State Police plan to seek drug-related charges against Northampton medical marijuana consultant Ezra Parzybok.
Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Steven E. Gagne said State Police plan to file an application for criminal complaint in Northampton District Court against Parzybok. Mary Carey, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said the charges were related to marijuana.
Parzybok said that his attorneys had advised him not to comment on the issue until they had learned more about any possible charges.
Northampton Police reports show that officers from Northampton and State Police troopers visited Parzybok’s home at 30 Norwood Ave. at 11:57 a.m. Sept. 22. Northampton Police Capt. John Cartledge said the department is referring comment to the district attorney’s office. Gagne and Carey said they could not give any more details.
Parzybok, a certified medical marijuana user, is an outspoken proponent of medical marijuana who advises medical marijuana patients or would-be patients about how to be certified by a doctor to use medical marijuana, how to grow it legally, and how to choose the right strain or method of consumption. In December, Parzybok was the subject of an Advocate article, “What’s the right pot for me? As Congress drops its ban on medical marijuana, the need for weed wisdom grows,” in which he talked about his marijuana cultivation and consultations with card-carrying medical marijuana users. He was also a guest judge in the paper’s brownie Taste-Off! this summer. In a story published Sept. 15 in the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Health section, Parzybok was photographed with a marijuana plant.
State law allows a certified medical marijuana patient to possess 10 ounces, considered a two-month supply. If a financial or travel hardship prevents a patient from buying marijuana at a dispensary, he or she can be approved to grow a limited amount of plants, sufficient for a two-month supply.
Medical marijuana law experts have said that it is legal for any medical marwijuana patient to grow the plant until a dispensary opens. The area’s only dispensary, New England Treatment Access, is expected to open later this month at 118 Conz. St. in Northampton.
State law also allows a person to get permission from the state Department of Public Health to be a “caregiver” who is allowed to grow marijuana or buy it at a dispensary for a particular, certified patient.
Possession of an ounce of marijuana or less is not a criminal offense in Massachusetts.
In 2014, Parzybok, Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Jeremy Bucci and other medical marijuana experts participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Gazette, WHMP and Northampton Community Television. Among the topics discussed was the legality of growing or possessing medical marijuana. The Gazette reported that Bucci said the district attorney’s office would consider any marijuana-growing cases on their individual merits.
In any Northampton District Court case in which police file an application for criminal complaint, a clerk will review it to determine whether there is probable cause for that charge. If so, the police can seek an arrest warrant or ask for a summons to be issued to inform the defendant to be at court for arraignment.•
