Calif. Medical Marij. Att. Has Q's About Mich. Dispensary Laws

[benricelaw]

Friends: I have been a criminal def. att. in Santa Cruz for 25 years and specializing in medical marij. for the last fiftee. (I'm a long time NORML attorney and represent WAMM here in Calif.) I have a client here who, it appears, has been sending medical marij. to Mich. to a caregiver there who has been distributing it to his patient's through his dispensary. I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction for understanding your state's caregiver and dispensary rules. Thanks very much! Ben Rice

[phaquetoo]

Tell ya what from what ive read, it is a very grey area, but im sure someone real soon will copy and paiste the area of the law you are looking for, real soon, our dispensarrys are kinda going into the grey area in mi, but their budding up here and there! Wish them all well! little pricey rite now, hopefully some one will set a positive case presidence for the community, Look for matt able on here, he is an attny and been filing bunches of briefs and fighting the good fight, he is involved with minorml!

 

I would have to think if it is being shipped you have to deal with fed law also.

Peace!

[MiMedicalMJ]

As Phaq said contact Matt Able

 

Regardless sending it through the mail is still a federal issue...

 

Good luck to your client, very sorry to hear he is having headaches

[cc420]

"]MDCH- MMM is the link for the state of mi, dept. of community health, it will state all the laws & rules in mi that are currently passed, & as for the dispensary's they are def. in the grey line, i think it depends on the county, as my friend just opened a dispensary, but he went through a lawyer & got written permission from the county prosecutor. Good Luck:)

[+Silverblue]

hello Ben, I'm so glad to see an mj friendly lawyer here. Something I've been reading about on this site is about zoning by counties, many are prohibiting grow areas and dispensaries, so it'd depend on the county the people are in, too. I don't know how MM is protected through the mail, being fed law still says it's illegal. This is a big problem, that the state law conflicts with fed law. I wish I were a lawyer, I wanted to be but everyone discouraged me. Thank you for being there, I hope all goes well.

 

Sincerely, Silverblue

[UrbanFarmer]

Friends: I have been a criminal def. att. in Santa Cruz for 25 years and specializing in medical marij. for the last fiftee. (I'm a long time NORML attorney and represent WAMM here in Calif.) I have a client here who, it appears, has been sending medical marij. to Mich. to a caregiver there who has been distributing it to his patient's through his dispensary. I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction for understanding your state's caregiver and dispensary rules. Thanks very much! Ben Rice

 

There ARE NO dispensary rules here. The law makes no provisions or declarations whatsoever. It does not ban then, nor does it allow them either. Some say that means yes, some say that means no. The full text law is located in the main section of this site.

[lawyercaregiver]

Is this a federal case? If so the memo to the AG's about prosecuting Medical Marijuana cases should apply. I wonder if this is the feds way (i.e. bringing this case) of interpreting State law for the State's? Michigan has huge gaps in the law since it was a referendum and this is an opportunity to interpret Michigan law.

 

This is the Michigan State Med Mar Cite: www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-27417_51869---,00.html.

 

Dispensaries are not mentioned in the law. There are at leat 4 dispensaries in Michigan I have heard about (Ann Arbor, on the upper NE side of the State, and a couple in the Detroit area) so several people are trying the concept.

 

The ACLU is looking for a test case on the Caregiver to Caregiver and Patient to Patient transfer issues which is the basic concept behind the dispensary.

 

Per MCLA 333.26424: (link on from the MI web cite).

 

4. Protections for the Medical Use of Marihuana.

 

Sec. 4. (a) A qualifying patient who has been issued and possesses a registry identification card shall not be subject to arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner, or denied any right or privilege, including but not limited to civil penalty or disciplinary action by a business or occupational or professional licensing board or bureau, for the medical use of marihuana in accordance with this act, provided that the qualifying patient possesses an amount of marihuana that does not exceed 2.5 ounces of usable marihuana, and, if the qualifying patient has not specified that a primary caregiver will be allowed under state law to cultivate marihuana for the qualifying patient, 12 marihuana plants kept in an enclosed, locked facility. Any incidental amount of seeds, stalks, and unusable roots shall also be allowed under state law and shall not be included in this amount.

[GreenGiant]

In addition, notice the first two words:

 

333.26424(g) A person shall not be subject to arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner, or denied any right or privilege, including but not limited to civil penalty or disciplinary action by a business or occupational or professional licensing board or bureau, for providing a registered qualifying patient or a registered primary caregiver with marihuana paraphernalia for purposes of a qualifying patient's medical use of marihuana.

[lawyercaregiver]

A registered entity (like a dispensary) could potentially be considered "a person" under the law as a charitable organization or a for profit corporation.

 

I would think it can only work if you sign the State paperwork as registered caregiver for each and every person who purchases at the shop. You could have on the forms that Caregiver status is only for purposes of effectuating the MMM statute and only for the term of the patient's visit.

 

This would give the court fits but it may work with a sympathetic judge. The problem is that the dispensary is NOT the registered caregiver until after the papers are approved by the State (or the deemed accepted 20 day thingy kicks in).

[UrbanFarmer]

A registered entity (like a dispensary) could potentially be considered "a person" under the law as a charitable organization or a for profit corporation.

.

 

Hasn't SCOTUS pretty much deemed that corporate entities have the same rights as humans, making a corp a "person"?

[lawyercaregiver]

Recently in the Citizens United Case they aim squarely in that direction.

[+Silverblue]

As far as I know, a corporation is classified as an "other than natural person" which basically means they have as much rights as people do, if not more. I sure do hope I'm wrong. (Let me be wrong, let me be wrong!) All I know is, they sure seem to have more rights than I do! Try fighting those monsters.... It's all about money, the almighty dollar.

 

Sb

[bobandtorey]

A Lawyer told me that if it ant in the Law it's legal If you got the money

[LansingAreaCaregiver]

Hasn't SCOTUS pretty much deemed that corporate entities have the same rights as humans, making a corp a "person"?

 

 

When we tried to incorporate, we were told in no uncertain terms that they would NOT approve a corporation that provides caregiving services, indicating that it had to be an individual. Now, that was an arbitray decision by a beurocrat and not a court case, but just an FYI. We could have fought it, but found a workaround instead. Also, the challenge would be in the entity, be it a person or corp, being allowed to assist no more than 5 patients. Again, not unsolveable, but tricky.

[tricloud]

A registered entity (like a dispensary) could potentially be considered "a person" under the law as a charitable organization or a for profit corporation.

 

I would think it can only work if you sign the State paperwork as registered caregiver for each and every person who purchases at the shop. You could have on the forms that Caregiver status is only for purposes of effectuating the MMM statute and only for the term of the patient's visit.

 

This would give the court fits but it may work with a sympathetic judge. The problem is that the dispensary is NOT the registered caregiver until after the papers are approved by the State (or the deemed accepted 20 day thingy kicks in).

 

If a dispensary can be a caregiver can it also be a patient?

 

"Hey doc, My dispensary is having chronic growing pains" lmao.

[lawyercaregiver]

LOL.

 

A corporation can provide a good or service for profit but my understanding is it cannot be diagnosed with a qualifying condition.

 

Interesting they would not let you incorporate.

 

Maybe you could try something like setting up an agricultural services company without telling everything to the nice clerk who gave you the forms? Just a supposition.