GRAND RAPIDS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) — The day after Michigan's election, a man and two women appeared before a Kent County judge for smoking what will soon be legal.
Even though the recreational marijuana law hasn't taken effect, the judge delayed the cases, sending them back to the prosecutor.
On Tuesday, the day that a majority of voters said yes to legal marijuana, a 40-year-old Grand Rapids man found himself in the Kent County jail, arrested on an old warrant for using in 2017. He appeared Wednesday before 63rd District Judge Jeffrey O'Hara through a jail video feed.
"Charged with use of the controlled substance marijuana," O'Hara told him.
The judge saw another woman, also arrested on an old warrant.
"On March 21, 2018, at 60th and Eastern Avenue, Gaines Township, Kent County, Michigan, that you did use the controlled substance marijuana, contrary to Michigan law," O'Hara described the count against her.
She was facing up to 90 days in jail, a fine of up to $100 and the possibility of losing her driver's license.
The judge also saw a 19-year-old woman on the same charge.
"I was in a car with a few people and my boyfriend at the time had weed on him," the 19-year-old told 24 Hour News 8. "We weren't doing anything with it, but it was there, the cops charged us with use, but I wasn't even using it."
24 Hour News 8 is not identifying the defendants because what they're accused of doing will be legal in about a month, when the law is expected to go into effect.
At least one of the three was planning to plead guilty and probably face a fine. But the judge adjourned the cases.
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