[420 Girl]

Michigan - Medical marijuana use is legal only after a patient’s state registration application has been approved and an identity card issued, a judge ruled Tuesday in a potential precedent-setting case.

Lenawee County District Judge Natalia M. Koselka agreed with a prosecutor’s argument that a state registration is needed for protection under the new Michigan Medical Marijuana Act passed by voters in the 2008 election.

Attorney F. Mark Hugger of Ann Arbor said the ruling will be appealed in an effort to establish that medical marijuana users have a right to assert a defense without first being registered. A Tecumseh man his law firm represents was arrested during a traffic stop in Adrian Township for possessing marijuana on March 29. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act was in effect at the time, but the state registration system was not yet available.

Christopher Patrick Pomy, 29, applied in May and his registration was approved in June. His physician since 2001, Dr. James Peggs of Chelsea, testified at a hearing last month that Pomy suffers from a painful intestinal disorder and that he meets the medical marijuana law’s requirement for a liklihood of “therapeutic or palliative benefit.”

No rulings on the medical marijuana law have yet been made by the Michigan Court of Appeals, and no opinions have been issued by Michigan Attorney General Michael Cox.

Michigan State Police issued two bulletins on the medical marijuana issue as a guide for police officers that seem to support both sides in the Lenawee County case.

A Dec. 15, 2008, legal update said an affirmative defense to legal medical use “is not limited to registered patients.”

An update issued April 27, after the registration system was in place, said the act “does not allow a patient or caregiver to possess marijuana unless they also possess their registry identification card.” A person arrested without a card on them at the time, however, can assert a defense that they are legally registered, the update said.

That is the stand taken by assistant Lenawee County prosecutor Burke Castleberry. He argued Pomy could not legally possess marijuana before his card was issued in June. The legal status of “medical marijuana user” was not available until the state registration system went into effect on April 4, he said in a written brief.

Attorney Douglas Mullkoff, of the same firm as Hugger, argued in a defense brief that a section of the act allows an affirmative defense without being registered.

“Nothing in this section requires registration. This court cannot read a requirement of registration into the act without legislating from the bench,” Mullkoff stated.

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