Fuzzy Law On Medical Marijuana Needs Wrinkle Ironed Out In Court

[Ganjarden]

The state’s new medical marijuana law could face a challenge in Ogemaw County where narcotics agents have seized seven plants from an authorized grower.

BCT: It isn’t that he was growing the plants, it’s where he was growing the plants — outside.

Ron Klug, 59, says the state allows him to grow marijuana for his personal use to ease severe and chronic back pain from degenerative disc disease and remnants of an old slip-and-fall injury.

BCT: This is bound to become a test case for the fuzzy state law that starting this this year allows permits for some patients to grow their own drug.

It’s fuzzy, because while people may grow their own, or have someone registered with the state to grow marijuana for them, there is no legal means for people to get the seeds for those plants, among other curious omissions.

This argument — exactly where the plants may grow — is another.

Sept. 10, investigators with the Strike Team Investigative Narcotics Group, STING, showed up with a warrant to search Klug’s home on Lake George. Agents seized seven 3- to 5-foot-tall plants that Klug had in outside but within a locked, chain-link fence with a roof.

“They objected to the ones outside,” Klug said.

STING agents left four plants Klug had in the house.

BCT: We commend police on their surgical strike. Apparently, there is no question that Klug is allowed to grow marijuana indoors. Police took only the plants in question, the ones outside the house.

State police Lt. Jeff Keister said he could not comment on the ongoing investigation but he indicated there may be a problem with the outdoor grow.

“This is the first case my team has investigated,” said Keister. “We do a couple hundred investigations per year and he’s just one of them. We didn’t even know who he was until last week.”

Keister said his investigators have tried to confirm Klug’s license through the state’s Medical Marijuana Hotline.

“All we get is an answering machine and they don’t call back,” he said. “We’ll have to send a letter and hopefully they’ll respond. We’re being very cautious.”

BCT: See what we mean about the state still trying to come to grips with this voter-approved ballot initiative? When state police can’t get through the state’s Medical Marijuana Hotline, both they and the patients growing the stuff have a problem.

Detroit-based attorney Matthew R. Abel, an outspoken proponent of legalized marijuana and member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says investigators may have a problem with the location of the plants, or they may have a problem with the law.

“Some cops are very respectful of the law,” said Abel. “On the other hand, there is a segment of the law enforcement community which not only resents the law but flouts it and fails to respect it even though it is the will of the people.”

BCT: In this case, the cops appear to be treading respectfully, and cautiously.

In the Nov. 4 general election, 63 percent of voters approved Proposal 1, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

The law allows registered patients and primary caregivers to maintain a crop of a dozen plants plus 2.5 ounces of usable marijuana and “any incidental amount of seeds, stalks and unusable roots.”

Products must be kept in “an enclosed, locked facility,” the law states.

BCT: The question in West Branch apparently being, is a roofed enclosure outside surrounded by a locked chain-link fence “enclosed?”

“It seems the problem occurred because (the plants) were in plain view,” Abel said.

With a road on one side of his house and a lake on the other, Klug has little secluded space on his property.

“The simple fact that someone else knows the plants are there makes it less secure,” said Abel.

BCT: Out of sight, out of mind.

STING agents told Klug they received a complaint from someone who saw the plants.

“It’s unfortunate that law enforcement has to take heavy-handed tactics when perhaps there are more appropriate ways,” said Abel. “If they (police) felt there was something inappropriate about the enclosure, there could have been a discussion.

BCT: The problem is that, after decades of chasing down illegal marijuana growers — and faced with a state “hotline” that police can’t even get through for information — police in this case made a judgment call. They took some plants, and they left some plants.

We’re no fans, either, of heavy-handed police actions, but in the absence of clear guidance, these agents had to make their own call. We can’t fault that.

“An open-minded, forward-looking law enforcement community would sit down with the patient and explain their objections and try to reach an agreement or compromise.”

BCT: That kind of approach may indeed come later. But for now, everyone — police and patients — is feeling their way around this new law. That’s in light of the federal government’s continuing strong stand against state laws such as Michigan’s that allow marijuana use for medical reasons.

Klug said he used marijuana before the law was enacted, most recently to self-medicate.

In recent years, he has used marijuana to self-medicate.

“You have to create a living for yourself so you live with the pain and you do what you can to alleviate it,” he said, adding that he also used pain pills.

“Not all of the nights were bad, but on the nights that were bad, the pills didn’t help,” he said. “Marijuana alleviates the need to take opiates which have a bad effect on the liver.”

BCT: And voters said, OK, why not let people like Klug grow their own, if it’ll help ease their suffering?
He said he started growing the plants in June when he received state approval. He cultivated the crop from seeds he had collected over the years.

Klug said he believes authorities are using him as a test case.

“The law is there to protect patients ... not to terrorize them,” said Abel.

BCT: This is how unclear laws like Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Act are shaped.

In a perfect world, all laws would be crystal-clear, as passed. But that is rarely, if ever, the case.

More clarification is needed for people like Klug, who may want their plants to benefit from the sun and warmth of our all-too-short Michigan growing season.

For sure, medical marijuana should be kept out of sight. You never know who will see it, either as a temptation for theft, or as an affront to their sensibilities.

This case is not a threat to the new law, nor to the newly legal growers. It’s just a wrinkle that needs some ironing out in court.


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: MLive.com
Contact: MLive.com
Copyright: 2009 Michigan Live LLC
Website: Fuzzy Law On Medical Marijuana Needs Wrinkle Ironed Out In Court