GRAND RAPIDS, MI – An attorney who specializes in marijuana cases said that charges against 37 West Michigan residents should have been filed in state court to determine if they violated the state's medical marijuana law.

Instead, they’re charged in federal court where the medical marijuana law cannot be used as a defense.

“It was not the intent of the voters that citizens who have lived their entire lives without any contact with the criminal justice system would find themselves in a federal courtroom, deprived of the protections of Michigan’s Act,” Kalamazoo attorney Daniel Grow said Thursday, April 17.

He represents one of the defendants.

Daniel Grow

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He said such arrests have had a chilling effect on those who want to legally take part in medical marijuana use or growing. Otherwise law-abiding people have been hit with felonies for unwittingly violating the law.

“I can’t speak to the allegations involving all of the defendants, but it will be shown that some of the defendants were only remotely involved with the core allegations,” Grow said.

Federal prosecutors routinely file motions "in limine" to prevent defendants from using the state medical marijuana law as a defense in federal court. The motions are granted by federal judges. Because the medical marijuana law provides no defense, defendants often have few options other than take a plea deal.

“While I think the judge, at sentencing, will take all of the relevant factors into consideration, it is unfortunate that in this situation a good sentencing argument is really all that’s left,” Grow said.

“And again, I can’t speak to the allegations as to all of the defendants, but I am concerned that federal resources are being used where it looks like something that should be addressed in the state courts under state law."

The government said the 37 defendants took part in a multi-county grow operation that used the state’s medical marijuana law as cover. More than 160 police officers, from Kent, Ottawa, Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Grand Traverse and Oceana counties, were involved in the investigation.

Police in October arrested 27 on federal charges but prosecutors soon dropped charges to continue with the investigation. Another 10 defendants were added this week.

“As to the how they filed it and then dismissed it, I am a little disappointed that the defendants that were not obviously involved with the alleged conspiracy were not left out of the new prosecution. Instead, they added more defendants,” Grow said.

Court documents said Shawn Taylor led the “Medical Marijuana Team,” or MMT, with a goal of harvesting $3 million in marijuana. He and his wife, Molly, operated In Do Grow, a store in Muskegon that sold indoor hydroponic growing and other supplies to grow marijuana, police said in court records.

“The conspirators were not attempting to alleviate the suffering of ‘patients’ assigned to them; rather, they were attempting to profit from the sale of the marijuana they produced,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Courtade wrote in a 44-page indictment unsealed on Wednesday, April 16.

He said MMT members sold to social users and recruited people to become “patients,” and name the MMT member as caregiver. MMT also worked with certain doctors who would certify patients with “often bogus medical need without physical examination … .”

The government said it identified 22 grow operations in cities including Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Norton Shores, Grand Haven, Spring Lake and Wyoming. Authorities have filed papers to have the properties forfeited.

The government is seeking forfeiture of Taylor’s former residence and commercial property.

The government is also seeking a $1 million judgment representing proceeds of drug sales. Police seized $78,000 during October raids.

Medical-marijuana users and growers have long taken notice of such cases.

“People have been scared about what happens to patients and caregivers in court for a long time,” Grow said. “And as to state law, they know that the appellate courts can come along and change everything they thought was the law with a single opinion, and that they might not even hear about the change in the law until it is too late. So yeah, folks are scared. And I think that is wrong.”

John Agar covers crime for MLive/Grand Rapids Press E-mail John Agar: jagar@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReporterJAgar