Smoking Medical Marijuana In Parked Cars Not Allowed

Registered medical marijuana patients that smoke pot in their cars in a public parking lot aren’t immune from prosecution.

The Michigan appeals court ruled Wednesday that a parking lot is a public place so the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law provides no protections for a patient who uses the drug there.

The decision came in a case involving Robert Carlton, a registered medical marijuana user, who was charged after smoking in his car while parked in a lot outside the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant.

Carlton was charged with a misdemeanor.

Prosecutors appealed after a judge in Isabella County determined the car was not a public place and threw out the charge.