Judge Splits Suit Against Pot Dispensary
MOUNT CLEMENS (WWJ) - The owner of a Macomb County medical marijuana dispensary are declaring a victory of sorts. A judge has agreed to split a lawsuit against Big Daddy's Hydro into civil and criminal case.
Owner Rick Ferris is facing the possibility of jail time over the Attorney General's claim that an undercover officer bought the drug there last month.
Ferris told WWJ Newsradio 950's Sandra McNeil that declaring his case a criminal suit switches the burden of proof to the state.
"If they had their choice they'd have just shut our place down today and threw us in jail, if it would've been up to the Attorney General and the city attorney," said Ferris. "But I think our lawyers were correct and I think the judge was correct on letting us have our due process, our day in court."
Attorney Corbett O'Meara explained that at issue here is how exactly Big Daddy's can operate under the law.
"We wrote a letter to the Attorney General's office asking him to sit down with us, or to at least articulate, what he believed the law was ... what transfers of marijuana were legitimate and how Big Daddy's and the hundreds of other compassion centers around the state of Michigan could operate in a manner which he found to be lawful," said O'Meara. "He refused, flatly and in writing."
The case goes to trial in March.
The civil case, in which Chesterfield Township accuses Big Daddy's of zoning violations, was postponed until Feb. 28.
