As marijuana laws and attitudes swiftly change, Oakland prosecutor drops major pot case

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

54% : A year after the raids, authorities charged him with a four-year felony: possession with intent to distribute marijuana.
52% : But he also had help from something else: a rapidly changing legal climate for marijuana -- in the nation, in Michigan and in Oakland County.
52% : Then, to obtain medical marijuana legally, the user needs to request that he or she be linked with a state-registered "caregiver," the term given to those allowed to grow limited amounts of marijuana and sell it to assigned users.
51% : Barnes wheeled out cartloads of equipment, cases of files and some large fans that he said the compassion club's caregivers had used to grow marijuana.
46% : By April of this year, however, an overwhelming share, 91%, were telling Pew's pollsters that marijuana should be legal, either for medical as well as recreational use, 60%, or just for medical use, 31%.
45% : In Michigan, Barnes was arrested when the state outlawed dispensaries, the term for shops that sell marijuana, marijuana derivatives and edibles, including for medical purposes.
45% : In Oakland County, agents who raided the Metro Detroit Compassion Club said in court documents that they'd seized 40 pounds of marijuana.
43% : As for the county sheriff's changing role in drug arrests, McDonald said that "OAKNET is still busy, but based on what we see, they aren't focusing on marijuana.
41% : "Of course, if we have a marijuana case that has other charges, we will pursue those other charges and dismiss the marijuana part of it," she said, adding: "I don't want anybody to think I have a sweeping policy to not charge anything involving marijuana.
40% : Here's an overview of how that changing legal climate has flipped the script on decades of law enforcement tactics used against people like Barnes:
40% : In 2014, when he was raided, Americans were about evenly split about whether to legalize marijuana, according to the Pew Research Center.
39% : Marijuana is incapable of causing death by lethal overdose, according to numerous medical authorities.
39% : Oakland County's current prosecutor, McDonald, said she's still fighting the war on drugs, but not a war on marijuana.
38% : For defendants like Barnes, the national shift trickles down to affect views about marijuana held by judges, juries, state lawmakers and even adverse witnesses.
38% : That assistant prosecutor worked under a former Oakland County prosecutor, Jessica Cooper, who was outspoken about her strong opposition to legalizing marijuana.
37% : In many states, including Michigan, "Clean Slate" laws are letting people with criminal convictions involving marijuana get their records expunged.
35% : They wanted to focus on serious drug violations and not on marijuana," she said.
33% : If there is a marijuana case that violates the scope (of state laws on marijuana), "we will absolutely prosecute it."

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