard back.
Tune into FOX 17 News at 10 p.m. Thursday for an in-depth story into the developing allegations in this case.
Michigan Panel Votes 4-2 In Support Of Cannabis Use For Children With Autism, LARA Director Denies Petition.
Mike Zimmer, the Director of LARA in Michigan, has taken the futures of children and their families into his hands, only to crush them, insult them, and put all of their lives in danger. I was in attendance on July 31st 2015 at the last autism hearing in Lansing when the panel was finally given the chance to make an informed vote of 4-2 in favor of Autism being added to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana.
I held our 4-year-old son Emery affectionately in my arms as I spoke in front of the panel of our experience over the last year and how it has changed us. We are able to give Emery cannabis because of his epilepsy diagnosis. I explained what it has done to reverse his autism impairment, to help him grow and to be happy, and for us to be able to live together in the same home. Before cannabis, we were going to have to live in separate homes on the same farmland together. Emery could not help but attack everyone around him constantly, including his younger siblings. Now, we happily spend entire days together and can hardly imagine the road we were headed down before Emery’s brain was allowed to work the way it is meant to because of cannabis.
We were at the hearing with other friends as well. These friends have been fighting this for over two years. They are parents, family, friends, attorneys, doctors, experts, and other activists. Parents with adult autistic children spoke to the panel as well. These parents have spent decades watching their children suffer as they refill endless bottles of dangerous pharmaceutical medications. They explained that from all of their research and everything they have seen, they believe that cannabis will work. They want to try it.
Parents like Dwight Zahringer have seen that other children using cannabis are not only experiencing changes in behavior and sleep patterns, but are also becoming verbal for the first time. Like every parent, these are things that he wants deeply for his own son, who is mostly non-verbal at the age of three. The original petitioner Lisa Smith’s son Noah, who has been non-verbal his whole life, has just recently started talking at the age of six because of cannabis. Parents caring for children with an autism diagnosis shouldn’t have to wait another day to try a proven safe and effective medicine that is non-toxic and has never caused a death. This is especially true when it’s helping so many people already.
Mike Zimmer denied the petition despite the panel’s recommendation to add it to the qualifying list of conditions.
The panel is specifically designated by LARA to make the decisions regarding new conditions that should qualify for protection under the MMMA. They reviewed over seventy-five peer-reviewed articles with over eight hundred pages of scientific information relating to the paediatric use of cannabis for autism. Parents should be able to choose this medicine for their autistic children. Adults who are suffering should be able to qualify as well. But instead of passing this decision through so that families can finally find relief, healing, and new positive experiences, Mike Zimmer denied it. From the decision:
“This lack of scientific evidence is concerning … the petition fails to acknowledge the direct impact on children… .”
And Lt. Governor Brian Calley, who has an autistic child of his own, weighed in by saying “there are neither sufficient studies nor scientific trials demonstrating its clinical impact to justify approval at this time.”
Maybe what these guys need is over eight hundred pages of information on the dangers of using anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, anti-insomnia, and anti-anxiety medications on children just to help them cope or to control dangerous behaviors.
Zimmer writes that children with autism “without associated seizure disorders” are already eligible under the language of the MMMA. He implies that if there are no seizures, then the autism is not severe, with no clear definition for what severe autism is.
Let’s help him with that: autism is a word with six letters. That’s it. But children with an autism diagnosis, whether it is considered severe or not, have to see doctors to get that diagnosis. And there are reasons for seeing the doctors. Parents can’t just walk into a dispensary and get an autism diagnosis and a medical card. Children with these conditions have a neurologist and sometimes many other doctors that they see regularly to monitor their growth, behaviors, and intelligence. It feels like what Mike Zimmer is really saying is that he doesn’t trust the many compassionate doctors, attorneys, parents, experts, social workers and other professionals who work in this field. These are the people who spend time with autistic children and their families.
They support this petition. Yet, he feels he has the right to make this decision for all of us.
He does not have that right.
He does not have the right to put a time limit on the lives of people or to force parents to separate siblings from each other when they can grow up together as friends, happily and peacefully. He doesn’t have the right to choose the number of children that are allowed to thrive and succeed in this world. In his Final Determination letter, he even makes it a point to rebut the claims that adding autism would cause a minimal increase in participation among minors.
This guy is the head of LARA, the agency that licenses these physicians, and he relies upon the argument that the doctors that we license can’t be trusted and will abuse the system. To follow his logic, his licensed physicians will treat autistic patients who they are not qualified to treat … The solution is that he can regulate this through the physicians and lay down rules and regulations. Instead he shuts it down.
