TRAVERSE CITY — State officials are in Traverse City to discuss Michigan's medical marijuana law with government officials and law enforcement professionals, but not everyone is invited.
Staffers for Attorney General Bill Schuette will host today's meeting at the Park Place Hotel. A spokesman for Schuette said the event is intended to clarify some of the gray areas of the law, but is not a public forum.
"We are inundated with questions from law enforcement and government officials, asking the Michigan State Police, asking the Michigan Prosecutors Association: How do we handle this? There are so many confusing parts," said John Sellek, Schuette's spokesman. "We thought the most efficient thing to do would be to have regional meetings ... to hear from experts on the current status of the law."
Schuette will not be in attendance. "Clearing the Air: Implementing and Enforcing Michigan's Medical Marijuana Law" will instead include presentations by representatives from the Michigan State Police, the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, and medical and municipal-law experts.
Not on the invitation list: medical marijuana advocates, marijuana collective operators, medical marijuana caregivers, the general public.
Grand Traverse County Sheriff Tom Bensley hopes the event will clarify aspects of the law.
"It's been a disaster for us," he said. "There are issues with gun purchase permits, there have been issues with seizing medical marijuana and returning it ... it's not clear and concise."
The Traverse City seminar is the fourth and last "Clearing the Air" meeting in the state. Similar events in Grand Rapids, Livonia and Saginaw generated criticism from medical marijuana advocates who were shut out.
Sellek said the media is invited to today's event, but not the general public.
"It's not a press conference and it's not a public forum," Sellek said. "Instead of making the police chief drive to Lansing for a briefing, we're doing our best to help in the most efficient way to provide answers."
Stephen Ezell is an employee at Collective Inc., a medical marijuana dispensary with locations in Acme and on State Street in downtown Traverse City. He was disappointed to learn the public isn't allowed to hear discussions.
"It's kind of our line of work so, of course, we wanted to see if we can get access to this," Ezell said. "I'm always suspicious when people are doing this behind closed doors."
Schuette is an outspoken critic of medical marijuana, and Ezell said the event will provide Schuette's office another forum to spread "inflammatory rhetoric."
"The attorney general is supposed to enforce the law, not change the law," Ezell said. "He's out there campaigning against the whole thing."
Sellek said the seminar is "not a lobby session, it's an education session."
"What the attorney general has made clear: We don't think voters intended for drug shops outside of elementary schools or next to churches," he said. "It just puts public safety at risk. Our job is to enforce the law and ensure public safety is protected. Any changes have to be enacted through the Legislature."
Voters passed the Michigan Medical Marijuana act in 2008, but an August ruling by the Michigan Court of Appeals barred the sale of medical marijuana from patient to patient. Many local dispensaries and collectives voluntarily closed after the decision.
Ezell said Collective Inc. now limits its work to patient consultations.
"We're still open. We haven't missed a day. But the uncertainty of all this is troubling ... especially when you see these closed-door meetings," he said. "We just want to be informed, we want to know what's going on. We feel we're providing a valuable service."
