Each year, the Electric Forest Festival in Rothbury, MI brings tens of thousands of music fans to rural Michigan. An entire city pops up seemingly out of nowhere to listen to jam bands and electronic music, and camp in the forest in Oceana County near Lake Michigan. This year’s event takes place over a single weekend (previous events were multiple weekends) from June 27 to June 30, 2019, and features 3 nights of The String Cheese Incident, as well as ODESZA, Kygo, Bassnectar and Zeds Dead.

It also brings hundreds of uniformed cops and an undercover narcotics team looking to bust people primarily for selling or using drugs like cocaine, and all types of psychedelics such as ecstasy, LSD, mushrooms as well as pot brownies and edibles. Nitrous oxide balloons are also sometimes found for sale at the festival.

The atmosphere of trippy music and intentional vibe of weirdness does attract people looking to trip through the forest. And the cops know that. [Read more…]

Possession of marijuana or marijuana use is a misdemeanor crime under Michigan state statutes. You can face up to a year in jail and $2000 in fines for simple possession.

Although the maximum penalties are rarely a serious risk, you are still facing a serious criminal charge, and a criminal record if found guilty.

However, our attorneys have been working on some new defense strategies to help our clients beat marijuana charges in Michigan. [Read more…]

If any single state represents the patchwork of marijuana laws growing across this country, it’s here in Michigan. In 2012, four cities passed ballot initiatives to remove local penalties for marijuana possession in private residences. In 2013, three more (including the capital city of Lansing) joined them. This year, 14 towns and cities are gearing up to put marijuana law changes before voters, and while state law still criminalizes possession of marijuana, advocates are winning people over one community at a time.

The first step in getting these law changes in place is getting them on the ballot. And that requires thousands of signatures. Signature drives are being organized and taking place across the state, where advocates are hopeful the tide of marijuana change will sweep through the following cities: [Read more…]

Marijuana possession may be against state law in Michigan and against federal law throughout the country, but municipalities here are taking control of the War on Pot and decriminalizing cannabis one county and town at a time.

Several communities have collected enough signatures to allow voters to determine whether to decriminalize or legalize pot in August or November. And with Detroit, Lansing, Ferndale, Grand Rapids, Flint, and Jackson already making the change last year, the state seems to be taking a piecemeal approach to all-out legalization. [Read more…]