The result: A statewide court ruling that was supposed to provide clarity to a vague law has simply become a tool of discretion, depending on where you live.

“It was heralded as the death knell for all dispensaries. Well, it wasn’t,” said Rick Thompson, a spokesman for Big Daddy’s in Burton, Detroit, Sandusky and Macomb County’s Chesterfield Township. “We have loved ones who are ill, and we believe in what we’re doing.”

We have to fight for these things while we’re still healthy. If we’re too sick, it may become too late.”
Even lawyers who specialize in medical-marijuana issues are surprised.

“They’re obviously getting bad advice,” attorney Jesse Williams said of dispensaries. “Anybody that’s open in Michigan will at some point be raided. ... I don’t see the judiciary allowing any type of model to work in Michigan.”

Matt Abel, a lawyer whose firm is called “Cannabis Counsel,” tells people to be “smart — and lucky.”

“The only way you’re going to exist as a dispensary is by the graces of the local authority,” Abel said. “It’s not a safe thing. The people who are more of a cowboy are sticking their necks out and doing it.”

One of the problems with Michigan’s voter-approved law is that it doesn’t say where 131,300 people with state-issued cards can get marijuana. The law says they can possess up to 2.5 ounces of “usable” pot and keep up to 12 plants in a locked place. A registered caregiver also can grow marijuana for five people.

In mid-Michigan’s Isabella County, a dispensary was allowing patients to sell marijuana to other patients, with the shop collecting thousands of dollars in commissions. The appeals court in August said it was clearly illegal and agreed that Compassionate Apothecary could be shut down as a “public nuisance.” The Michigan Supreme Court is considering whether to take the case.

“The law was passed for compassion. It wasn’t passed for profit,” said Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper, who believes aggressive enforcement has eliminated dispensaries in her county, Michigan’s second-largest. Since the court decision, Attorney General Bill Schuette has sent staff across the state to advise authorities about how they, too, can crack down in their communities. The handouts included a model of an 11-page lawsuit with blank spaces for local names and other vital information.

“Those that continue to operate do so at their own peril,” Schuette said.

But what about indifference by some local authorities? “I understand the demands on local law enforcement. I’ll leave it at that,” the attorney general said.

Most dispensaries contacted by the AP declined to explain how they do business or why they believe they can get around the appeals court decision. At Big Daddy’s in Burton, a sign on the wall says “donations only.” At The Barn, visitors have to be buzzed in to open the front door and then pass through a metal detector to get through a second door.

In Ann Arbor, Chuck Ream, president of Arborside, said members who have medical-marijuana cards get pot from other members, around $15 a gram and up to $450 an ounce.

“Obviously people give up money to get product, and the grower gets money when they bring their medicine. But it’s all donations,” Ream said. “There’s got to be a way for people to get the medicine, or the whole (law) is a sham.”

Richard Celmer, 48, of Chesterfield Township said he uses marijuana to stimulate his appetite, which is suppressed from medicine for a bad back, bone spurs and bipolar disorder. He has a caregiver who grows pot for him, but he also likes dispensaries.

“I smoke and hang out with people,” Celmer said. “You’re in a safe environment. It keeps people from going to the street.”

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