Mount Pleasant local hopes to open medical marijuana shop
Deborah Cary is committed to helping the community by opening an alternative medicine dispensary
Consano, a hopeful medical marijuana provisioning center, sits at 309 W. Michigan St. in downtown Mount Pleasant on Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Mount Pleasant resident Deborah Cary has begun the application process to open a medical marijuana provisioning center in town.
A provisioning center, or dispensary, is a storefront that sells medicinal marijuana to patients.
Mount Pleasant’s city ordinance states that the city will allow no more than three provisioning centers to open. If there are more than three applicants for provisioning centers, a random lottery will take place to decide which three applicants will be allowed to open shop.
The city began accepting applications Oct. 1 and only one applicant, Green Bronco LLC., has been posted on the application list so far.
Green Bronco LLC. has other dispensaries in Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor, and is looking to open two locations in Mount Pleasant.
Cary, who was born and raised in Mount Pleasant, hopes to open her first dispensary in Mount Pleasant.
Located at 309 W. Michigan St., Cary's store is named Consano, which means “to heal” in Latin.
Despite having a location and name ready to go, there is no guarantee that Cary will be approved and chosen by the city.
The application process is quite lengthy and has huge financial risks, including the $300,000 needed for the license to even be considered by the state, said Glenn Bordine, public relations officer for Cary.
An addition $100,000 is needed for other requirements like the application fee, city fee and regulatory fees, he said.
Bordine and Cary are currently in beginning stage of the application process, which includes a background check and fingerprint collection of the applicant and all those involved in the business.
This process is required before they will be added to the official list of applicants in the city. Once the pre-qualifications are finished, they will go on to apply at city hall, Bordine said.
The next phase of the process includes more in depth criminal background checks and going over security plans. There’s five or six plans that the city and the state licensing board have to look over and approve, he said.
Once these plans have been reviewed, they will receive notification of license qualification and be issued their regulatory fees for each license they are granted.
Cary said she believes the city and the state are trying to go through the application process with integrity but there’s a lot of information that needs to be reviewed. They want all of Cary's monthly bank statements since 2015, the deeds to her properties, her quarterly reports from her pension and tax records.
“We’re talking about a stack like the Grand Rapids phone book,” Cary said.
Bordine said she’s pretty invested in this, but it’s not so much for the financial benefit; it’s more about helping the community she grew up in.
When medical marijuana was first legalized in 2008, Bordine and Cary held off on opening up shop, but for the last ten years, the two have engineered a foundation.
They won't give up even if they are not selected as one of the three centers, Bordine said.
“With Mount Pleasant only allowing three (provisioning centers), there’s going to be a lot of people throwing their ‘Willy Wonka ticket’ or lottery ticket in,” Cary said.
With countless liquor stores and pharmacies woven into the community, Cary is disappointed that only three centers are allowed.
“It gets discouraging at times, but we are committed to doing it,” she said. “Whether or not we get a medical marijuana license to put in there, the building will be utilized. If this doesn’t work out, then I’m going to get one somewhere eventually, but I would like it here because this is where my two sons and grandkids live; this is where I’m from.”
Although she has yet to open her first shop, Cary said she has a wealth of knowledge regarding medical marijuana.
Bordine said she has been in the medical field around Mount Pleasant for 40-plus years.
Cary first graduated from a nursing program in 1972 and graduated from a nurse practitioner program in 1990. She has been in the medical profession for most of her life, and truly believes in the positive results of medicating with marijuana.
“For one thing, I do believe in the product and the other thing is I was recently certified in energy healing,” Cary said. “People who come for medical marijuana are hurting and I have other options that might be available that I can offer them.”
Bordine said medical marijuana is a healthier alternative to certain medications, which have negative side effects.
“As time goes on, people will fall through the cracks wanting to get better. Maybe there’s something deeper; maybe there’s a really strong emotional component too; maybe it’s a past life thing,” Cary said. “With energy healing, you’re basically working with yourself; it’s up to you and anybody can do it. I’m hoping to teach other people how to do it.”
According to the National Cancer Institute, energy healing is a form of alternative medicine based on the belief that a vital energy flows through the human body. The goal of energy healing is to balance the energy flow in the patient.
For patients that use medical marijuana to help with their pain, Cary said they use a controlled dose, only enough to relieve their ailments.
Both Bordine and Cary believe the legalization of recreational marijuana will help those who are struggling as well.
Proposal One, which passed in Michigan on Nov. 6, allows the possession and use of recreational marijuana for adults aged 21 or older. According to the proposal, individuals will be permitted to grow up to 12 marijuana plants in their residence.
“Proposal One gives the community options from alcohol, hard drugs and expensive pharmaceuticals that often times come with unnecessary negative side effects that might be able to be substituted with responsible adult use cannabis,” Bordine said. “If the city will allow it, when the state is ready to implement it, we’ll apply for one of those licenses too.”
