Ryan Richmond owns Relief Choices, a dispensary with three locations throughout the state (including one on Michigan Avenue in Lansing). Unlike some of his colleagues, he’s not quite as threatened by Attorney General Bill Schuette’s vigilance against the voter-approved 2008 ballot initiative.

With less than a week to go until the Lansing City Council votes on regulating medical marijuana dispensaries, opposition to the proposed ordinance is getting a boost from the well known Lansing-based public relations firm Truscott Rossman.

That question has surfaced over proposed legislation in the state Senate that would require the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, which processes medical marijuana program applications, to give the Michigan State Police the names and addresses of registered patients and caregivers.

’Michigan Medical Marijuana Handbook’ covers health benefits, logistics and interacting with police.

Medical marijuana dispensary owner Sharess Witherell has a lot of questions for the city of Lansing ...

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who spoke out last week against a proposed ordinance that would make most of Lansing’s medical marijuana dispensaries move, has offered an ordinance of his own that would allow dispensaries to open in various commercially and industrially zoned areas of the city as long as they are at least 500 feet apart.

Wednesday, April 27 — Four Lansing mayors, past and present, stood sheltered from the rain this morning in Fire Station No. 1 downtown to announce their support for the proposed 4-mill property tax increase."I don't know if this has happened besides charitable events," Mayor Virg Bernero said. "It's a testament to the importance of the May 3 election."

One medical marijuana dispensary in Lansing appears to be operating without the city’s approval, and three more may be in trouble if the City Council adopts a revised moratorium ordinance.S S Collectives, 1242 E. Grand River Ave., has been open for nearly two months, according to a manager, but evidently never registered with the city.

Nine weeks in jail and pending felony drug charges aren’t keeping Fredrick Wayne Dagit from doing what he believes is his mission: medical marijuana.

“Lansing has the distinction of being in both Ingham and Eaton counties,” Smith said, adding that he was part of a medical marijuana panel discussion with Dunnings and Sauter hosted by the Michigan Municipal League on Feb. 10. He is crafting language.

Wednesday, Feb. 16 — The East Lansing City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to take another month to discuss possible medical marijuana dispensary regulations in the city, thus extending a moratorium on the businesses for another 90 days.

Since then, federal marijuana charges have been brought against Randall Lloyd Darling and Joseph David Johnson, the two growers who showed Every the plants. They face a minimum of five years in prison for growing more than 100 cannabis plants.

Didn’t nearly two-thirds of Michigan voters say two years ago that a limited amount of medical marijuana could be grown legally? That it’s high time police found more productive uses for their time than harassing someone growing a little weed in the backyard?

Baldori, who represents Johnson, believes both defendants were within the state’s medical marijuana law. While Baldori said the DEA confiscated more than 200 plants from a grow operation in Mason, he added that Johnson and Darling are both patients and caregivers with the maximum-allowed five patients.

Monday, Jan. 17 — Some kind of interesting times we live in, don’t you think?

Your Healthy Choice Clinic at 628 E. Michigan Ave. on Sunday afternoons turns into a shoulder-to-shoulder shopping center for qualified medical marijuana patients and caregivers. At any given time between noon and 5 p.m., as many as 50 shoppers browse the narrow office space downtown.

Sensible Michigan, a political action committee formed by a group of six people from Detroit, is drumming up support to defend the state’s medical marijuana law. They believe it’s a law on the brink of destruction by concerned politicians with lifelong qualms with cannabis.

Monday, Dec. 27 — I am very concerned about how strong-armed-forces are moving forward to collect and control data on what is, at the moment, our protected personal rights.

Robert Ortega, who leases business space at 509 E. Grand River Ave. in Old Town, was surprised to find out a medical marijuana business is listed at his property. “Mr. Nice Guy” claims to operate out of the space shared by lawyers across the street from the old Temple Club.

Thursday, Dec. 2 — The federal Drug Enforcement Agency has raided a medical marijuana grow facility in Okemos. The man leasing space at the facility says the plant numbers were within the state’s medical marijuana law.

The proposed ordinance would ban any new medical marijuana establishments for up to a year while the City Council and the city attorney draft an ordinance that includes licensing through the city clerk’s office.

Monday, Nov. 29 — The Lansing City Council is scheduled to introduce an ordinance to place a moratorium on medical marijuana businesses at tonight’s meeting before a planned public hearing Dec. 6.

On Aug. 25, the Oakland County drug enforcement team raided Clinical Relief in Ferndale. Nine people were arrested and await a potential trial on felony drug manufacturing charges. An undercover officer used a fake medical marijuana card to make purchases at Clinical Relief.

Wednesday, Nov. 17 — The owner of Turtle’s medical marijuana dispensary, 2121 E. Michigan Ave., said the store “didn’t skip a beat” after being robbed at gunpoint by three men Saturday night.

