Royal Oak Attorney Andy Dragovic Fights For Medical Marijuana Defendants

16 are arraigned in Oakland County pot busts
Charges stem from arrests at three medical marijuana facilities

Jennifer Chambers and Steve Pardo / The Detroit News

The legal face-off over Michigan’s medical marijuana law continued Friday as 16 people arrested during raids of three medical marijuana facilities were arraigned in court.

It took more than an hour to read charges against each of 16 suspects who were arraigned in two Oakland County courtrooms on felony charges including conspiracy to deliver marijuana and delivery of marijuana.

Raids were conducted this week at Everybody’s Café and Herbal Remedies in Waterford Township and Clinical Relief in Ferndale by the Oakland County narcotics enforcement team.

William Joseph Teichman and Candace Jean Teichman, owners of Everybody’s Café; Matthew Curtis, co-owner of Clinical Relief; and 13 employees and associates of those businesses were among those charged Friday.

Authorities said the marijuana was sold illegally at the two facilities. In some cases, undercover officers made marijuana buys off-site from employees in restaurant parking lots in Oakland County. Arrests and drug seizures also occurred Thursday at area homes and a warehouse in Macomb County.

Attorney Andy Dragovic was in 51st District Court in Waterford Township on Friday representing Kirk Swafford, who was charged with five drug-related counts.

Dragovic said Michigan’s medical marijuana law is so new the courts and legal community are still sorting the details out. “These are novel laws in Michigan, laws that were not written by the Michigan Legislature but by marijuana advocates. These are the growing pains from that.”

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard called on state lawmakers Friday to pass more specific regulations for the state’s Medical Marijuana Act, a ballot initiative passed in 2008.

Bouchard called for the state to license dispensary facilities and establish guidelines for the strength and dosage of medical marijuana.

“They need to put a framework in place to carry out the wishes of voters. They need to make this a regulatory act — like we did with the casinos — and get them (marijuana dispensaries) out of the neighborhoods,” Bouchard said.

Bouchard said dispensaries are illegal and not addressed in the state law.

“Our job is to enforce the law and currently you don’t have the right to retail-sale marijuana. There are so many problems with this law and the Legislature has done nothing and the problem has only gotten worse,” said Bouchard, a former state lawmaker.

Tim Beck of the Detroit Coalition for Compassionate Care said the law is clear: “They are operating in a legal gray area and that’s because Attorney General Mike Cox has decided rather than set uniform guidelines, he would let every community set their own guidelines.”

To change the law would take three-quarters of the Legislature to agree because this was a ballot initiative, Beck said.

After hearing undercover officers describe illegal marijuana buys in court, Watson Miller, the father of suspect Matthew Miller, who worked at Herbal Remedies, said he thinks his son was set up.

“It’s clear to me this is all a setup. They used forged cards and forged documents,” Miller said.

Farmington Hills attorney Thomas Loeb, who was representing several defendants, said they are charged with doing something they believed to be legal and ethical as they were helping manage pain.

Most suspects were expected to be freed on bond late Friday.

jchambers@detnews.com Detroit News Staff Writer Valerie Olander contributed.

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