On Shaky Ground

Jan. 25, 2015

Uncertainty Fills The Air At Marijuana Dispensaries

Mark Dragovich and his mother run a medical marijuana dispensary called Farmacy just outside Fife Lake. During the snowy, slow winter months, maybe a dozen cardholders a day visit the tidy shop that sits across from a roadside park along US 131.

Dragovich – a navy veteran who wears his hair in a short mohawk – fears the next knock on his door could be police looking to confiscate cash, marijuana and, possibly, his freedom.

"It’s an uncertain future," Dragovich said. "We’re on shaky ground."

A DARK SHADOW

It’s been almost a year since the Michigan Supreme Court condemned the way many patients obtain marijuana under the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. A February 2014 decision declared patient-to-patient transfers at dispensaries illegal.

This decision may force cardholders to obtain their supply from a registered caregiver – limited to serving five patients – which opponents of the decision say would be logistically difficult or impossible for many people seeking marijuana to treat serious illness.

In some jurisdictions like Wexford County, authorities shut down dispensaries following the decision, but as a conservative legislature quickly vowed to pass bills to establish regulated dispensaries, authorities elsewhere refrained from taking action. This was the case in Grand Traverse County.

Pundits expected that two bills intended to mitigate the Supreme Court decision would easily pass by the end of 2014, but they died in the Senate amid 11th-hour lobbying. Now, advocates of dispensaries say their fate is uncertain. There is talk that the bills will be reintroduced and Dragovich hopes that happens soon.

"I just want them to get off their ass so we can be open and be able to help the people the law was intended to help," said Dragovich. "Our whole business model is based on that legislation and it’s very frustrating."

A ROLLER COASTER RIDE EVERY DAY

Dragovich faces fear each day that he opens his store, and that fear is shared among dispensary owners, according to Adam DeVaney and Misty Cassell, operators of Chronic Certification Center.

"It’s pretty scary for those people who are actually in the dispensary business right now because there’s a definite uncertainty depending on the local law enforcement in their area," Cassell said. "For them, it’s a daily challenge because they don’t know if they’re coming for them."

DeVaney said the uncertainty hangs like a dark cloud.

"This industry is a roller coaster ride every single day. Whether you’re an owner of a dispensary, whether you’re a patient, whether you’re a caregiver supplying to your patients or whether you work at a medical center like we do, you never know," DeVaney said. "You never know if the person who’s standing in front of you is literally a [Traverse Narcotics Team] officer trying to get something on your doctor so he can discredit him and charge him with multiple felonies."

Chronic Certification in Garfield Township helps patients receive certification from a doctor, fill out state paperwork and find a marijuana supply.

Cassell and DeVaney believe they have carefully followed the law and are unsure if they have ever been investigated by police.

"We want safe access for patients in Michigan while the legislature works this out," Cassell said. "We’ve never had any problems here and, if we’ve been visited, it’s unbeknownst to us."

ALL EYES ON THE PROSECUTOR

For Grand Traverse County dispensary operators, all eyes are on Prosecutor Robert Cooney. Last year, Cooney refrained from taking action because he said he wanted to see what would happen with the Legislature’s response to the court decision. Cooney is still waiting, but he’s considering options.

"I’m sure that the Legislature will revisit these issues sooner or later and I will be keeping a close eye on any developments," Cooney wrote in an email.

Yet, Cooney said he is motivated to follow current law. That law, defined by the State of Michigan vs. McQueen decision, does not allow patient-to-patient transfers of marijuana, which is the common dispensary operation model.

"I am unwilling to sit back and allow Grand Traverse County to become the safe haven in northwestern Michigan for those businesses that would operate illegally," Cooney said. "If they can operate their business within the confines of the law, fine. I don’t have a problem with that."

Cooney said he has not looked closely at how any particular dispensary operates.

"Not having received either an actual nuisance complaint or warrant request, I have not been called upon to examine the specific facts of a particular case," he wrote.

Adam DeVaney and Misty Cassell at Chronic Certification Center, a certification center in Garfield Township.

PUSHED OVER THE COUNTY LINE

In Fife Lake, Farmacy sponsors the Fourth of July fireworks and Dragovich and his mother crochet hats and gloves for children in struggling families. Through these types of activities, they’ve won the support of the village’s chamber of commerce, Dragovich said.

"Being active in the community is necessary for any business, no matter what your business is," he said.

This is Dragovich’s second dispensary. Police raided his first, in Mesick, in July. Traverse Narcotics Team officers visited his Mesick store and confiscated marijuana and cash, a setback Dragovich says cost him close to $4,000. He was in the process of opening the Fife Lake store when the first location was raided.

"They threatened to prosecute us if we didn’t shutter our doors," he said. "So we closed our doors in Wexford County and that was our last day of business."

