Owner Of Portage Medical Marijuana Operation Raided Wednesday Insists, 'i Just Want To Help People'

[bobandtorey]

PORTAGE -- Ken Jonatzke pointed to a plastic chest of drawers that usually holds the medical marijuana he sells out of his smoke shop.

 

But the drawers were empty Thursday, following a raid during which the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team seized Jonatzke's marijuana plants, dried marijuana, growing equipment and several guns.

 

Emily Monacelli | Kalamazoo Gazette

Pure Tobacco Supplies, at 8318 Portage Road in Portage, was raided Wednesday by the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team, which is seeking marijuana delivery and weapons charges against its owner.

Marijuana delivery and weapons charges are pending against Jonatzke following a raid Wednesday, and marijuana delivery charges are also pending against a 29-year-old Kalamazoo man following another raid the same day on West Centre Avenue in Portage.<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: bottom; ">

 

KVET said in a news release that caregivers at both places were selling marijuana to individuals with state-issued medical marijuana cards. "Both locations were also selling to people they were not the designated caregiver provider for, which is illegal under the current Michigan Medical Marijuana Law," the news release said.<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: bottom; ">

 

Jonatzke, who terms his business at 8318 Portage Road a "medical marijuana care facility," accused police of "harassing caregivers in their homes and businesses" in raids at his location and other medical marijuana dispensaries.

 

In another raid Wednesday, police in Barry County raided amarijuana growing operation on M-43 near Hickory Corners after, they say, two men were found running a hydroponic growing operation that included packaging marijuana and prescription drugs, under the guise of a medical marijuana operation.

 

In Portage, marijuana delivery and weapons charges are pending against Jonatzke, according to KVET, and marijuana delivery charges are being sought against a 29-year-old Kalamazoo man in connection with the raid on West Centre Avenue.<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: bottom; ">

 

"I think it's overzealous, political pressure put on the police force to go over what the voters voted for," Jonatzke said of the raids.

 

Michigan residents in 2008 approved a citizen-initiated law legalizing marijuana for medical uses, and a provision allows caregivers to supply up to five patients. There have been numerous legal challenges to the law and how the medical marijuana can be dispensed, however, and last August a three-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that medical marijuana dispensaries are not only a “public nuisance,” but they’re illegal.

 

Jonatzke is a registered caregiver along with his wife, who he said was addicted to painkillers and was damaging her liver by having to take so much pain medication. He said he was against drugs until he researched the benefits of medical marijuana and now uses marijuana sparingly to treat "constant pain" from bone spurs, degenerative cartilage and other ailments.

 

"I'm too old to go to jail," he said of the charges pending against him. "All I want to do is to help people."

 

Though KVET declined to disclose the exact addresses of the raids, Jonatzke said they took place at his business, Pure Tobacco Supplies, at 8318 Portage Rd., and at the former Park Arbor Resource Center, 1611 W. Centre Ave.

 

Sgt. Michael Kelley of KVET said police seized "several ounces" of marijuana from each location, and also took 10 handguns, three shotguns and four rifles from the Portage Road business.

 

Kelley said the drug enforcement unit had received at least six tips from concerned citizens leading up Wednesday's raids.

 

"We did an investigation into it," he said of reports that what was purported to be medical marijuana was being illegally sold at the two locations. "An investigation was done on it that led to the search warrants."<br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: bottom; ">

 

Jonatzke, who lives in a home attached to the smoke shop that he has operated for more than 30 years, said he had 20 ounces of dried marijuana on hand and 22 live plants when officers arrived at his business Wednesday. He said that amount of dried marijuana and plants is what he is allowed to have number on site under state law, though he declined to identify how many caregivers operated out of the shop.

 

"This is so crazy because we dot our I's, cross our T's," Jonatzker said of the medical marijuana business he's run about two years. "We follow every part of the law."

 

A patient and a caregiver in Jonatzke's shop, who identified herself only as Christine, said she uses medical marijuana to treat the pain from lupus, several herniated discs, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. She takes no pharmaceutical drugs.

 

"They've put hundreds of sick people –- cut their access off completely," she said of the raids.

 

Most of Jonatzke's patients are "well over 50" years old, he said. Some of them used to self-medicate illegally before getting their medical marijuana card, and some are first-time users, he said.

 

Medical marijuana users are portrayed as "hippies or wasters who don't have jobs," Jonatzke said, but he said that's not true.

 

"We have people in the court system and law enforcement who are patients," he said. "They're living a hypocritical life."

 

[Willy]

now there after the cg's.. what part of "A" registered patient don't they understand, it don't say only to the cg's..

[cristinew]

they bring up other sections of the law and apply that, that is how they do it,

 

2) for each registered qualifying patient who has specified that the primary caregiver will be allowed under state law to cultivate marihuana for the qualifying patient, 12 marihuana plant

 

for the qualifying patient, not any card holder on the street, that is how they do it,.

 

another point they use

 

) A primary caregiver 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 assisting a qualifying patient to whom he or she is connected through the department's registration process

 

they use that too,

 

until the courts clear this well you know what could happen,, because it is happening ,

[flyinstringbean]

Sounds like about 6 people in the neighborhood got together and decided to complain and get him shut down.