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Thursday, January 19, 2012
By Michael Nichols
Categories: Drug Crimes
The state attorney general has struck again in his efforts to quash the use of medical marijuana in Michigan. "It's not clear where Bill Schuette will stop," says criminal defense expert Mike Nichols. Nichols adds: "what is clear is that Schuette hates marijuana and is angry that two-thirds of Michigan voters approved it for medicinal purposes."
Schuette issued an opinion, No. 7262, stating that law enforcement officers are not validly enforcing a law related to controlled substances when they return marijuana to a medical marijuana patient. "The logic escapes me," says Nichols, an adjunct law professor of DUI Law and Practice at Thomas M. Cooley Law School and legal author. "On the one hand, the attorney general says that federal law gives immunity to a law enforcement officer who is lawfully engaged in the enforcement of any law relating to controlled substances. On the other hand, he says that enforcing the medical marijuana act by declining to arrest a patient is not enforcement of the law," he added.
Schuette issued the opinion in November, 2011. Already the Michigan State Police is directing officers around the state that they are not required to return marijuana to a patient. Nichols said: "if you extend the logic of the argument that it is not a valid enforcement of a law to decline to make an arrest, then a law enforcement officer is required to arrest people in order to enforce the law. That means an officer must always decide to make an arrest in order to be validly engaged in the enforcement of a law ... is that really the message that we want to send to police officers? We are telling them that they can never use their discretion."
Mike Nichols is a leading fighter for civil rights and is available to discuss your case with you. mnichols@nicholslaw.net or 517.432.9000.