News Photo by Crystal Nelson Meds Cafe owners Michael Atkins and Scott Schroeder are seen with some of their wares inside their medical marijuana shop in Rogers Township.

ALPENA — Marijuana business is budding in Northeast Michigan, where a handful of municipalities are now considering allowing businesses selling the drug both for medical and recreational purposes.

The region’s first medical marijuana provisioning center opened in April in Presque Isle County’s Rogers Township, and two recreational marijuana stores are in the works in Harrisville, which was the first community in the region to allow recreational marijuana after it was legalized by Michigan voters in the November 2018 election.

The Onaway City Council last week said yes to allowing a marijuana microbusiness in its industrial park, but said no to other kinds of establishments. Officials in Rogers Township, meanwhile, are still deciding whether to allow marijuana retail stores.

Six months after opening Meds Cafe, the region’s only medical marijuana business, partners Scott Schroeder and Michael Atkins say business is “very consistent.”

Schroeder said customers from around the state travel to their location because of their products and the customer service provided by their knowledgeable staff.

“August was our best month, because of the tourist season, and we’re learning what our customer needs and wants are,” Schroeder said. “Things have been good. We really have been accelerating as time progresses, because people are figuring out where we’re at, who we are, and what we do.”

Schroeder said he and his partner have hired four full-time employees at what they called a livable wage and said they plan to add another two or three employees if they’re licensed to sell recreational marijuana.

The state will begin accepting applications for marijuana stores on Nov. 1. Medical marijuana businesses will be given preference for recreational marijuana licenses.

WAITING GAME

The recreational marijuana law approved last year allows local governments to prohibit marijuana businesses within their boundaries, and many in Northeast Michigan did so, including Alpena.

Many leaders in those communities said they wanted to wait for the state to finalize regulations and to see how the drug’s sale affected other communities.

Nearly a year later, several Northeast Michigan governments are exploring the role marijuana might play in their towns.

Rogers Township officials are still reviewing a proposed ordinance and are waiting until Presque Isle County adopts a recreational marijuana ordinance before the township’s ordinance goes into effect.

The Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners on Friday amended the county’s zoning ordinance to allow retail locations and microbusinesses in the county’s business, agricultural, and manufacturing districts. Recreational marijuana can also be grown, processed, transported, and tested in the county within its agricultural and manufacturing districts.

The new ordinance only applies to townships that utilize the county’s zoning and where officials decide to allow facilities in their jurisdiction. Those townships include Bearinger, Belknap, Bismark, Case, Metz, Moltke, North Allis, Ocqueoc, Posen, Pulawski, and Rogers townships.

Meanwhile, there appears to be demand for the drug in Northeast Michigan.

One thing the Meds Cafe business partners didn’t expect to run into was a shortage of marijuana. Schroeder said they were able to “limp along” on the stock they purchased when they first opened.

Schroder said he reached out to Andrew Brisbo, the director of the state’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency, who suggested they grown their own product.

That conversation prompted them to purchase property and apply for a Class A license, which would allow them to grow up to 500 plants.

Atkins said they hired Scott Grulke as their master grower and will employ another two to 12 people throughout the growing season.

Atkins said that, once their grow is operational, the next step would be to add a processing plant on the same property as their grow operation.

The business partners have also purchased properties in Grand Rapids and Manistee, where they plan to open additional businesses.

BUDDING BUSINESS

Harrisville in August approved a special-use permit for the Southfield-based CAM CLUB to open a provisioning center at a former pasty shop located at 303 N. U.S.-23. The provisioning center, the second marijuana business approved by the city, plans to open by the end of the year and sell dry marijuana, extracts, oils, and medical marijuana products.

The other provisioning center, owned by a Louisville, Colorado-based firm, Joint Ventures, plans to open at the former Moosetails custom gift and embroidery shop located at 108 N. State St.

The business, which its owners plan to call Highly CannaCo, would sell a variety of marijuana products, including the dried marijuana flower, edibles, marijuana patches, and extracts, according to the application to the city.

The business would be operated by father-son duo Eric and Chase Ryant. They plan to hire nine people.

In addition to existing businesses in Colorado, the firm has obtained a provisioning license for a business in Traverse City and is in the process of obtaining a provisioning license in Benton Harbor and Jackson, Ohio.

Meanwhile, Onaway last week narrowly agreed to allow microbusinesses to operate in the city’s industrial park, but prohibited all other kinds of establishments. A microbusiness can grow up to 150 plants and process, package, and sell their own marijuana products.

City Manager Kelli Stockwell previously told The News the city has an ordinance allowing medical marijuana facilities to operate within city limits and there has been interest in a marijuana microbusiness.

The Onaway City Commission in July heard from Bernie and Ben Kolasa, who wanted to follow up with city officials to start a microbusiness in the city’s industrial park.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.