| Photo: AP |
| Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard: “This is Michigan, not some Cheech and Chong movie” |
Following a protest Wednesday by more than 150 people at the Oakland County, Michigan courthouse, medical marijuana advocates said they plan to gather Monday in Pontiac and Lapeer for more protests against the arrests of patients and raids on cannabis dispensaries.
“The idea that it’s acceptable for law enforcement to beat down doors, hold weapons at patients’ heads, discuss killing family pets in front of children — all that has to stop,” said Southfield attorney Michael Komorn, who helped organize the protests.
The protests will not alter his tactics, nor his opinion that dispensaries are illegal, responded Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, who raided and shut down dispensaries in Ferndale and Waterford and closed a center in Waterford where patients gathered to use marijuana, reports Bill Laitner of the Detroit Free Press.
“The Michigan Department of Community health has said dispensaries are not legal,” claimed Sheriff Bouchard on Friday. “Our county prosecutor has said dispensaries are not legal.”
Those who disagree “need to go to Lansing” to change the law, according to the sheriff.
“This is Michigan, not some Cheech and Chong movie,” Sheriff Bouchard infamously said after the recent raids.
But the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, passed overwhelmingly by 63 percent of voters in 2008, is unclear about whether dispensaries are legal, according to Michigan Department of Community Health spokesman James McCurtis.
A protest was scheduled at 12:30 p.m. on Monday outside the Lapeer County Sheriff’s Office and a second at 3:30 p.m. outside the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, according to Rick Thompson of Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine, based in Oak Park.