Behold: a convoluted waste of time paid for, as always, by the taxpayers. A man charged with three marijuana crimes receives three different verdicts.
Alan Witt, a 27-year-old dispensary worker from Gaylord, Michigan, was charged with delivery of marijuana, possession with intent to deliver marijuana, and maintaining or keeping a drug house. It took the jury less than 5 hours to return with a different verdict on each charge.
While Alan was found guilty of the first count – delivery – the jury hung on the second count of possession with intent to deliver. So they could decide if he delivered it, but couldn’t decide if he meant to or if he knew it was marijuana? The jury also found him not guilty of maintaining a drug house. In other words, the jury found that the Gaylord Provisions medical marijuana dispensary was not a “drug house.”
The case revolved around a confidential informant who said that Witt sold him marijuana at Gaylord Provisions even though he was not his registered caregiver. So the “delivery” of the marijuana in this case would be Witt allegedly handing the marijuana to the informant. But again, the jury couldn’t decide if Witt possessed the marijuana he handed to the informant.
Confusing verdicts usually come from compromises within the jury. They are not meant to make sense but to find some kind of “middle path” between totally guilty and totally not guilty. The jurors could have been torn on just how much they wanted to punish Witt, so they compromised and split the charges down the middle.
Beyond all this is the obvious absurdity of the whole case. A legal medical cannabis patient went into a legal medical dispensary and bought weed, yet under Michigan’s convoluted medical marijuana law, this is not legal because Witt was not the police informant’s registered caregiver.
One day an adult will be able to walk into a cannabis retailer and buy weed for any reason they want. Medical marijuana will cease to exist, except for minors under the care of their parents and doctor. One day, trials like this one will be a thing of the past.
