Marijuana smell from Michigan outdoor grow prompts neighbors to sue | How to buy Skittles Moonrock online
Learn how to order cannabis online. TOP QUALITY GRADE A++
Cannabyss Inc. is the best place online to buy top quality weed, cannabis, vape, marijuana and CBD products. Get your borderless orders delivered at the pickup spot with ease. Top Grade products for client satisfaction.
👉 Click here to Visit our shop! 🛒
This story was published with permission from Crain’s Detroit.
A West Michigan couple, who have been outspoken against the state’s legal marijuana industry, are suing the state’s top cannabis regulator, their local township leaders and a business for expanding its outdoor marijuana grow operations near their home.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids in December, alleges Hesperia-based HiCloud LLC expanded its Newfield Township grow operations into property zoned as residential near the 5-acre property and home of plaintiffs James and Carrie Draper, causing health issues for their children and violating the family’s Constitutional rights.
“The Drapers are now forced to raise their children in a home that smells of marijuana,” the lawsuit said. “Their clothes smell like marijuana. When they go to the grocery store and return to their car in the parking lot, their car smells like marijuana. People who do not know the Drapers would reasonably conclude that they are drug users. And it is difficult to have people visit their home because it smells like a drug house during the summer and early fall.”
The lawsuit is against HiCloud; Brian Hanna, executive director of the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency; Newfield Township; and Steven Micklin, the township’s zoning administrator.
HiCloud and Newfield Township did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the case. The CRA told Crain’s it does not comment on ongoing litigation.
The Drapers allege the HiCloud cultivation site expansion is retaliation for James Draper’s past attempts to keep cannabis out of Newfield Township, which is 30 miles north of Muskegon. Draper alleges the township fought against his ballot initiative to ban marijuana operations within the township’s borders, which ultimately failed in the 2022 election.
The lawsuit alleges the township used a scare campaign about rising property taxes due to litigation brought forth by cannabis operators if the township revoked operating licensure.
HiCloud began operating in Hesperia in 2021 and its expansion is, according to the lawsuit, less than 300 yards from the Drapers’ home where the couple reside with their five children.
The cultivator requested a special use permit from the township in 2023 to expand its operations to neighboring residential property, a request that was granted, the lawsuit contends.
Draper soon after filed a public safety complaint against the property, which was ultimately rejected by the township. Draper also filed a lawsuit, in which he represented himself, against the township in state circuit court in 2023. That lawsuit was dismissed.
The federal lawsuit alleges the Draper’s children suffer from headaches and migraines from the smell of marijuana and one of their children has allergy flare-ups when the smell is present.
First Lt. Mike Shaw, public information officer for the Michigan State Police in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties, told Crain’s that marijuana smell was the top complaint law enforcement received against the industry during the early days of legalization, but that is no longer the case. Residents have either gotten used to the smell or tolerate it as part of everyday life.
The Draper lawsuit alleges the township has also engaged in a retaliation and intimidation scheme against Draper, including ordinance violations issued against his commercial properties. The lawsuit is seeking damages for violating the Draper family’s Constitutional right to equal protection under federal law.
The case is also seeking to upend the state’s legal marijuana framework, alleging the adult-use recreational marijuana law, the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act, violates federal laws.
None of the defendants have yet answered the complaint in federal court.
HiCloud’s troubles
Despite being co-defendants, HiCloud and the CRA are not allies.
The CRA has filed several complaints against the operator and could revoke or not renew its license.
In August, the CRA filed a complaint against HiCloud for allegedly distributing to the illegal market after the Michigan State Police arrested its owner for a felony possession charge.
The MSP pulled over Endrit Cali, HiCloud’s owner, driving a rental truck east on I-96 near Lansing on Nov. 9, 2023. Inside the rented truck were 43.5 pounds of marijuana flower, three jars of marijuana wax oil and three jars of marijuana powder.
HiCloud does not possess a marijuana transporter’s license, and the marijuana in the rented truck was not tagged or recorded in the state’s METRC tracking system, according to a state complaint. So the MSP arrested Cali and a Clinton County district attorney charged him with felony possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute.
On the same day of Cali’s arrest, the CRA began investigating HiCloud after receiving a tip that the grower was illegally storing marijuana in an unregulated pole barn on its property in Hesperia and selling that product in the illegal market, instead of state-regulated dispensaries.
CRA agents visited HiCloud and found large batches of marijuana at its regulated facility with no regulated tracking tags and only handwritten tags. To prove that marijuana had come from the pole barn, CRA agents asked to review video recordings of HiCloud’s entry points, which it did not have.
Cali pled guilty to a reduced misdemeanor charge of obscene conduct in January 2024 and received a $950 fine. Under the felony charge, he technically faced a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine, but interpretation of the law at the time prevented felony charges.
The Michigan Court of Claims has since reinterpreted the law to allow for felony charges for large, unregulated grow operations.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!