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“No Impact” From AG Sessions’ Memo

JACKIE HEADAPOHL MANAGING EDITOR

Jerry Millen, owner of Green
House, a dispensary in Walled
Lake; Anthony Sabatella,
owner of Green Solutions in
Sterling Heights; Amanda
Kugler, owner of Bricks +
Mortar Cannabis Insurance;
Rob Teitel, co-owner of Iron
Labs, Walled Lake; and Mort
Meisner and Mark Meisner,
co-owners of Grow
Cannabis Marketing

continued from page 10

marijuana will continue to be legitimized
and provide benefits to many who need it.”
Attorney Barton
Morris is founder of the
Cannabis Legal Group in
Royal Oak, specializing
in all marijuana-related
legal issues including
business law, licensing,
consulting, land use and
real property. Morris is
Barton Morris
well known as one of the
top accredited cannabis
lawyers in Michigan
and Dbusiness Magazine also named
the Cannabis Legal Group the “Face of
Cannabis Law” for 2016 and 2017.
“I developed a marijuana law specialty
through the training I received becoming
the only attorney in Michigan certified by
the American Chemical Society as a foren-
sic lawyer-scientist maintaining a focus
on marijuana,” Morris said. “Our law firm
is highly experienced regarding medical
marijuana from the ground level on up —
navigating the legal process to get licensed
in the five main cannabis business catego-
ries, staying current with the ever-chang-
ing legislation, determining eligibility for
licensing and making certain all cannabis
business practices are followed according
to Michigan laws.”
Partner Craig Aronoff,
senior attorney with the
Cannabis Legal Group,
provides canna-busi-
nesses expertise in areas
that include real estate
acquisitions or tenancy,
and the process of pre-
qualifying of property
Craig Aronoff
for your business that
can be more difficult and
burdensome than in any
other commercial industry.
“But, more importantly, we know every
facet of the industry and can marry the
talents of all of the players or parties from
growers to retailers or venture capitalists
and cover all of the legalities needed to
do business within this new area of law,”
Aronoff said.
Proper insurance coverage is another
essential part of any canna-business.

Bricks + Mortar Group, an independent
insurance and real estate agency in
Berkley, is one of the few agencies to have
a cannabis specialty. “Not a lot of insur-
ance agents understand the state man-
dates that need to be addressed in can-
nabis insurance policies,”
said managing partner
Amanda Kugler. “And as
an independent real estate
agency, we can assist in
buying or selling property
for a canna-business.
“Bricks + Mortar Group
underwrites policies for
Amanda Kugler
the most important thing
— product liability, as well
as coverage for property,
crops, automobile and workers’ compen-
sation,” Krugler added.
Marijuana safety compliance is
mandatory by the MMFLA, and Iron
Laboratories, based in Walled Lake, is the
premier medicinal and recreational test-
ing facility for both Michigan and Oregon
to regulate safety.
“Testing labs for
marijuana must be ISO
17025-accredited as Iron
Labs is,” said president
Ron Teitel. “It feels good
knowing we are testing
the product for things
like pesticides, fungus,
mold and insects, and
Ron Teitel
making sure we know
the cannabinoid poten-
cies and compounds
being produced because they are used
differently depending on the need.”
As with any start-up business, it’s
hard to juggle the business administra-
tion on top of all the other duties, and a
canna-business is no different. Anthony
Sabatella, owner of THC 1-2-3 in Sterling
Heights, said, “We specialize in providing
one-stop business administration solu-
tions for the medical marijuana industry,
such as payroll, insurance and benefits
management, compliance solutions and
staffing for every position in the industry.”

COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS

The legitimate dispensary owners in

continued on page 14

12

January 25 • 2018

jn

On Jan. 4, U.S. Attorney General Jeff
Sessions issued a memo directed to
U.S. attorneys rescinding the Obama-
era policy that took a “hands-off’
federal government approach to states
where medical or recreational mari-
juana is legal, such as Michigan, which
legalized medical marijuana in 2008.
Sessions’ memo opens the door for
U.S. attorneys to prosecute marijuana
users and growers in those states,
although few people believe that will
happen.
“Constitutionally, the federal govern-
ment has the power to preempt state
laws regarding marijuana, allowing
them to go after marijuana users and
growers,” accord-
ing to constitutional
law expert Robert
Sedler, a profes-
sor at Wayne State
University. “However,
politically,” he added,
“I can’t imagine U.S.
attorneys going after
Robert Sedler
medical marijuana
users. It (Sessions’
memo) appears to be more for show
than anything else.”
In a statement provided to the Detroit
News, interim U.S. Attorney for the
Eastern District of Michigan Matthew
Schneider said his top priorities include
combatting violent crime, gangs, cor-
ruption and terrorism. “This office will
review marijuana cases in terms of
where those cases fit within our priori-
ties and our limited federal resources,”
he said.
Andrea Bitely, a spokeswoman for
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette,
told the Detroit News that the move
is unlikely to impact state enforce-
ment. “We will continue to enforce the
Michigan medical marijuana statute,
specifically related to large-scale vio-
lations,” she said, adding that state
prosecutors usually focus on illegal traf-
fickers, not individual users.
Democrat Dana
Nessel of Plymouth
Township, who is
campaigning to be
the next Michigan
attorney general,
said , “The war on
marijuana has proven
to be a waste of
Dana Nessel
time and money
… It is absolutely a
gross display of federal overreach for
Sessions to subvert states’ rights and
return to failed policies that harm fami-
lies, fill prisons with non-violent people,
cost states billions of dollars they don’t

have to spare, and do nothing to com-
bat the real drug epidemic facing this
nation.”
Also running
for the AG post
is Republican
State Sen. Tonya
Schuitmaker, who
said, “As attorney
general, I would
enforce state law
and, with the Justice
Tonya
Schuitmaker
Department charged
with handling ter-
rorism, immigration, corruption, civil
rights and other matters, I would hope
medicinal use of marijuana would not
be a priority.
“The federal government has been
inconsistent about enforcement for many
years and should decide on a clear and
consistent standard,” she added. “I
believe the people of Michigan should
decide what is best for Michigan.”
Democratic AG candidate Pat Miles of
Grand Rapids, also a
former U.S. attorney
under President
Barack Obama, says,
“This decision by
Attorney General Jeff
Sessions is an enor-
mous step backward
and totally disre-
Pat Miles
spects the will of the
people of Michigan.”
He added that, if elected, he
“would not cooperate with the Trump
Administration in going after people
who are operating in accord with what
the people of Michigan have decided
is legal.”
Republican State
House Speaker Tom
Leonard of DeWitt,
also vying for the AG
job, said, “I believe
Attorney General
Jeff Sessions is
wrong on this issue
and needs to back
Tom Leonard
down and leave
this issue alone.
This is a states’ rights issue to me, and
Michigan’s voters have spoken clearly
on this matter.”
Last year, Michigan lawmakers
approved new regulations allowing
dispensaries and other medical pot
businesses in communities that want
them. Also, a group who wants to make
recreational pot legal in Michigan gath-
ered 365,000 signatures and submitted
them to the state late last year with the
hope of putting the issue on the state-
wide ballot in November 2018. •