Cops in Grand Rapids, Michigan say a local physician helped a “drug trafficking” ring by writing medical recommendations for cannabis without ever seeing patients or even looking at medical records.
For his part, Dr. Gregory Kuldanek says he was always following state laws.
The charges, made this week in U.S. District Court, allege that Kuldanek and nine other people worked together to grow more than 100 marijuana plants. Kuldanek was also charged with “maintaining a drug-involve premises.” In other words, the DEA is arguing that the doc wrote fake recommendations to members of the pot ring to covering their activities in the state medical marijuana program.
According to the DEA, Kuldanek wrote recommendations for 66 patients and caregivers linked to the organization, often signing over “stacks” of them on the same day. Prosecutors say there’s no way he could have seen all of those patients in that time span.
In addition to that, the DEA says that Kuldanek owned and operated two apartment buildings where cannabis was being grown – in total some 467 plants were associated with the operation.
The case has been ongoing, and is also notable because the DEA got their patient and caregiver information by subpoenaing the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs for what many thought was confidential medical marijuana patient registry information.
MLive.com has a detailed breakdown of the case and charges.
