Advocate for medical pot sues to halt dispensaries

The embattled president of a now-defunct medical marijuana collective is suing to block the opening of state medical marijuana dispensaries.

Michael Doyle Ruggles, 58, of Mountain View on Hawaii island, filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court.

The lawsuit names as defendants Gov. David Ige, state Health Director Virginia Pressler, state Attorney General Douglas Chin, the four companies awarded state licenses to grow and sell marijuana and their owners.

A spokeswoman for Ige said the governor has not seen the lawsuit. She said when the state gets a copy of it, the governor will have the attorney general review it.

Up until his arrest on state drug charges last September, Ruggles operated Alternative Pain Management Pu‘uhonua LLC, a collective of medical marijuana patients. He and his fellow collective members contend a change state lawmakers made to the medical marijuana law in 2013 allows patients to share marijuana among themselves.

Ruggles says the state medical marijuana dispensary law violates federal drug and racketeering laws. Beyond that, he says, the law limits distribution to for-profit companies, making marijuana more expensive and putting it out of the reach of many patients who need it.

“If you’re going to let rich people do it, you gotta let poor people do it, too,” Ruggles said in an interview.

Ruggles proclaims himself a medical marijuana advocate. He says he is challenging the state dispensary law because he maintains he can use whatever arguments the state presents in defense of the law to advocate for a collective like Alternative Pain Management Pu‘uhonua.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration still lists marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance that federal law prohibits possessing or distributing. However, the federal government under the Obama administration has chosen not to challenge state laws allowing the use of marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes. And the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling on any challenges to those laws.

Hawaii County police raided Ruggles’ Fern Acres home last September and seized marijuana plants, processed marijuana, cash and firearms. They charged him with four drug promotion and two drug paraphernalia possession counts and with possessing a firearm magazine capable of holding more than 10 rounds.

Three of the drug promotion charges are Class A felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The state, however, has served notice that if Ruggles is found guilty, it will seek extended sentences of life in prison with the opportunity for parole.