Feds want Michigan to give up medical marijuana files
Feds want Michigan to give up medical marijuana files
Published: Wednesday, January 12, 2011
RAND RAPIDS (AP) ?? A court hearing to determine whether Michigan authorities must turn over medical-marijuana records to federal investigators probably won't last long, though it will come another day , as today's hearing adjourned.
The state attorney general's office says it's willing to comply with a subpoena from federal investigators. It simply wants a court order.
In Grand Rapids, U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh Brenneman Jr. is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday on the federal government's request for information on seven people with medical marijuana or marijuana caregiver cards.
The Drug Enforcement Administration won't talk about the Lansing-area probe but says it's not cracking down on medical marijuana users. The agency says it pursues large-scale drug traffickers.
More than 45,000 people in Michigan are registered to use marijuana to ease the symptoms of cancer and other health problems.
Group challenges federal government's effort to get records of Michigan mmj users
GRAND RAPIDS ?? Americans for Safe Access, a national medical-marijuana advocacy group, today filed briefs in the case where the federal government is seeking state-held records of seven medical-marijuana users.
This is the third group asking to be heard in the case after state Attorney General Bill Schuette, an opponent of medical marijuana, said the state would release the information upon a judge's order. The state Department of Community Health, which administers the program, last summer resisted a subpoena by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA requested the information as part of a drug investigation in the Lansing area, records showed.
The state has been reluctant to release the records fearing it would violate privacy protections in the medical-marijuana law.
A hearing is Tuesday in U.S. District Court. Originally, a judge was to act on a request by federal prosecutors to enforce the subpoena earlier this month.
Americans for Safe Access considers itself the ??nation's largest member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens working to promote safe and legal access to marijuana for therapeutic use and research.?
This case is being watched across the country.
Grand Rapids attorney Bruce Block, who has focused on marijuana cases, wrote on behalf of the organization: ??If the federal government succeeds, medical marijuana patients in Michigan and throughout the rest of the United States will be deterred from becoming legal medical-marijuana patients in the states in which they reside.
??This will be deleterious to the health of thousands, yet the Michigan Department of Community Health has not addressed these issues, has not argued the merits of whether or not these documents must be produced, but rather has acquiesced to the demand ?? so long as this court will somehow cloak it with immunity when it violates the law.?
He said that the DEA is seeking ??documents of the most intimate nature ?? medical records of sick and dying patients.?
Under the law, the state holds a confidential list of of qualifying patients and caregivers, who can grow marijuana. The Department of Community Health can only tell law enforcement if a registration card is valid.
While marijuana remains illegal under federal law, prosecutors say they are not targeting legal users of the drug.
Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bruha said that ?? Department of Justice policy discourages expenditure of investigative or prosecutorial resources on individuals or caregivers 'whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.'?
Block said that if information is released from the registry, it ??would open a Pandora's Box,? and become ??an easy source of information the federal government could access by subpoena of an agent whenever it desired.?
Such access would essentially ??nullify? the program, Block wrote.
E-mail John Agar: [email protected]
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Feds want Michigan to give up medical marijuana files
ASA : Medical Marijuana Advocates File Briefs in Federal Court Opposing Disclosure of Private Patient Records
For Immediate Release: January 27th, 2011
Medical Marijuana Advocates File Briefs in Federal Court Opposing Disclosure of Private Patient Records
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, an opponent of medical marijuana, is willing to comply with court order
Grand Rapids, MI -- The country's leading medical marijuana advocacy group, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), filed an amicus "friend of the court" brief today defending the privacy rights of patients across the U.S. The federal case U.S. v. Michigan Department of Community Health is the result of the Justice Department seeking private patient records from the state's medical marijuana program. Last June, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) subpoenaed the private records of 7 state-registered patients, but after the Department of Community Health (DCH) refused to turn over the documents based on provisions in Michigan's medical marijuana law, the Obama Administration took the state to court.
"Patient privacy is an important ethical and public health issue of our time, regardless of whether patients benefits from the use of medical marijuana," said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, author of the amicus brief filed today. "We must do everything we can to protect that right to privacy, especially for medical marijuana patients who remain vulnerable due to an outdated federal law." Following the subpoenas for patient records, the DEA conducted raids in July and December of last year, targeting several state-compliant patient cultivators. No one was indicted as a result of the raids, but the DEA claims to be engaged in an ongoing investigation.
Though the names of the patients have been redacted in court documents, the DEA is seeking "copies of any and all documents, records, applications, payment method of any application for Medical Marijuana Patient Cards and Medical Marijuana Caregiver cards and copies of front and back of any cards located for the seven named individuals." Similar subpoenas were quashed in another district court in 2007, when the G.W. Bush Administration sought the private records of 17 registered patients in the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.
Incoming Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, a vocal opponent of medical marijuana whose office is defending the state, now appears ready and willing to turn over the documents if so ordered. Despite the provision of Michigan law which states that the disclosure of confidential patient information "is a misdemeanor offense, punishable by up to 6 months imprisonment or a fine of up to $1,000.00," Schuette agreed to comply with a court order to turn over the documents as long as "DCH, its employees and agents will be immunized from liability for providing information that is confidential" under the state medical marijuana law.
District Court Judge Gordon J. Quist postponed a January 12th hearing in the case in order to allow briefs from the Michigan Association of Compassion Clubs (MACC), a group of more than 40 Michigan patients and providers attempting to intervene as an affected party in the case. Cannabis Patients United (CPU) also filed an amicus brief Tuesday. A hearing on the briefs is now scheduled for 9am on February 1st at the federal courthouse, 110 Michigan St. NW in Grand Rapids. The briefs in support of nondisclosure argue in part that not only should Michigan and federal privacy law be upheld, but that disclosing private records will have a chilling and harmful effect on patients throughout the U.S. given the continuation of aggressive federal enforcement actions under the Obama Administration.
Further information:
ASA amicus brief opposing disclosure of private patient records: http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/do...ena_Amicus.pdf
DEA petition to subpoena private patient records in MI: http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/do...a_Petition.pdf
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's response to DEA subpoenas: http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/do...G_Response.pdf
