Big Daddy's Owner Says Business is Unfairly Targeted
The controversial Chesterfield Township medical marijuana center is heading back to court Monday in Mount Clemens.
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As Big Daddy's Hydroponics heads back to court Monday to fend off another attempt from the Michigan Attorney General to close the Chesterfield business, its owner says the business is being unfairly targeted.
Rick Ferris, also known as Big Daddy, said that Atty. Gen. Bill Schuette's allegation that the compassion center violated the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act is unfounded.
"He’s not slowed down since he got in office; he's not going to stop now," Ferris said. "We are definitely targeted. This is a civil matter. For him to jump in a civil matter, this is ridiculous."
Schuette and Chesterfield Township have united in attempt to shut down Big Daddy's, claiming it's a public nuisance. Macomb County Circuit Court Judge John Foster initially ordered the compassion center to close. But, his clarified opinion allowed the dispensary to stay open with limited medical marijuana sales under the law.
“He says that, under his order to us, we could do anything as long as it was allowed under the act and what we do is under the act," Ferris said of the judge.
The show-cause hearing Monday in circuit court will center on an undercover officer posing as a medical marijuana patient. The officer bought pot at the facility on Jan. 25 from a reported caregiver, although she was not listed on his card, according to a Feb. 6 report in The Macomb Daily.
Schuette wants Foster "to order the occupants vacate the property; the business be padlocked for a period of one year; the illegal contraband destroyed pursuant to law; and all contents of the premises be removed and sold," the article states. He also wants Big Daddy's to be penalized a $7,500 fine or serve 93 days in jail.
Ferris told Patch this week that the compassion center at the business now just gives caregivers and card-carrying patients a place to go, but that he doesn't employ people to sell medical marijuana.
“I don’t hire caregivers; we don’t have caregivers," he said. "If they're not a patient or a caregiver, they’re not allowed in the compassion part of the facility. We sell equipment to the caregiver.”
He said Big Daddy's follows the medical marijuana act restrictions.
"The only person you can get it from is a caregiver,” he said of medical marijuana. “I’m not a caregiver. The person working behind the desk is not a caregiver."
After the latest court ruling that allowed the compassion center to operate in a restricted way, Ferris said Big Daddy's asked for specific guidelines from Schuette.
"We asked the attorney general to sit down and explain to us what is allowed under the act," he said, adding the request was unfulfilled. "We’re not drug dealers; we don’t want to be classified as drug dealers.”
The township also has pending litigation against the business, citing it violated zoning ordinances by operating in the community. Per policy on pending lawsuits, Chesterfield officials declined to comment on this case.
Referring to a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling, Schuette's office has stated that the "MMMA doesn't authorize marijuana dispensaries and the courts can infer that a dispensary's purpose is not to alleviate a debilitating medical condition."
Steven Thompson
12:22 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012
Folks, I am 64 years old now, became a Christian in 1978, became a minister in 1984, and have been branded a criminal for 46 years now because I CHOOSE to grow & use God-created Cannabis instead of doing man-made, poisonous drugs (legal or otherwise). I am not alone..we are a LARGE counter-culture of folks all over the world who CHOOSE the natural route over the synthetic one. We DO NOT manufacture a drug...we GROW a simple, seed-bearing, herbal PLANT! We dearly love our families & communities, work hard, believe in shopping local & recycling, grow organic, and contribute to society.Now I ask you, honestly, how are we hurting anyone with the choice of our lifestyle? I ask you, honestly, what gives ANYONE the right to make us live a different lifestyle, or THEIR'S? We DO NOT force ANYONE to live our's! We have been jailed, our children & possessions taken away from us, and even killed for OUR choice of lifestyle! So I am humbly pleading with ALL who read this to help RIGHT a WRONG that has been going on for over 70 years now in our country! YES for OUR God-given rights this November. Go to www.repealtoday.org and don't forget to click the "LIKE" button on the right-hand side of the page. Let's make our great state of Michigan the shining light on the hill and the leader of our great nation once again. Obviously, we are not going to get any help from our current legislators. OUR FUTURE IS NOW IN OUR HANDS, SO WHAT WILL WE DO WITH IT?
Joseph
1:29 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012
Thank-You!
Lilly
1:46 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
RIght on Steve ..they would rather have people on Dr prescribed DRUGS than nature. Let's ask Whitney Huston, Britney Murphy , Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, Marilyn Monroe to name a few ..oh that's right..THEY'RE ALL DEAD. Remember..DON'T vote for Schuette ..He goes AGAINST what the people vote in.
Russell Ballatore
12:29 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012
Mr. Schuette is on his own personal vendetta forcing his own personal opinions and views on the people. He is not supporting what the people want and have voted for. He is just another self serving official that needs to be voted out of office. What business does he have sticking his nose in a civil case anyway?
Lilly
1:39 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Let's vote this bum OUT ..the people voted FOR and now he is trying to put down what we the people voted for. DON'T VOTE FOR SCHUETTE.
Joseph
1:24 pm on Saturday, February 11, 2012
Thank-You to the above top writer whom so many admire throughout the sad State of Michigan. Being a model patient and seeing a program so stompted on that I need. Here the State fed me thousands upon thousands of barbituates in a boys home for more than a several years and excessively robbed my childhood after being the place that was supposed to save me from horrible abuse at home to both me and my younger sibling at the time just 3 and 5. Then the boys home cause I was a bad boy? Right! So they drugged me and corporal punished me and made me run commercial buffing machines at a very young age and made me march thousands of miles and beat me and so much more. Now as a very qualifying Medical Marijuana patient for multipe cause and reason I still live in paranoia and fear? What is that? Who are these people stumping on us little guys? The people of Michigan are mad and the entire State soon will go easy on what they should have long ago. Where are the brains behind the sad actions? My God!!!
Thank-You!
Lilly
1:35 pm on Sunday, February 12, 2012
Never gonna stop it ..stop wasting money tryin ..prescription drugs KILL weed don't. We voted FOR it and NOW they want to take our vote away ?? WE SPOKE and voted so let it stand.