Dryden Dispensary Raided

http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=7644408

i kinda have mixed emotions on all the recent raids...they piss me off for obvious reasons but it looks like they are going to bring some more detailed laws....too many gray areas right now....so that should be good. michigan needs to get on the fucking ball here.

This says it all..........

This search warrant says it all. Investigators believe the dispensary is dispensing marijuana illegally, allowing people with state-issued cards to just come in and purchase pot, and not from a caregiver.
"They were not listed as their actual caregivers, which is a question of the law," said Lapeer County Sheriff Ron Kalanquin.

this is right on the MMMP web site.

Question: I am too ill to grow my own medical marihuana. What can I do?
Answer: The MMMA provides for a system of designated caregivers. The caregiver can acquire 2.5 ounces of usable marihuana and grow up to 12 marihuana plants for a qualifying patient. The caregiver may assist up to 5 patients. The caregiver must sign a statement agreeing to provide marihuana only to the qualifying patients who have named the individual as their caregiver. The caregiver's name, address, birth date and social security number must be provided to the state at the time of a patient's registration. The Department will issue a registry identification card to the caregiver who is named by a qualifying patient on his/her application. The Department may not issue a registry identification card to a proposed caregiver who has previously been convicted of a felony drug offense. The Department will verify through a background check with the Michigan State Police that the designated caregiver has no disqualifying felony drug conviction. A caregiver may receive reasonable compensation for services provided to assist with a qualifying patient's medical use of marihuana.

yeah the only thing is that all the caregivers there are patients as well...patient to patient transfers are completely legal.

cmt1984 said:

yeah the only thing is that all the caregivers there are patients as well...patient to patient transfers are completely legal.

Click to expand...

Can you provide a link to the law that shows this clearly? I really would like to read this myself!

http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-27417_51869_52138---,00.html

its in the law, i would pull out the quote for you and post it but im not scannin through all that to find it again.

It looks like a dispensary model could not be legally viable because of the quantity / patient limitations, however the collective model appears to be extremely viable. For example; if a group of 10 caregivers formed a collective, they could technically serve a total of 50 patients. 50 patients X 2.5 OZ = a total of 125 OZ's per month that collective could sell. At a rate of $300/oz, that collective would yield $37,500/month. Now the only problem, is that the caregiver would have to always sell the maximum of 2.5 OZ to all 5 patients, every single month to produce that steady stream of income. If you do the math, each caregiver could max out at $3750 per month. How do ya like them apples? I'd take that job in this economy, especially since it's completely legal (as long as you aren't incompetent and have the ability to keep your paperwork in order and never deviate from the law)!

the only problem with collectives is that once you get passed the 99 plant count it jumps to federal.

The only option would be to breakup collectives into smaller divisions, which I guess would have to be separately incorporated businesses; if you're thinking on a grand scale, that way each co-op would be a separate entity therefore wouldn't be subject to federal jurisdiction (just a fart in the wind theory here)....maybe have a cooperative with 5 caregivers and 25 patients. Just because the law says you can grow 12 plants per patient doesn't mean you have to. We all know after the first grow, everything will be coming from clones so you would have no need to grow a larger # of plants; just one mother plant and her giant babies

I dunno what y'all make in your line of work but an extra $3750/month minus overhead & taxes would be a comfy situation for me. And by the way, $300/oz for quality product is a low ball figure. The real deal goes for $400/oz...

I guess if you're getting into this line of work on a large scale (i.e. cooperative), you'd better retain a good lawyer to discuss all aspects of operations...from what I last remembered, the inside of a jail cell isn't exactly the ritz.

Anyone have anything to say about this???
MED MARIJUANA DISPENSARY CLOSED

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thu, 23 Sep 2010 5:40:43 EDT




AUTHORITIES SAY A MEDICAL-MARIJUANA DISPENSARY IN THE THUMB HAS BEEN SHUT DOWN. LIEUTENANT GARY PARKS OF THE LAPEER COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT SAYS THE DISPENSARY IN DRYDEN TOWNSHIP WAS DECLARED A PUBLIC NUISANCE AND ORDERED LOCKED BY A JUDGE TUESDAY. PARKS TELLS THE FLINT JOURNAL THAT NO CHARGES HAVE BEEN FILED. HE SAYS THE LAW ALLOWS PEOPLE TO GROW THEIR OWN MARIJUANA BUT IT DOESN'T ALLOW DEALERS. PARKS SAYS THE DISPENSARY WAS BEING RUN BY A BAR OWNER IN DRYDEN. AUTHORITIES FOUND DOZENS OF PLANTS DURING SEARCHES.

closed down? that fucking blows. ill give them a call tomorrow to see if that is true.

kinda strange that it would be shut down since it was ruled on by the township that it was ok and from what ive read, it was also registered with the state.

i can promise you they didnt have dozens of plants growing at the store...definitely not enough room in that place.

The simple fact of the matter is that police do not like the medical marijuana concept in and of itself. So much for "we just enforce the laws"...I guess they just enforce the laws they support.

