Health & Fitness
Macomb Doctor Sentenced For Selling Marijuana Recommendations
A Macomb physician is sentenced to 18 months probation for illegally selling medical marijuana certifications.
WARREN- A Macomb County physician has had her day in court- and avoided criminal penalties for selling pre-signed doctor's recommendation forms for medical marijuana use.
Dr. Lois Butler-Jackson was sentenced to 18 months probation for committing a legal act in an illegal manner and health care fraud. She faced up to five years in prision for each of the charges. Butler-Jackson said the sentence was "a shock" and that she was still unclear as to what activity she had performed that was illegal.
Butler-Jackson told Judge Druzinski in Macomb Circuit Court, "I still don't understand the nuance of it." Prosecutors claim she failed to establish a bona fide doctor-patient relationship with the ill individuals she certified. Butler-Jackson claims her actions were determined to be legal per her attorneys; she claims to have evaluated patient medical records and maintains her innocence.During the four-day trial, prosecutors outlined the operating agreement whereby Butler-Jackson sold signed certification papers for $100 to a middleman, Brian Deloose, who then sold them for $250 each through a certification center located in an appliance store in Warren. Undercover officers purchased the recommendations from Delose without ever seeing the physician. A jury convicted Butler-Jackson of the crimes she was sentenced to.
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This prosecution was a joint operation of the Macomb County Prosecutor's office, represented by Assistant Prosecutor William Dailey and the Michigan Attorney General's Office, represented by First Assistant Attorney General William Rollstin.
New rules for doctors recommending marijuana to their patients became law on March 1st, 2013. Contained within the package of Bills passed by the Michigan legislature in the wee hours of the morning during 2012's lame-duck session were a trio of bills that changed the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMA).
