We told you last week about a Michigan prison cop who died prior to being sentenced for his role in a medical marijuana brownie sting. It turns out that 49-year-old Tim Bernhardt committed suicide, rather than face the felony charges of maintaining a drug house – charges he saw for simply being a medical marijuana patient and making some brownies. Bernhardt was facing up to two years in jail and $25,000 in fines.
According to Michigan law, concentrated forms of marijuana are illegal even for medical cannabis users – that includes infused butter, arguably the most common way to make pot edibles. The court has upheld that ruling as recently as July of 2013 – despite overwhelming evidence that it’s an absurd qualification. The judge based the ruling on the language of the state medical marijuana law, which defines marijuana as the “the dried leaves and flowers of the marihuana plant, and any mixture or preparation thereof.”