A patient since 2009, Dragovich became involved in the business because he wanted to run a professional dispensary. He said he believes marijuana should be regularly tested for pesticides, mildew and mold. He also believes the people who work in dispensaries should be knowledgeable about what benefits different marijuana strains offer patients.

"I just saw that there was a need for a dispensary that brought a more professional attitude," Dragovich said. "Some of the budtenders, as we call them for lack of a better term in the industry, had no knowledge of the product."

MEDICAL OR RECREATIONAL USE?

Opponents of medical marijuana say the system is rife with abuse. They believe many use the law as a way around the state’s prohibition of recreational marijuana use.

Dragovich disagrees; he doesn’t believe that a significant number of cardholders take advantage of the law merely to get high.

"I see somebody under 30 maybe three, four times a week," he said.

Most of his clients are in their 40s and 50s "and all of them have issues," he said. "When a healthy, 30-something Marine walks in with PTSD, then somebody sees him on the street smoking, they’re going to think he is an abuser, but he’s not."

Even advocates concede that the world of medical marijuana stretches along a spectrum. There are people devoted to operating according to the spirit of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act and then there are sketchy operators.

DeVaney and Cassell said they know of certifiers with questionable business practices. Chronic Certification is a brick-andmortar clinic and they say they are available for follow up visits to ensure a bonafide doctor-patient relationship for their clients, while – on the other end of the spectrum – traveling certification mills stage weekend events at hotels or offer visits with a doctor traveling in the back of a bus.

"There are plenty of them out there that certainly fall under that sketchy criteria. I can’t speak for them," Cassell said. "I know that we follow state law here and we provide a legitimate service."

RETURN OF THE BILLS

The bills in question were introduced by two Republican legislators and approved overwhelmingly in the Michigan House. A bill introduced by Rep. Mike Callton, R- Nashville, that would have allowed locally regulated dispensaries to operate legally passed 95 to 14 before it died in the Senate. Rep. Eileen Kowall, R-White Lake, introduced another bill that would allow patients to use edibles and concentrates. Advocates of this bill consider it a critical piece of legislation because many patients should not smoke marijuana for health reasons.

Callton’s Legislative Director Nick Wake said he expects to see the return of both bills; supporters want to take advantage of the momentum generated by the original support both bills had in the legislature.

"I know we’re looking to do it sooner rather than later and there have already been discussions on how to best move forward with this," Wake said. "We’re working with the stakeholders and the [Snyder] administration, as well as looking for some support in the Senate."

Because the bills died in December, they will have to be reintroduced, which means they can be modified as supporters and opponents try to strike a bargain. Wake said he hopes compromise can be reached with some of the bills’ opponents like the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association.

"We’re actually in the process of working with them, and anyone else with objections, to see what we can do with those," Wake said.

SHERIFFS ARE OPPOSED

The bills died in December amid objections from the Sheriffs’ Association and other opponents.

"I would say we were a significant player in its ultimate demise, yes," said Michigan Sheriffs’ Association Executive Director Terrence Jungel.

If the association’s desired changes are accepted, it will be a radical departure from the way marijuana has been produced and distributed during the first seven years of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act. The changes they’ve demanded could mean the end of dispensaries.

"The distribution really needs to be controlled if we’re going to treat this as a drug," Jungel said. "This is a psychotropic drug and it should be treated as a drug."

The sheriffs’ group is opposed to a system of dispensaries supplied by a cadre of smalltime growers producing batches of marijuana in their homes. When asked if that meant that a pharmaceutical company should replace caregivers in producing the marijuana that patients use under the Marihuana Act, Jungel said that should be studied.

Jungel also said that his association objects to the local control included in House Bill 4271, which would leave the decision about whether to allow dispensaries, and then the responsibility to regulate them, to a city or township. As sheriff ’s departments patrol numerous jurisdictions, Jungel said different rules for different places would be challenging to enforce.

"There would be no continuity across the jurisdictions," he said.

CLARITY WANTED

Advocates say they want the law to spell out a clear way to get marijuana into the hands of patients. Cassell and DeVaney support the original legislation that would have called for local regulation of dispensaries and the ability of local governments to opt out, even if that means many places will ban dispensaries.

"We believe that what’s going to happen is there are going to be little oases, little islands of municipalities that allow it and reap the benefits from it from the tax base, and then there are going to be others that are going to say, "˜We don’t want that.’ And that’s fine," DeVaney said.

Cassell said she wants reform because Chronic Certification serves patients suffering from illness, ranging in age from 6 to 90.

"Those are patients who Prosecutor Cooney doesn’t get to see," Cassell said. "The cases that come before him, obviously, are coming before him because they are troublesome. The fact of the matter is that that is a very small percentage of the patient environment. The patients who we see here are patients who have never done this before, who’ve never used it recreationally and who don’t have any friends who use it."