See what one police dept does with Michigan's voter approved medical marijuana law

[Bozita]

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090401/METRO/904010453/1409/METRO

Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Police take man's medical marijuana; rules to be laid out Saturday
Jennifer Chambers / The Detroit News


MADISON HEIGHTS -- Bob Redden thought he was doing the right thing when he went to a medical clinic in Southfield to get paperwork to qualify himself for medical marijuana.

Redden, 59, said he suffers from bone disease and two deteriorating hips, and was told medical marijuana would ease his pain. But on Monday, when Madison Heights police smashed open the front door of his Madison Heights house with a battering ram and seized 21 marijuana plants from a back room, Redden wondered what he had done wrong.

"They stole my plants and my money," Redden said. "We are devastated. The door is torn up. They treated me like I was a criminal. I can't believe this is happening to me. I was assured by my doctor this medical marijuana was going to help and they assured me this is legal."

Police in this Oakland County suburb acknowledged Wednesday they don't know whether Redden broke the law, since rules for marijuana possession in Michigan under the state's new medical marijuana have not been laid out yet by health officials. The state is expected to lay out a medical marijuana program on Saturday.

"We did execute a search warrant and we did confiscate marijuana plants," Police Chief Kevin Sagan said. "The dilemma for law enforcement is we don't have those rules yet."

Sagan said the suspect provided paperwork to officers with the name of a doctor whom police are attempting to verify.

"We are coordinating with the Oakland County Prosecutor's Office and based on what we learn from those rules, we will proceed," Sagan said. "The way the law is written it doesn't provide users carte blanche. They have to follow the rules. If we don't know what the rules are, it's in limbo."

more...

[givemebackmycountry]

1. Nice...

How about suspending the execution of search warrants for this kind of stuff until they DO know what the rules are?

jeeze...

[Mz Pip]

2. I should move to Madison Heights

It appears to be free of violent crime. :sarcasm: With no violent crime the police can waste their time with dumb shit like this.

[damntexdem]

9. Well, free of violent crime other than that perpetrated by the police force.

Not to mention their willing judge that hands out search warrants for noncrimes.

[annabanana]

3. Jeez. . "We don't know if it's legal or not, so we'll trash your house,

just in case"

[wtbymark]

4. Therefore, the police and prosecuters should be in Limbo also

what crime was the warrent served under, they were after evidence of a situation that's not yet a crime?

[MercutioATC]

5. This is less "police" than Prosecutor...

...and it required the complicity of a Judge.

[aquamarina]

6. This says it all...

"We did execute a search warrant and we did confiscate marijuana plants," Police Chief Kevin Sagan said. "The dilemma for law enforcement is we don't have those rules yet."

I have an idea, if you don't know what the rules are or what the law is then you should error on the side that rules are not being broken and the law is not being violated.

Just sayin, jeesh.

[navarth]

7. I used to refer to it as "Mad Whites", but I thought it had improved

perhaps I was wrong

[damntexdem]

8. Uh, if you don't have the rules yet, you have nothing to enforce yet.

Warrant or not, the Oakland County Prosecutors Office should prosecute the idiot police who perpetrated this outrage.