None of this matters, of course. Every child with an autism diagnosis will benefit from using cannabis. This is clearly outlined in all of the peer-reviewed information that was included with the petition even aside from the hundreds, if not thousands, of miraculous stories from all across the country. These are stories of autism impairment being reversed, sometimes seemingly overnight, just from using low doses of cannabis oil or other forms of cannabis. Let’s make sure these people have all the information they need to make this right for us!
THIS IS A CALL FOR ACTION!
California and D.C parents can already treat their children with cannabis for autism. This fight has been going on in Michigan for long enough now that a lot of people far and away are paying attention. When autism is added to the list of qualifying conditions in Michigan, our children will literally become the long-term studies that Mike Zimmer and other opponents of the petition claim that we need to have first.
Please take a few minutes out of your day and call LARA and the Governor’s office, or send out some emails or faxes. It really does mean a lot to everyone who works hard on this. It could make a huge difference in the outcome and aftermath of Zimmer’s final determination letter, which is included in the article. If you have any creative ideas or information that you feel could help, please tell us about it. Some websites that you can contact are listed below. If you have a success story you want to share, feel free to share in the comments below as well. This might be a game to these politicians and profiteers, but these are our lives! We deserve to create them ourselves!
Here is the contact information for Mike Zimmer, Brian Calley, and the Governor’s Office. Please help these guys understand!
Brian Calley
https://www.facebook.com/briancalley
Mike Zimmer
Phone: (517) 373-3286
Email: zimmerm@michigan.gov
Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
P.O. Box 30004
Lansing, MI 48909
Phone: (517) 373-1820
Fax: (517) 373-2129
This is a link to “The Endocannabinoid System as it Relates to Autism” – Joe Stone; Christian Bogner, M.D. Its references list the peer-reviewed scientific articles relating to cannabis in the treatment of autism that were included in the petition to add autism to the list of qualifying conditions to use cannabis in Michigan:
Attorney Michael Komorn “Allowing medical marijuana for those with autism was supposed to be the clinical trial,” Komorn said. “Instead, we’re going to have criminal trials.”
Medical marijuana use for Autism rejected-More local and national news
LARA director rejects autism for medical pot, upending state board approval. Despite getting the go-ahead from a state board made up largely of physicians, Michigan will not allow autism patients to use medical marijuana.
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan won’t allow the use of medical marijuana to control the effects of severe autism, an official said Thursday, rejecting the recommendation of an advisory panel.
Michigan would have been the first state to add autism to the list of conditions that qualify for medical marijuana use. But Mike Zimmer, director of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, said he wasn’t swayed, citing a lack of deep research and other concerns.
“It’s frustrating and disappointing after all we’ve been through,” said Michael Komorn, an attorney for the woman who filed the petition. “It should be a choice that parents and doctors make.”
DETROIT (AP) — Michigan will not permit using medical marijuana to regulate the consequences of extreme autism, an official stated Thursday, rejecting the advice of an advisory panel. Michigan would have been the primary state so as to add autism to …
DETROIT — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder ‘s top state regulator Thursday rejected a state panel’s advice to allow medical marijuana as a treatment for autism. The decision followed three years of efforts by parents of autistic children, their lawyers and …
DETROIT (AP) – Michigan won’t allow the use of medical marijuana to control the effects of severe autism, an official said Thursday, rejecting the recommendation of an advisory panel. Michigan would have been the first state to add autism to the list …
safer michigan marijuana These tired eyes, which were filled with hope four short weeks ago, are now closing in disgust. The state of Michigan has denied allowing doctors to recommend marijuana for the treatment of autism. On July 31, a panel of mostly …
Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director Mike Zimmer upended an expert panel’s recommendation that autism be added to the list of conditions. The Michigan Responsibility Council (MRC) announced this week it will push …
Patients with autism and Parkinson’s disease could use medical marijuana under a new effort to overhaul the system in Michigan. The Michigan Responsibility Council (MRC) announced this week it will push lawmakers to make the state’s medical marijuana …
California could still see a medical marijuana regulation bill this year, a Michigan officials ignores his own advisory panel and bars medical marijuana for autistic kids, California counties strike out in an effort to make Big Pharma pay for damages …
Grand Rapids Business Journal (subscription) – Aug 28, 2015
A group of more than 50 attorneys with a stake in marijuana-related law will meet for the first time in October as a formal section of the State Bar of Michigan. In July, the State Bar of Michigan voted to create the Marijuana Section, which will focus …
