Mystery man promotes Ferndale medmj distribution issue
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 10:08 am | By: Radical Russ
Mystery man promotes marijuana issue | The Detroit News | detnews.com
FERNDALE — The man behind the Nov. 4 proposal that would authorize one business to distribute medical marijuana in Ferndale is a mystery to most.Even elected officials in this Oakland County suburb aren’t sure who the initiative’s leader, Carl Martin Swanson, is or what his group, the National Organization for Positive Medicine, is all about. In fact, no one at City Hall has laid eyes on Swanson or knows exactly where he lives or what the 37-year-old does for a living.
Swanson’s purported business — which he claims has a tax ID but is actually Swanson’s own Social Security number — has no permanent address, Web site or organized campaign.
A search of legal records revealed much more about Swanson — a former Florida prosecutor, now disbarred Michigan attorney and convicted felon — as a man who was so intent on changing medical marijuana laws in 2004 that he planned his own arrest outside the Greektown Casino in Detroit to test his theories in court.
On June 18, 2004, Detroit police officers found Swanson standing on Monroe Street with 11 baggies of dope and a sign that read “Purchase Pot Legally Here.” Swanson was promptly arrested and later testified at his felony criminal trial in Wayne Circuit Court that he planned the stunt to create a paper trail in court to an online company he created that offered to ship medical marijuana to states where it is legal.
The jury convicted Swanson of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, a felony. He was sentenced to a year of probation, ordered to perform community service and pay fines.
Based on information in court files, Swanson has no income, no job and is on monthly disability payments.
With the help of resident Ronald J. Easton Jr., Swanson gathered 398 signatures in Ferndale in May to get the pot proposal on the ballot in the city.
Easton has never met Swanson and was hired to collect petition signatures by a company he declined to name.
In 2005, Ferndale voters passed a measure that removed all criminal penalties under local law for marijuana used by patients with the recommendation and supervision of a state-licensed physician, despite the fact that state and federal laws prohibit such use.
“He picked Ferndale because medical marijuana is already legal here. But distributing is a whole ‘nother thing,” Easton said.
Supporters of the statewide medical marijuana proposal — also on the ballot Nov. 4 — say Swanson’s measure has nothing to do with theirs.
I have a female friend who lives in Alaska. I once asked her dating life was like up there. She said, “When it comes to finding a man in Alaska, we have a saying: ‘The odds are good… but the goods are odd.’”
I sometimes feel like that about the drug law reform movement. What’s the chance we’ll find people that are passionate about chaning marijuana laws? Well, the odds are good… but the goods are odd.
Mostly the people I’ve met in the movement have been professional, friendly, and very insightful about how to best engineer the end of adult marijuana prohibition. Then, there’s occasional wacky / colorful / shady / slimy / just plain weird type that threatens to undo so much earnest work by the former group by reinforcing negative stereotypes or engaging in scandalous practices.
The issue of the distribution of marijuana seems to bring out the latter type. I wonder why this Swanson is so intent on this quixotic Ferndale scheme when there is a statewide medical marijuana issue in his very state he could be devoting time to and not distracting from?
