GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A Michigan judge has thrown out a case against two former corrections officers who lost their jobs after being arrested and charged with possession of marijuana-infused butter. Michael Frederick and Todd VanDoorne were charged in 2014 following an early-morning, warrant-less search of their homes. Both were registered under the state's medical marijuana law to use the butter to control pain. Police allege they didn't comply with the law. They subsequently lost their jobs in Kent County. [continues 186 words]
LAS VEGAS -- For Hilary Dulany, long roots in Michigan and the prospect of expanding her Oregon marijuana business are luring her back to the Great Lakes State. For Nancy Whiteman, the prospect of taking her business national has her looking for partners in Michigan. For the two women and many other entrepreneurs attending the MJ Biz Conference in Las Vegas last week -- the pre-eminent conference where 18,500 professionals looking to get into the cannabis industry gathered -- the common thread was Michigan's soon-to-explode marijuana business. [continues 1137 words]
Can you be fired in Michigan for using medical marijuana? Joseph Casias injured his knee at the Battle Creek Wal-Mart where he worked in 2009. Per company policy, he took a drug test. It came back positive. Casias had been using marijuana at home to treat pain from sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor. The American Civil Liberties Union sued on his behalf for wrongful discharge in violation of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. A U.S. District Judge sided with the company. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the ruling. [continues 1250 words]
Nine years after Michigan voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative that permits doctors to prescribe marijuana for therapeutic purposes, state and local lawmakers are still struggling to design a regulatory scheme that balances the interests of patients, providers and residents. Earlier this year, Michigan legislators finally adopted a new regime that establishes distinct licensing criteria for growing, processing, testing, transporting and distributing the drug, which is still forbidden by federal law, and dividing the tax revenues generated by those activities between the state and local governments. [continues 630 words]
Medical marijuana dispensaries would be allowed to stay open while the state decides who will get a license for the lucrative cannabis business under a pair of bills to be introduced in the state Legislature. Sen. David Knezek, D-Dearborn Heights, and Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, will introduce the bills in the Senate and House this week to counteract an advisory by the state to dispensaries that they should close before Dec. 15 or risk their chances at getting a license. [continues 466 words]
The medical marijuana business is expected to explode next year when the state begins to hand out licenses, and rules released Thursday by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs could prove to be even more profitable for some budding marijuana entrepreneurs. LARA said in an advisory that one person could apply for three of the licenses -- grower, processor and dispensary -- and locate all of those businesses in one facility. Read more: "It's something that we've had a lot of inquiries about," said David Harns, spokesman for LARA, as people looking to get involved in the medical pot business get ready for Dec. 15, when applications for licenses will become available from the state. [continues 434 words]
Two initiatives that would amend Detroit's medical marijuana ordinance to allow dispensaries to open near liquor stores, and grow facilities to operate legally, will appear on the November ballot, after a Wayne County circuit judge's ruling earlier this week. If approved by voters in November, the changes could have a wide-reaching impact on the city's budding marijuana industry. Detroit corporation counsel Melvin Butch Hollowell told the Free Press that the city respects the right of voters to decide but concerns have been raised about the measures, particularly the one that would impact zoning regulations. [continues 940 words]
An explosion in a house Wednesday night in Redford Township seriously injured three people, and police suspect it involved an explosive marijuana processing operation. The three people in the house when the explosion occurred, at 8:15 p.m. on the 20100 block of Woodworth, were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, according to a news release from Redford Police Department. A neighbor told the station she saw three men run out of the house and "their clothes were melted off of them" after the explosion, according to a report from Fox 2 Detroit (WJBK-TV). . [continues 117 words]
To weed or not to weed? That is the question for Michigan's communities. As the state board that will regulate Michigan's new medical marijuana law begins to craft the rules that will govern the multimillion dollar industry, the state's cities, townships and villages must decide whether they want in or out. As they are making their decisions, local officials are being bombarded with phone calls from people who want to gain a foothold in the medical marijuana business and are promising untold riches for the communities that let them in. [continues 1338 words]
Lansing - A member of a state board charged with creating new rules for the virtually unregulated medical marijuana industry on Monday called for all existing dispensaries to be shuttered until official licenses can be doled out. But the board tabled the issue until the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation and the office of Attorney General Bill Schuette can weigh in after retired State Police sergeant David Bailey raised the idea. Anxiety quickly rippled through the boardas second public hearing as people lined up to express fear and anger that they would have to resort to the black market to find medical marijuana. [continues 187 words]
LANSING -- The Board of State Canvassers gave approval Thursday to a new proposed ballot effort to amend the state constitution to fully legalize recreational use of marijuana without taxing the drug. The proposal from Abrogate Prohibition Michigan of Midland would nullify all laws prohibiting or regulating the use of marijuana and impose no fines, taxes or penalties on its use. "I call it the Second Amendment of cannabis," sponsor Timothy Locke told the Free Press, comparing it to the U.S. constitutional provision granting the right to bear arms. [continues 403 words]
