Ron Klug was enjoying a peaceful day at home on Sept. 10 when police officers from the Strike Team Investigative Narcotics Group, or STING, rolled up to his front door.
Despite the copy of his medical marijuana card, which Klug had posted outside his home, the officers inspected Klug's West Branch residence and uprooted a marijuana grow station he had going outdoors.
The card, which was meant to prevent such raids, offered no more protection than a fig leaf.Â
That's why Klug and his friend John Wells, of Lewiston, decided to organize the Medical Marijuana Freedom March, which will take place tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the steps of the Capitol Building in Lansing.
While Klug tries to only take his prescribed painkillers "when the side effects aren't worse than the pain itself," he has found smoking marijuana brings him comfort and allows him to sleep at night.
After obtaining a medical marijuana card from the state, he set up an outdoor grow station so he'd have unfettered access to his medicine. When police showed up, Klug had 11 plants and 5 grams of pot on the premises - all within legal limits.Â
Legally recognized medical marijuana patients are allowed to possess up to 12 plants or 2.5 ounces of pot. Caregivers, who can grow marijuana for up to five patients, are allowed to possess up to 60 plants or 12.5 ounces.
Following the state's rule that marijuana grows must be kept in "enclosed, locked" facilities, Klug grew his plants in a large dog cage to keep children and others away.
Since the seizure, Klug's been able to get by with the help of his friends. Still, he believes unlawful searches and seizures by law enforcement are far too common for a state where 63 percent of voters, majorities in every House and Senate district, approved medical marijuana in November 2008.
John Wells is neither a patient nor a caregiver. But seeing how marijuana improved his brother-in-law's quality of life in his last days of fighting small cell lung cancer taught him pot can have a palliative effect. He joined the movement to defend the rights of patients who can't defend themselves.
"Law enforcement has a Pavlovian response to marijuana: they see it and they want to get rid of it," Wells said. "But it's the law, and should be respected."
But Dennis Hayes, who has built an Ann Arbor law practice around defending clients in marijuana cases since the 1970s, said that while the rally provides a platform for patients and caregivers, chances are that'll be the same reason it goes ignored by politicians.
"Politicians are scared to death to touch this issue," Hayes said, despite Michigan voters' support for medical marijuana. "We don't have majority government," he argued. "We have a government that responds to minorities" such as the powerful and well-connected.Â
Too much grey area
Ask medical marijuana advocates or officials with the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) what's wrong with Michigan's medical marijuana law and the words "grey area" are soon to follow. The MDCH administers Michigan's medical marijuana program.
Protestors will rally tomorrow in the hopes of bringing Attorney General Mike Cox to bear on the issue and to get law enforcement to stop raiding legally recognized patients. Meanwhile, MDCH attorneys have been huddling to determine what, exactly, needs to be clarified in the law, and whether to ask Cox to intercede, said James McCurtis, spokesman for the department.
While attorney general opinions carry the force of law in Michigan, Cox can't issue them unilaterally, but only at the behest of a state official or a legislator. Cox's office did not return AnnArbor.com's phone calls by press time.
"Is there a lot of grey area in the law? Yes," said McCurtis, who added that the department hasn't yet decided its next step.Â
The Legislature's hands are somewhat tied since the measure was passed by voters, he said.
But in an Oct. 7 letter to MDCH Chief Deputy Director Kurt Krause, Chief Deputy Attorney General Carol L. Isaacs, from Cox's office, said that responsibility for the law's implementation rests with MDCH and the Legislature.
Michigan lawmakers can only amend the medical marijuana law with three-fourths of the vote of both houses of the Legislature, the letter said. And "when the law is 'doubtful or obscure,'" Isaacs wrote, courts use the implementing agency's rules as a guide to the law's intent. Â The attorney general's office also offered to provide legal advice to the department if need be, but responsibility for clearing up the state's rules rests with MDCH, the letter indicated.
Al Brennan, press agent for the Medical Marijuana Freedom March, said the group is expecting hundreds of protestors - possibly 1,000 - to make the trek to Lansing.
There is a concern among organizers, though, that the point of the freedom march will be lost in the haze of the ongoing budget battle in Lansing. Legislators still have yet to approve a budget for the current fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. Until the budget is passed, it is priority number one in Lansing.
Still, the freedom march's organizers thought it better to start the dialogue now, even with limited participation, than allow unlawful marijuana raids to go on unchecked.
Wells, for his part, doesn't see Michigan's budget issues as unrelated to marijuana raids that he says cost too much money and offer too little benefit.
He cites the case of a raid 64-year-old woman's home. By the time the raid was said and done, Wells said law enforcement officials only found two small marijuana plants and half of a joint on her premises.
"How much taxpayer money do we need to spend to keep grandma from smoking pot?" he asked.
That's not to mention an individual has to be verifiably sick to even get a medical marijuana card. Qualifying conditions for the card include AIDS, cancer, and Crohn's Disease. These patients often lack the resources and the will to put up much of a fight. Their rights as patients need to be reinforced by Cox and respected by law enforcement, Wells said.
"At the end of the day, this is about what the people want," Wells said. "We've already voted in medical marijuana, now we need to get law enforcement and prosecutors around the state to follow the law. The attorney general can compel that."
James David Dickson reports on human interest stories for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at JamesDickson@AnnArbor.com, or at Twitter.com/JamesDDickson.
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