(Wednesday, Oct. 6) Cannabis. Grass. Marijuana. Ganja. Weed. Pot. Medicine. That last descriptor, legitimized by 63 percent of Michigan voters in 2008 and in 13 other states since 1996, has changed the game. Here in the greater Lansing region, perhaps most prominent is the number of businesses that engage in the sale, trade and education of it.

(Wednesday, Oct. 6) Peña says to be forewarned while cooking at home, because the aroma of cooking crock-pot sized batches of cannabis butter can be quite pungent. When cooking with cannabis-based oils, she recommends using saffron oil, which is safest for allergies.

(Monday, Sept. 20) The Lansing City Council will vote tonight on adopting an ordinance that regulates in-home, medical marijuana caregiver services in the city. The ordinance focuses solely on home occupation businesses and does not regulate dispensaries, compassion clubs or equipment stores.

(Thursday, Aug. 19) Undercover agents spent a week monitoring cars and customers before they raided the Green Leaf Smokers Club in Williamston and arrested the operator, one of the agents testified Thursday.

(Friday, July 30) The attorney for the owner of Green Leaf Smokers Club in Williamston said in court today the charges against his client are “politically motivated” and result from a “classic case of entrapment.”

(Wednesday, June 30) Last February in Kalispell, Mont., the Montana Caregivers Network signed up between 900 and 1,000 Montanans for the state’s medical cannabis program in a single day. Spokesman Chris Arneson said it was a coordinated effort with five doctors writing recommendations.

(Friday, June 11) The building at 2010 E Michigan Avenue that houses the medical marijuana Capital City Compassionate Caregivers Club isn’t fancy. Volunteers have painted the façade  white with green trim, and an old sign for the United Nations Association ha...

(Wednesday, June 9) On Tuesday afternoon, the Rev. Frederick Wayne Dagit sat in a black- and white-striped Ingham County Jail jumpsuit in 55th District Court in Mason. He looked calm, rested and alert.

(Wednesday, June 2) At an arraignment in 55th District Court in Mason Friday morning, Judge Donald Allen Jr. led the handful of people in the courtroom through the criminal past of the Rev. Fredrick Wayne Dagit.

(Friday, May 28) A Lansing City Council committee is looking to possibly place a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries opening as it continues to work on a new zoning ordinance that would regulate dispensaries and compassionate care clubs.

(Wednesday, May 19) Shane Gustafson came into the business of selling vaporizer machines for use with medical marijuana was because of a sick family member. Gustafson’s 60-year-old father was using medical marijuana for various ailments.

(Wednesday, May 19) For 40 years, attorney Richard McLellan has been representing regulated industries like liquor, gambling and insurance. And now, he is venturing into a new regulated industry: medical marijuana.

(Wednesday, May 12) A proposed zoning ordinance to control medical marijuana dispensaries in Lansing does not worry Ryan Basore.He’s a partner in the newly opened nonprofit dispensary on Michigan Avenue, Capital City Caregivers. Basore, an insurance agent by trade, says that he and his business partners have notified the Lansing Police Department, are located in a commercial...

(Wednesday, Mar. 10) The Rev. Wayne Dagit is wading through 439 new e-mails when I visit him in his small, sparse office at the Green Leaf Smokers Club in Williamstown Township. It is 7 on a Wednesday night. There is a table barely big enough for his small Dell Notebook computer, a black leather planner and a folder of documents.

(Wednesday, Feb. 10) Strictly speaking, K2 is incense and is not meant for human consumption. But its packaging, reputation ' especially on the Internet ' and the fact that it’s sold in close proximity to elaborate glass tobacco pipes sends a different signal. K2, users say, is a legal alternative to marijuana.

(Wednesday, Feb. 3) YPSILANTI – Riding the elevator down from the third floor of the Marriot Hotel at Eagle Creek, a medical marijuana caregiver leaned over and said to me, “Any place you can fuck you can smoke.”

(Wednesday, Jan. 27) The Michigan Department of Community Health is overwhelmed by the amount of medical marijuana applications it receives daily. It was unexpected. In response to the medical cannabis boom, the department is calling for more regulations that will control the number, scale and safety of growing facilities across Michigan.

(Wednesday, Jan. 20) State Sens. Richard Kahn, R-Saginaw, Wayne Kuipers, R-Holland, and Gerald Van Woerkom, R-Muskegon, have each introduced a bill to alter the medical marijuana law.

(January 7, 2009) The frustration of Desmond Mitchell, a state Department of Community Health policy adviser, was almost palpable at a public hearing Monday morning regarding the department’s draft rules for the state’s new medical marijuana law.

(January 5, 2009) A set of draft rules for Michigan’s medical marijuana law presented at a state Department of Community Health public hearing this morning was met with intense criticism from the public, with some saying that the proposals contradict the law passed in November by voters.

(June 20, 2007) Rochelle Lampkin of Detroit doesn'tdrink alcohol, smoke tobacco or use drugs for recreation. But aboutonce a month, she takes in a substance that she says benefits herquality of life ' even though it's against the law.She uses marijuana for medicinal purposes.