[420 Girl]

A second batch of defendants and lawyers appeared in court today, this time in Ferndale District Court, following last week’s raids of medical marijuana establishments in Ferndale and Waterford Township.

Defense attorneys for the eight defendants arrested following the Aug. 25 raid on Clinical Relief in Ferndale agreed with Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Beth Hand to reconvene on Sept. 20 for a conference prior to holding any preliminary exams.

The Ferndale cases will differ from those in Waterford District Court, defense attorney Paul Tylenda said, “because everybody knew the establishment here (in Ferndale) was legal — the city, the mayor, the mayor, the local police,” adding that: “All the local authorities had approved it.”

The raids were conducted by the Oakland County Narcotics Enforcement Team. Local police have said they merely cooperated and stood by while county authorities burst into the establishments, and also raided homes of owners, employees and medical-marijuana patients whose records were found on file in the establishments.

Although Hand would not comment today, as a policy of her department, warrants signed by her department said that undercover police — posing as drug users — made purchases of marijuana and saw other activities at Clinical Relief that demonstrated illegal drug dealing and other law breaking, such as possession of marijuana well above limits set for individuals in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

But, outside the courtroom, defense attorneys cried foul.

“We believe the police gained entry and bought medical marijuana from this dispensary under fraud, with phony medical-marijuana cards that they manufactured,” Tylenda said. Similar charges are in warrants issued against two medical-marijuana establishments in Waterford, and lawyers for those 13 defendants made similar statements outside the courtroom Tuesday in Waterford Township.

Medical marijuana advocates as well as Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard have said the raids and resulting criminal charges — felonies with jail terms as long as seven years — could become landmark cases that force courts to clarify gray areas of the state law that allows approved patients to use medical marijuana and lets approved caregivers provide the drug.



NewsHawk: MedicalNeed: 420 MAGAZINE
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