In this photo taken on Friday, June 26, 2015, Ida Chinonis helps her daughter Bella take her cannabis based medication at their home in Grand Blanc, Mich. (Photo: The Flint Journal). Lansing — Michigan’s regulatory director on Thursday rejected the …
A sweeping bipartisan bill introduced in 2015 could soon legalize medical marijuana in all American states. on.aol.com. Despite a recommendation by an autism review panel, a Michigan official has rejected adding autism to the diseases that can be …
(MPRN-Lansing) Despite getting the go-ahead from a state board made up largely of physicians, Michigan will not allow autism patients to use medical marijuana. Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Director Mike Zimmer overturned the …
MICHIGAN (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A state official in Michigan has rejected a recommendation to add severe autism to the list of conditions that qualify for medical marijuana. The head of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs says there’s a lack of scientific
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan’s Director of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) has rejected a state panel’s recommendation to include autism in the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana. The decision came from Mike Zimmer, the Director …
LANSING, MI — A Michigan official has rejected a citizen petition and review panel recommendation to add autism to the list of conditions that qualify patients for medical marijuana use under state law. Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs …
Three men will go to trial next month after police say they were growing large quantities of marijuana illegally. All are charged with delivering or manufacturing between 5 and 45 kilograms of marijuana, the equivalent of between 20 and 200 plants, as well as a generic charge of delivering or manufacturing marijuana.
The charges were filed following police raids on an alleged marijuana dispensary in Brighton Township and two homes, which authorities say were being used to grow marijuana.
The defendant’s attorneys have also questioned officers involved with the raid whether they were aware if their clients were registered caregivers and/or patients under Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Act, but were told by one DEA agent that didn’t matter as they were operating under a federal search warrant. Federal law doesn’t recognize state efforts to legalize marijuana, whether for medicinal or recreational use. (JK)
Michael Komorn, a Michigan attorney who specializes in medical marijuana laws and is also the president of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, who filed a petition on behalf of a mother in southeastern Michigan, said no other state allows medical marijuana for severe autism.
This inspired several posts including MLive and the Washington Times. The post stated Michigan would become the first state to allow medical marijuana for children with severe autism if a senior official follows the recommendation made Friday by an advisory panel.
The state’s Medical Marijuana Review Panel voted 4-2 to recommend autism as a condition that qualifies for the drug.
Supporters say the extracted oil from marijuana when swallowed has been effective in controlling extreme physical behavior by kids with severe autism. It wouldn’t be smoked.
The panel was influenced by comments from some Detroit-area doctors, especially the head of pediatric neurology at Children’s Hospital of Michigan, and parents desperate for relief.
Now the recommendation go before Mike Zimmer, who is the director of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. He has until late October to make a final decision.
Voting in favor of allowing it, Dr. David Crocker, a panel member noted that two doctors need to give their approval for a child to get a medical marijuana card from the state.
“We have a pretty good checks-and-balances system,” he said.
Michigan’s chief medical executive, Dr. Eden Wells, serves on the panel and voted no. She’s not convinced that there’s enough research on the topic, especially the long-term effects of marijuana on children.
The same panel rejected an autism petition in 2013 in what had been called a final decision. Smith’s petition was initially denied by LARA, but she successfully sued to force reconsideration.
The review panel voted 4-2 in favor of a petition submitted by Lisa Smith, a Michigan mother who has said cannabis oil has helped improve her severely autistic 6-year-old son’s behavior, sleep patterns and eating schedule.
Attorney Michael Komorn, who represents Smith, said her petition included hundreds of pages of research on autism and medical marijuana that was not included in the 2013 debate.
Smith’s son was certified to use medical marijuana because he also has epilepsy, which is already a treatable medical condition under the law.
“Otherwise, she would not have been able to get a recommendation from her doctor to see the benefits that it had on autism,” Komorn said. “She’s heroic in that she came forward and was able to tell her story so that this could happen.”
“These things are things we do not know until we have enough experience with these medications in a controlled trial. … I don’t think we have those checks and balances,” Wells said.
Experts writing in the February edition of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics cautioned that marijuana for kids with severe autism might serve only as a “last-line therapy.”
Only one condition, post-traumatic stress disorder, has been added to those that qualify since Michigan voters approved marijuana for the side effects of cancer and a few other illnesses in 2008.
