The Michigan Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday on the future of medical marijuana dispensaries and growing cooperatives.
A man who ran a growing cooperative is trying to fend off charges he exceeded the 12-plant limit in the law. He says his warehouse was used by multiple licensed growers. The operators of a marijuana dispensary are challenging the shutdown of their operation and others like it.
John Bursch is Michigan’s solicitor general. He says the medical marijuana act does not allow dispensaries where patients can share marijuana with each other.
“It’s a free-for-all," he says. "You would never allow one patient with Vicodin to get Vicodin from another patient. You would require them to go to a pharmacist. So here, too, if a patient needs marijuana they need to go to a registered caregiver.”
In the mean time, the Legislature is also looking at adding some definition to the medical marijuana law that was approved by voters in 2008.