Supreme Court Enters Dispute Over Medical Pot Shops
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - The Michigan Supreme Court will consider a medical marijuana case that could make access to the drug easier for thousands of patients.
At issue is whether medical marijuana patients, with cards, should be allowed to sell the drug to each other.
Attorney Michael Komorn, president of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association wants the Michigan Supreme Court to understand the importance of the creation of the law.
"Patients need protection. They need a hero. They need a great ruling so that they can feel protected in the war on drugs," Komorn said.
Komorn The Michigan Marijuana Act was intended to take patients off the battlefield. "People showed up and they voted this law and it is not being interpreted the way people intended," he said.
The court said Wednesday it will review a major appeals court decision from last year that declared such sales illegal, especially through dispensaries. Authorities in many counties have used that ruling to shut down the shops. But in some areas, police and prosecutors have declined to intervene.
The Supreme Court case involves a dispensary in Mount Pleasant that allowed its members to sell marijuana to each other, with the owners taking as much as a 20 percent cut. The appeals court said the 2008 medical marijuana law does not permit dispensaries. The shop was shut down as a public nuisance.
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