I personally would be far more comfortable dealing with a licensed caregiver than patronizing a commercialized dispensary, but that's just me. I'm all for the dispensary model, but the law doesn't specifically allow it which creates way too much gray area for my comfort level. Co-ops on the other hand (i.e. clubs), I fully support and I think the law supports them as well.

my uncle is a cop and he doesnt give a fuck about marijuana at all, medicinal or not....he says that a lot of his cop buddies feel the same way....so you cant really through all cops under the bus there.

in a way they are enforcing the laws in this situation since dispensaries arent covered in the law. but yeah, i have read a couple interviews from cops sayin they dont care if you have a card or not, if you're growing and smoking dope they will bust you but, it doesnt get anywhere in the courts.

hopefully all this forces michigan to make the law a little more clear.

made a call to the dryden dispensary today...nobody answered the phone all 3 times i called so it looks like they really are shut down.

cmt1984 said:

my uncle is a cop and he doesnt give a fuck about marijuana at all, medicinal or not....he says that a lot of his cop buddies feel the same way....so you cant really through all cops under the bus there.

in a way they are enforcing the laws in this situation since dispensaries arent covered in the law. but yeah, i have read a couple interviews from cops sayin they dont care if you have a card or not, if you're growing and smoking dope they will bust you but, it doesnt get anywhere in the courts.

hopefully all this forces michigan to make the law a little more clear.

made a call to the dryden dispensary today...nobody answered the phone all 3 times i called so it looks like they really are shut down.

Click to expand...

I should probably clarify what I mean when I say "police"; I'm referring to the establishment (i.e. the brass) not necessarily the beat cops. I know I've ran into a couple of really cool beat cops that could have busted me as a kid for DUI or possession if they wanted to be real assholes but I was thankfully just preached to a bit and sent on my way. I'll be an official Michigan resident next month and can't wait to get my med card; I wish it was a little more affordable though. Where I live now if you get caught with a joint; it costs about $800-$1500 (lawyer included) to make it go away so I guess $300 for a med card is reasonable if you think about it like that.

What about that end part? A caregiver may receive reasonable compensation for services provided to assist with a qualifying patient's medical use of marihuana. Does anyone else believe that the earlier part is in regard to plant counts and weight. I have heard people say p2p exchanges are legal. Whats the consensus on this one?

NBKA said:

this is right on the MMMP web site.

Question: I am too ill to grow my own medical marihuana. What can I do?
Answer: The MMMA provides for a system of designated caregivers. The caregiver can acquire 2.5 ounces of usable marihuana and grow up to 12 marihuana plants for a qualifying patient. The caregiver may assist up to 5 patients. The caregiver must sign a statement agreeing to provide marihuana only to the qualifying patients who have named the individual as their caregiver. The caregiver's name, address, birth date and social security number must be provided to the state at the time of a patient's registration. The Department will issue a registry identification card to the caregiver who is named by a qualifying patient on his/her application. The Department may not issue a registry identification card to a proposed caregiver who has previously been convicted of a felony drug offense. The Department will verify through a background check with the Michigan State Police that the designated caregiver has no disqualifying felony drug conviction. A caregiver may receive reasonable compensation for services provided to assist with a qualifying patient's medical use of marihuana.

Click to expand...

p2p exchanges are 100% legal.

caregivers can NOT sell to patients who are not registered with them.

So where does a patient that is also a caregiver fall then? The way it's worded, no one sells anything. Or am I interpreting it incorrectly? I know the law is a little "hazy" [as the news would put it] but, seems to me that a caregiver is only allowed to assist 5 patients regarding the #of plants and weight allowed. I don't understand where they're prohibited from assisting other patients, provided that they aren't breaking the counts and weights that they're allotted. I guess, for now it's up to your local prosecutor/judge, huh. Fingers crossed.

edit: It's really unfortunate that people that are doing their best to stay with in the guidelines of the program, end up victims to leo [that don't understand or flat out don't care about the law] and over zealous figures of the judicial system.

as a caregiver you can only have up to 5 patients with 12 plants and 2.5oz per patient, if you are a patient too then add 12 plants and 2.5oz for yourself. a caregiver who is also a patient can sell to any patient he/she wants but can only grow for his 5 patients.

Thanks CMT, thats the way I was reading it too. The one part I did over look is the caregiver not also being a patient. That does make sense though. So the remaining question in my mind would be, were all of the caregivers working at this dispensary also patients? Or was there another issue. The article claimed that it was a nuisance due to all of the patients coming and going. As best as I can tell they where right across the street from a gas station, surely they had customers coming and going all day as well. So whats the real problem?

cephalopod said:

Thanks CMT, thats the way I was reading it too. The one part I did over look is the caregiver not also being a patient. That does make sense though. So the remaining question in my mind would be, were all of the caregivers working at this dispensary also patients? Or was there another issue. The article claimed that it was a nuisance due to all of the patients coming and going. As best as I can tell they where right across the street from a gas station, surely they had customers coming and going all day as well. So whats the real problem?

Click to expand...

Selective discrimination. I heard some moron sheriff speaking in regards to the charges that were brought against Charles Lynch of California, who was prosecuted by the DEA for operating a dispensary. The sheriff basically stated that the registered-card-carrying-patients, coming and going from the dispensary, didn't appear to be sick. The last time I checked, police officers enforce the laws; they don't practice medicine, which is probably a good thing. Next time you're at Walgreens and you see a patient filling a prescription that "doesn't look sick to you", I must remind you, it is your American duty to report these "criminals" to the DEA for defrauding the system by appearing healthy in public. These patients really have no shame...coming to a pharmacy to fill a prescription and NOT looking sick at the same time...truly no shame folks. God knows I'll be sleeping better nights knowing I kept one of those criminals off the street