An initiative to amend Detroit's medical marijuana ordinance to allow dispensaries to operate near liquor stores, child-care centers and parks could appear on the November ballot, after a group behind the effort submitted thousands of signatures backing the measure. Citizens for Sensible Cannabis spokesman Jonathan Barlow confirmed his group submitted petitions late last month seeking to amend Chapter 24 of the city's code. Elections Director Daniel Baxter said the group met the threshold of required signatures and his department has since turned the initiative over to the Detroit City Council, which is expected to consider it Tuesday. [continues 935 words]
Chronic pain is a tremendous public health problem. The Institute of Medicine estimates chronic pain affects 100 million Americans at an estimated annual cost of $600 billion. But the rampant use of opioids to treat chronic pain stands out as the least-defensible and most-harmful of our maltreatments. Many U.S. physicians remain resistant to this, though I would argue other options should be considered. More than 14,000 Americans died in 2014 from unintentional overdose of prescription opioids, making this the leading cause of death among younger individuals in many states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Countless others continue to take opioids not because they have meaningful pain and functional improvement, but because they enjoy feeling numbed, or simply have not been presented with more appropriate and helpful therapeutic options. [continues 692 words]
Could Michigan be next to legalize marijuana? The stars are aligning, say fans of legal cannabis. After a flubbed effort last year, supporters of marijuana legalization in Michigan can celebrate reaching a milestone at a posh $250-a-plate fund-raiser Thursday night. Their new petition drive has gathered 100,000 signatures in just six weeks, putting the campaign well ahead of schedule and giving leaders reason to believe that this year's petition drive will manage to put the legalization question on Michigan ballots, spokesman Josh Hovey said. [continues 535 words]
Wayne police say the man had taken a toy dragon head from a local park and turned it into a marijuana pipe. A 19-year-old Wayne man faces criminal charges after police say he stole a dragon head from a playground and turned it into a marijuana pipe. Wayne police say [name redacted] was recently arrested and charged with larceny -- $1,000 or more and malicious destruction of property -- $1,000 or more. The charges stem from an incident Wayne police responded to on Christmas Day in 2015. [continues 171 words]
Detroit's crackdown on illegally operating medical marijuana dispensaries has shuttered 167 shops since the city's regulation efforts began last year and dozens more are expected. Detroit corporation counsel Melvin Butch Hollowell told the Free Press that 283 dispensaries were identified last year, all of which were operating illegally. "None of them were operating lawfully," Hollowell said. "At the time I sent a letter to each one of them indicating that unless you have a fully licensed facility, you are operating at your own risk." [continues 665 words]
Former Fox 2 Detroit anchor Anqunette Jamison Sarfoh is throwing her support behind a movement to legalize all forms of marijuana for adults over 21 in Michigan. Sarfoh was previously on a leave of absence from Fox due to medical issues related to her multiple sclerosis condition and announced her decision to retire on Tuesday. Sarfoh will be introduced as a leading member of the grassroots organization MILegalize at a fundraiser Wednesday at Weber's Inn in Ann Arbor. "I loved my job, but multiple sclerosis was making it harder and harder to do it," she said in a video post on social media Tuesday morning. [continues 252 words]
Security director says it's unclear whether move will cause delays DETROIT - Could a pot-smoking Canada trigger congestion along the United States border? As the Trudeau government presses ahead with plans to legalize the sale and purchase of pot, some are wondering whether it could result in longer wait times at the approximate 120 official ports of entry along the northern border. "It's an unknown now, but it could have the effect of really slowing down, not just travellers, but truckers, too," said Stan Korosec, director of security and Canadian government relations for the Detroit International Bridge Co. [continues 599 words]
Huge bust halts MMJ grower On Aug. 18, the Colorado Springs Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence division assisted with the execution of three search warrants that resulted in the arrest of one person and the seizure of 537 marijuana plants, three firearms, ammunition and an undisclosed amount of cash. The raid took place within city limits and included agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Felipe Hurtado, the 51-year-old man arrested, had six outstanding felony warrants in Georgia in connection with the 2014 theft of around 8.9 million hydrocodone tablets - an opioid medication that's widely prescribed and highly addictive. According to CSPD's statement following the bust, Hurtado was associated with an unspecified criminal organization and fled to "the general area of Colorado Springs [...] to grow marijuana under the pretext of medical marijuana." [continues 571 words]
"I hurt daily," says former NFL and Michigan State University football player Andre Rison. "Marijuana candy helps." Rison has been in the news recently due to legal troubles in connection with his child support payments and testing positive for marijuana while on probation. I don't know anything about his child support issues, but I sympathize with the guy when it comes to his pain. Football players work in a physically violent arena, and most of them suffer debilitating pain on a regular basis. I've met people who still suffer from having played high school football. Imagine what it's like after having banged around with massively muscular 300-pound people for a living. That's why I totally support the choices of players such as Barry Sanders, who walked away from the game hopefully while they were still ahead. [continues 1054 words]
