Michigan - While city officials prepare to debate if a medical marijuana grow facility should be allowed in an industrial area of Royal Oak, the city’s first medical marijuana-associated business is already operating in the heart of downtown.
Michigan Medical Marijuana Patient ID Center, located on the second floor of a Fourth Street office building, offers potential medical marijuana patients advice and direction on filling out the necessary paperwork to get state identification cards, along with helping caregivers understand their rights and role with regard to medical marijuana.
Perry Winfrey, 38, of West Bloomfield owns the center. He said the city has been very welcoming.
“I would really like to dispense (medical marijuana), but I feel like I’m already pushing the envelope,” he said. “I’m waiting to see how it all pans out.”
For now, he said, they will stick to dispensing advice and information.
City leaders have put a moratorium on medical marijuana clinics, where patients would be able to get marijuana from their caregivers. The already much-talked about grow facility, proposed for a building on Torquay Avenue, is up for official debate on Aug. 9.
As for the Patient ID Center, City Manager Don Johnson said the business, which opened just prior to the moratorium being passed in April, does not run afoul of the moratorium anyway.
“A business that doesn’t need anything special, like a use variance or something, would be eligible to just open,” Johnson said.
So much of what is done at the center surrounds education, said Gregory Nasto, who is doing the marketing for the business.
“It’s all general frequently asked questions,” said Nasto, who owns a marketing business in the same building, located at 104 Fourth St., just west of Main Street. “It’s truly all medical, so there are so many privacy issues. People need to feel secure and safe, and their information is private.”
That’s why they chose to open in an office building and not a general store front, he said.
“We want patients to feel like patients, and not like they are walking into a head shop,” Nasto said.
Winfrey said they came to Royal Oak because it’s in the middle of the metro area’s cultural hub, and there was strong support for the medical marijuana law when it was passed by voters in 2008. The measure was OK’d in Royal Oak with 72 percent of voters in favor of the proposal.
The center holds a monthly meeting, called a Compassionate Club, where interested people can come and learn about various aspects of medical marijuana. The meetings and information are free, but the company asks for donations.
The business also sells glass pipes; books and DVDs on how to grow marijuana and use it in baked goods; and vaporizers, which can be used by patients who might not want to actually smoke the substance. The office is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday; walk-ins are welcome, and they also take appointments.
“People tell us they have a comfortable feeling (at the meetings),” Winfrey said.
He said if potential patients have doctors that won’t certify a patient for medical marijuana use, then they can work with doctors from Green Trees of Detroit, which has a location in Southfield.
The business gives out free materials to interested people, but there is an application fee for actually applying for a medical marijuana card. The Patient ID Center will also do one-on-one consultations for a fee, including helping residents set up their own grow-rooms.
Nasto said he understands Royal Oak’s position on the moratorium.
“No one wants to be the first,” he said. “But as soon as one (city) goes, it becomes a domino effect.”
He said that while there are many communities enacting moratoriums on medical marijuana clinics, they can’t hold out forever.
“The residents overwhelmingly voted this in,” Nasto said. “Every single county approved it.”
For more information on the Michigan Medical Marijuana Patient ID Center, call (248) 747-3801 or visit Facebook.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: CandGnews.com
Author: Jeremy Carroll
Copyright: 2010 C & G Publishing
Michigan Medical Marijuana Patient ID Center, located on the second floor of a Fourth Street office building, offers potential medical marijuana patients advice and direction on filling out the necessary paperwork to get state identification cards, along with helping caregivers understand their rights and role with regard to medical marijuana.
Perry Winfrey, 38, of West Bloomfield owns the center. He said the city has been very welcoming.
“I would really like to dispense (medical marijuana), but I feel like I’m already pushing the envelope,” he said. “I’m waiting to see how it all pans out.”
For now, he said, they will stick to dispensing advice and information.
City leaders have put a moratorium on medical marijuana clinics, where patients would be able to get marijuana from their caregivers. The already much-talked about grow facility, proposed for a building on Torquay Avenue, is up for official debate on Aug. 9.
As for the Patient ID Center, City Manager Don Johnson said the business, which opened just prior to the moratorium being passed in April, does not run afoul of the moratorium anyway.
“A business that doesn’t need anything special, like a use variance or something, would be eligible to just open,” Johnson said.
So much of what is done at the center surrounds education, said Gregory Nasto, who is doing the marketing for the business.
“It’s all general frequently asked questions,” said Nasto, who owns a marketing business in the same building, located at 104 Fourth St., just west of Main Street. “It’s truly all medical, so there are so many privacy issues. People need to feel secure and safe, and their information is private.”
That’s why they chose to open in an office building and not a general store front, he said.
“We want patients to feel like patients, and not like they are walking into a head shop,” Nasto said.
Winfrey said they came to Royal Oak because it’s in the middle of the metro area’s cultural hub, and there was strong support for the medical marijuana law when it was passed by voters in 2008. The measure was OK’d in Royal Oak with 72 percent of voters in favor of the proposal.
The center holds a monthly meeting, called a Compassionate Club, where interested people can come and learn about various aspects of medical marijuana. The meetings and information are free, but the company asks for donations.
The business also sells glass pipes; books and DVDs on how to grow marijuana and use it in baked goods; and vaporizers, which can be used by patients who might not want to actually smoke the substance. The office is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday; walk-ins are welcome, and they also take appointments.
“People tell us they have a comfortable feeling (at the meetings),” Winfrey said.
He said if potential patients have doctors that won’t certify a patient for medical marijuana use, then they can work with doctors from Green Trees of Detroit, which has a location in Southfield.
The business gives out free materials to interested people, but there is an application fee for actually applying for a medical marijuana card. The Patient ID Center will also do one-on-one consultations for a fee, including helping residents set up their own grow-rooms.
Nasto said he understands Royal Oak’s position on the moratorium.
“No one wants to be the first,” he said. “But as soon as one (city) goes, it becomes a domino effect.”
He said that while there are many communities enacting moratoriums on medical marijuana clinics, they can’t hold out forever.
“The residents overwhelmingly voted this in,” Nasto said. “Every single county approved it.”
For more information on the Michigan Medical Marijuana Patient ID Center, call (248) 747-3801 or visit Facebook.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: CandGnews.com
Author: Jeremy Carroll
Copyright: 2010 C & G Publishing
