8/23/13 - There will be no jail time for the owners of a now-closed medical marijuana dispensary. Marshall Alternatives in Handy Township was raided in March of 2012 following an alleged sale to an undercover officer, who posed as a legal card-carrying medical marijuana patient. Owners Alan Marshall and Christi Marshall both pleaded guilty to charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver for three separate incidents. In court Thursday, Circuit Judge Michael Hatty sentenced them each to one year of probation. However, Hatty added ten days in jail along with a year of probation for former employee Stephanie Baxter because she had violated bond by drinking alcohol. Baxter, who can serve the sentence on weekends, earlier pleaded to three reduced misdemeanor counts of delivering marijuana without remuneration. A fourth co-defendant, April Smith, was previously sentenced to three days of jail and one year of probation for her guilty plea to a lesser included offense of delivering marijuana without remuneration. Their cases had been on hold while the Michigan Supreme Court reviewed a similar case, eventually ruling that dispensaries such as theirs were not expressly permitted under the Medical Marihuana Act approved by Michigan voters in 2008. (JK)
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