Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Colleen A. O'Brien has ruled that the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA) provides no protection from prosecution to medical marihuana dispensaries.  Defendant Vlasenko, who operates Modern Age dispensary, is being charged on three counts of delivery of the controlled substance marijuana.  He argued that he should be protected from prosecution because he is a caregiver dispensing marihuana to patients with a medical marihuana card.  The prosecuting attorney filed a motion to prevent him from asserting MMMA affirmative defenses and mentioning medical marihuana at trial.  The Court granted the prosecuting attorney's motion, relying on Section 8 of the MMMA, finding the MMMA provides for a relationship between the  patient and caregiver, and "not the dispensing of marijuana to the world at large."  The Court also determined that while a patient and caregiver may collectively be in possession of marihuana, Modern Age was selling marihuana to "anyone who walks in the door and pays a membership fee."  It should be noted that this decision is very narrowly tailored to its specific and may not be applicable to other situations.  Here, Defendant Vlasenko was selling marihuana, from a dispensary, to undercover police officers, who had not been issued valid medical marihuana cards.

In other Oakland County Circuit Court news, the ACLU has filed a complaint against the City of Birmingham and Bloomfield, claiming their ordinances are invalid, since they prohibit marihuana even for medical purposes.  These complaints were originally filed in Wayne County along with a complaint against the City of Livonia, which has a similar ordinance.  However, Birmingham and Bloomfield were successful in their request to move their cases to Oakland County Circuit Court.  The Wayne County Circuit Court recently ruled that the Livonia ordinance was preempted by the MMMA, however it also held the entire MMMA to be preempted by the Federal Controlled Substances Act.