Learning How to Grow Medical Marijuana

How yesterday's auto-industry workers are training to become Michigan's legalized-marijuana suppliers

By Steven Gray/Southfield Monday, June 28, 2010
    • Roy Ritchie for TIME

    Med Grow's Nick Tennant with a marijuana plant at his school

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    Size matters, because Michigan limits the number of plants patients and caregivers may grow. Patients, more than 18,000 of whom have registered with the state since the law took effect in April 2009, may grow up to 12 marijuana plants. Caregivers — some 7,800 have registered so far — are restricted to a dozen plants for each of the five patients they're allowed to supply. But the law doesn't address where registrants can obtain plants or seeds. Nor does it address the issue of pharmacy-like dispensaries.

    "This law is still brand-new, and it has a lot of gray areas," says James McCurtis, spokesman for Michigan's department of community health, which manages the state's medical-marijuana program.

    Southfield's police chief, Joseph Thomas Jr., is keeping a close eye on Med Grow. His officers have let its students know that if they get caught with marijuana, then, as Thomas puts it, "we're going to drop you like a bad habit." Although he thinks the school has a right to exist, he uses this analogy: "You can teach people how to shoot a gun, but they can't go out and rob a bank with it."

    Med Grow's curriculum includes classes on law, accounting and business development. But marketing yourself as a caregiver is tricky. Students are warned against telling acquaintances that they grow marijuana. Med Grow staffer Tom Schuster, 52, a former bank employee, provides a cautionary tale: a few weeks ago, someone ripped a hole in the wall of an apartment he managed and took $15,000 worth of marijuana and $5,000 worth of lamps and other growing equipment. "Stole my whole livelihood," he says of the incident, which he did not report to the police.

    Fear of violent crime is one reason recreational use of marijuana is still illegal almost everywhere. And yet, ironically, the reason Detroit may follow Philadelphia's lead and liberalize restrictions on possession of small amounts of marijuana is to alleviate the strain on the local criminal-justice system.

    In November, Californians will vote on a measure that would legalize marijuana for recreational use — and allow the drug to be taxed. Tom Ammiano, a Democratic assemblyman from San Francisco, estimates such a tax could generate up to $2 billion in annual revenue for California. "When I speak about this issue, there's always a line of people with a business angle — an idea for a dispensary or a new grow light," he says. "We're a capitalistic society, and realistically, the tax will push people over the edge [to] realize, 'There's gold in them thar hills.'" And Nick Tennant will have his pickax at the ready.

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