Bill Laitner

Detroit Free Press

He ran twice for state representative — unsuccessfully — but also led triumphant petition campaigns in five Oakland County towns to decriminalize the possession of marijuana.

Last week, 28-year-old Andrew Cissell of Oak Park began serving a 90-day sentence in the Oakland County Jail for having possessed and sold medical marijuana in amounts beyond the limits allowed by Michigan’s medical marijuana act. Cissell is a state-registered user of medical-marijuana, which he said he uses to alleviate back pain and ease bouts of anxiety. Cissell and his attorney said his prosecution was unfair, and that he was singled out by police because of his activism.

“You have a young man who wants to change a law that is wrong and that the voters voted to change, but Oakland County can’t accept that and they want to intimidate me so I don’t do any more political stuff,” Cissell said, in a phone interview with the Free Press from jail in Pontiac.

Not so, countered Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard.

Feds nearing a decision on whether to see pot as a potential medicine

"There's nothing political about it," Bouchard said. "By his own behavior, he is where he is” — in jail, Bouchard said Thursday.

"There are numerous ways that people come to our attention" for investigations, Bouchard said, saying he did not know the specifics of Cissell's case: "I don't know him and I don't care to know him."

Until marijuana becomes legal, county deputies have a duty to arrest those whose activities exceed what is allowed by Michigan's medical marijuana act, he said.

Cissell declined this week to speak about his history of operating a medical-marijuana dispensary in Detroit, to which he referred in previous interviews. Bouchard said that, despite the existence of dispensaries in Detroit and around Michigan, all should be shut down until state law allows them. He went on to say that Michigan should adopt a system of state-regulated dispensaries, charged with selling pure, inspected, consistent grades of medical marijuana only to people approved to use it.

"But until we do, my people have a mission — enforce the law,” Bouchard said.

Cissell was sentenced Monday to 90 days in the Oakland County Jail, with 10 days off for time served, and he likely will be released under good-behavior rules by Sept. 8, said David Rudoi, a Royal Oak attorney who is co-counsel with another lawyer on Cissell’s case.

“I don’t know the intentions of the Oakland County sheriff’s department, but their timing was very, very interesting,” Rudoi said. Just a few days after Ferndale voters approved decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana in November 2013, “there’s a story in the paper with his face, and the next thing you know, he’s raided,” Rudoi said. In that raid, Cissell was arrested after selling marijuana to an informant of Oakland County drug investigators, according to court testimony.

To avoid a lengthy prison term, Cissell’s previous lawyer persuaded him to plead no contest to reduced charges, Rudoi said. Yet, once Cissell learned that he would serve county jail time under the plea deal, he tried to withdraw it — acting as his own lawyer because his previous attorney resigned, Rudoi said. Cissell's motion to withdraw his plea deal failed and he was sentenced Monday by Oakland County Circuit Judge Hala Jarbou on two felony marijuana charges.

Cissell said he's worried because as a felon, he can no longer be a state-registered caregiver of medical marijuana.

"We are going to be filing again to withdraw that plea" and, if that fails, appeal the case, Rudoi said.

After his arrest, police searched two houses in Oak Park where Cissell had been living and growing cannabis, finding nearly 200 plants, investigators testified. That number was well beyond the 72-plant limit for a state-approved medical-marijuana caregiver such as Cissell. Caregivers are licensed to maintain 12 plants for each of five patients registered to them by the state’s medical-marijuana registry in Lansing, and in addition they can keep 12 plants for their own use — bringing the total to 72, according to state law.

At Cissell's residences, police found numerous items of horticultural gear as well as cash, scales and packing material, they testified. The investigation also showed that Cissell misrepresented to Ferndale's city hall staff that he lived in Ferndale when he actually was a resident of Oak Park — a violation of state election law for petition circulators, according to Ferndale city officials last year.

Cissell’s criminal history includes a previous marijuana offense and one for an operating a vehicle while impaired. Still, he remains a hero to some marijuana activists, although a prominent one said recently that Cissell's been too outspoken for his own good and reckless in his sales of the drug.

"Mr. Cissell made the choice to become an effective marijuana policy reform activist, but at the same time he was not squeaky clean in his cannabis business dealings,” said Tim Beck, a former health-insurance executive, who has bankrolled numerous marijuana-legalization efforts around the state.

Beck, now retired to a farm in western Michigan, was lavish with praise for Cissell in 2013. In those days, Cissell was prominently featured in the media, often assailing law enforcement opponents of legalizing marijuana, while he led petition drives in Berkley, Hazel Park, Huntington Woods, Pleasant Ridge and Oak Park. Each city later voted to approve ballot measures that made possession of small amounts of marijuana either legal or a minor civil offense.

Beck said Thursday he's sorry to see Cissell in jail.

“If he had simply kept his mouth shut and laid low, he would not have been singled out for prosecution by Oakland County authorities,” Beck said.

Contact Bill Laitner: 313-223-4485 or blaitner@freepress.com.