attorney bruce leach's letter to county prosecutor

Law Office of Bruce Leach 810-275-8899

4025 E. Hill Rd, Grand Blanc, MI 48439 www.bruceleachlaw.com

City of Springfield, Michigan

Springfield Police Department

Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department

Calhoun County Prosecutor David E. Gilbert

CC: The Karmacy medical marijuana collective, Kiel Howland CEO

February 28, 2013

MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAW UPDATE

THE KARMACY MEDICAL COLLECTIVE BUSINESS PLAN

Dear esteemed members of the city council of Springfield, the Springfield Police

department, Calhoun County Sheriff’s department, Calhoun County Prosecutor, and other local

municipal offices;

We are aware of the recent Supreme Court decision in State of Michigan v. McQueen and

wanted to contact you directly to clarify some concerns and legal issues regarding the operation

of “dispensaries” that provide safe access for medical marijuana patients.

The will of the people has been clear on the issue of Medical Marijuana since day one of

its initiation. The people of our great state are overwhelmingly in favor of medical marijuana

and do not want to see individuals prosecuted under the Act that was created specifically for the

purpose of protecting them from such prosecutions. We strongly believe that this issue presents

an excellent opportunity to work in partnership with the City of Springfield to stand up and

protect the interests of our local citizens, and to make Springfield a leader in compassion,

education, and understanding when it comes to Medical Marijuana.

We would like to address and clarify the recent Supreme Court decision in McQueen as

to what it specifically does and does not opine. To begin, McQueen is a civil case against the

Compassionate Apothecary of Mt. Pleasant “dispensary” by local authorities who tried to declare

them to be a public nuisance under the public health code laws. The case was initially decided

and ruled in favor of the dispensary, but was appealed by the Attorney General’s office to the

Supreme Court in yet another attempt to frustrate the lives of medical marijuana patients in the

State of Michigan. The whole situation brings to mind a few important questions such as “Who

are these medical patients and farmers hurting? Why such hatred for handicapped medical



patients? Shouldn’t medical patients be entitled to safe access for their medicine?” The clear

and glaring fact remains that the bulk of all marijuana related prosecutions in this State where

cardholding medical patients are involved are almost entirely victimless crimes.

The Supreme Court in McQueen states that the local authorities have the option to

prosecute local dispensaries as a “public nuisance” and violative of the public health code only if

they are participating in patient-to-patient transfers. The opinion of the Attorney General and the

Supreme Court in McQueen is that “patient to patient” transfers are not “civilly” protected

conduct under the Public Health Code law. Even though we agree entirely with the dissenting

opinion by Justice Cavanaugh that patient to patient transfers would be permitted under the

MMMA and also under Public Health Code Law, we agree that patient to patient transfers are no

longer allowed within our facility.

It is very important to note that none of the alleged conduct within McQueen would be

criminally prosecutable under the MMMA and the affirmative defenses it affords in Sections 4

and 8. In fact, there is no discussion of criminal conduct within McQueen, other than the fact

that he was actually immune to criminal charges under the Section 4 affirmative defense. It is

simply a matter of local authorities deciding if a dispensary can be a public nuisance or not.

We would also like to point out that while patient to patient transfers may not be

protected under the Public Health Code, they are protected under the MMMA Section 8

affirmative defense from criminal prosecution. The distinction here is a very small loophole, in

that McQueen deals with civil public health code matters, not criminal conduct, and the Section 8

affirmative defense under the MMMA only applies to criminal matters. Were McQueen a

criminal case, the affirmative defense would stand and the charges would be required to be

dismissed.

It is the goal of The Karmacy to re-open now as a private medical collective to continue

to provide safe access to medicine for all of our patient and caregiver members, while always

remaining compliant with the MMMA and Michigan Law. We want to distinguish ourselves and

our “collective” method of operation from the rest of the so-called “retail dispensary” operations.

Here is an example of our proposed private medical collective business plan, so that we

are all crystal clear that there will be absolutely no violations of the MMMA or State law as

discussed in McQueen. As of today, February 28, 2013, The Karmacy dispensary has

transitioned to The Karmacy medical collective and is re-opening as a non-profit, private

membership organized as a medical collective, in order to provide safe access to medicine for all

of our members. No patient-to-patient transfers will be allowed on the premises. No use of

medicine will be permitted on the premises. The Karmacy will operate as a non-profit

organization. No profits will be made by The Karmacy for providing a safe access facility where

patients may acquire their medicine directly from their specific registered caregiver only.



Within The Karmacy private medical collective, every member will be connected to his

or her caregiver via an administered network. This will involve a membership application,

potential change of caregiver forms, mandatory attendance to a legal 101 briefing on this

collective structure and the protection it affords our members, and individual locker storage

facilities for all members as needed to assist in the facilitation of caregiver-to-their-registered-

patient only transfers. These lockers will be accessible only by the caregiver and their five

specific patients, and each locker would only be permitted to contain a maximum of 2.5OZ of

usable marijuana at any time, as permitted under the MMMA. All members will be required to

be tied in to the network as caregiver/patient and thereby legally protected as deemed necessary

by The Karmacy network administrator.

For example, when a new patient comes in to The Karmacy, they will be required to

apply for membership prior to being admitted for service. Once admitted as a member, their

caregiver rights will be assigned to a designated caregiver within the network in order to prevent

any “broken links in the chain.” One caregiver may provide medicine to their five registered

patients only, and each of those patients may in turn be a caregiver for their five additional

patients, and so on. Once the appropriate paperwork has been completed and filed with the

State, the patient may then access the Ordering room where samples of the available medicine

will be displayed for them to make their selection. Once the medicine is ordered by the patient at

least 24 hours in advance, The Karmacy will contact that patient’s specific designated caregiver

to arrange for the legal safe transfer of their desired medicine to that patient through the use of a

locker system inside the building. In this manner, only “caregiver-to-their-registered-patient”

transactions will occur within the facility. It is our understanding of the law as stated in

McQueen that as long as this model of “caregiver-to-their-registered-patient” transfer is adhered

to, MMMA Section 4 immunity applies. It is important to note that the public nuisance claim as

in McQueen only applies to patient-to-patient transfers, which we will not allow on the premises.

It is our sincere hope that the members of the City Council will view this as an

opportunity to work together with us in partnership for safe access for the medical patients

residing in our community. Our focus always has been on safe access, education, scientific

research, and compassion for seriously ill medical patients. We have always maintained an open

line of communication with Springfield and all local authorities and we welcome your

involvement in protecting the safety and security of patients in our community. We believe that

the Supreme Court decision in McQueen specifically leaves the determination of these public

nuisance matters up to the local community and its leaders. We also believe that our proposed

legal collective structure for all transfers of medicine protects us from civil or criminal

prosecution under Section 4 immunity of the MMMA and McQueen.

We pray that you will stand up for your local area citizens who are medical marijuana

patients and will not abandon them to unsafe, back alley drug dealers. We pray that you will

always find our services to the local community a professional medical public service rather than



a public nuisance, as we strive to always abide by the law and stand up for our beloved medical

patient rights.

There are currently bills pending in the legislature pertaining to “Provisioning Centers” as

drafted by Rep. Calton, which evaluate how licensed dispensaries should be regulated and taxed.

We believe this legislation will be fast tracked now after the completion of the McQueen case to

further clarify the legality and legitimacy of safe access facilities and will uphold and protect the

endangered rights of Michigan’s Medical Marijuana community.

We would like to make available our attorney, Mr. Bruce Leach, to provide any

clarification on this matter that you may require. He is available to answer all of your questions

and concerns regarding this very important matter. Should you have any further concerns, please

contact our attorney at 810-275-8899 and we will gladly provide whatever assistance we can.

Sincerely,

Bruce L. Leach, Esq.

Counsel for The Karmacy

attorney bruce leach's letter to county prosecutor

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