A medical marijuana advocate from Warren whose private medical marijuana club in Providence was raided three years ago has had most of the charges against him thrown out in Rhode Island Superior Court.

Patrick Rimoshytus, a long-time Warren resident now living in Bristol, pleaded no contest last week to a single misdemeanor charge of possession of more than one ounce of marijuana. In return, state prosecutors dismissed five felony charges against him for the manufacture, delivery or possession of controlled substances with intent to deliver. The misdemeanor charge will be filed for one year.

Rhode Island State Police arrested Mr. Rimoshytus in February 2017 after an undercover state police officer visited a private medical marijuana club he ran in Providence’s Fox Point section. The officer used an expired Rhode Island medical marijuana card to purchase a small amount of the drug, and a subsequent raid conducted by state police netted larger amounts of medical marijuana and edibles.

Mr. Rimoshytus, who was represented in court by Kara Hoopis Manosh, had long argued that the state’s charges were excessive and that the large weight volume of edibles seized in the raid gave an inaccurate representation of how much actual marijuana he had. He also charged that the state's charges against him were politically motivated.

“I’m very glad it’s over with,” Mr. Rimoshytus said Wednesday. “I felt like it gave me an undeserved bad name and it was a slap in the face.”

Mr. Rimoshytus said one of his main concerns was that records seized during the raid, including patients' private medical information and other documents, would be returned. He said he is glad that those records will likely be returned, but he assumes that the medicinal marijuana seized by police is gone for good.

In the time since his arrest, Mr. Rimoshytus, the former owner of the Green Cross private medical marijuana club in Warren, has stayed active in pro-medical marijuana advocacy across the state. He is currently on the board of directors for the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

He said Wednesday that he has no current plans to reopen his former location in Warren, nor the one in Providence. Since his arrest and the closure of both businesses, state law has been amended to outlaw so-called “marijuana emporiums,” or places where medical marijuana is exchanged or used.

He said he and the former owner of a similar club in South County plan to challenge that new state law as a violation of the constitutional right to Freedom of Assembly.