Steve Ezell poses for a portrait at Interlochen Alternative Health on Thursday.
By Mardi Link mlink@record-eagle.com
[Oct 1, 2022] INTERLOCHEN — Green Lake Township voters will weigh in on whether to allow recreational marijuana retailers in their community, following a petition drive Township Clerk Judith Kramer confirmed has enough signatures to qualify for the Nov. 8 ballot.
If passed, the petition effort, led in part by licensee Steve Ezell, would compel officials to enact an ordinance permitting two recreational use retailers to operate within the township.
“I’m persistent, if nothing else, and I keep going to the township meetings and bringing up this issue,” Ezell said. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion so I say, let the voters decide.”
Ezell is proprietor of Interlochen Alternative Health, a medical marijuana retailer, which is a category of establishment township officials previously agreed to allow.
The same officials in a 4-3 split decision voted against allowing recreational marijuana establishments, with those in opposition expressing concerns about the community’s image and questioning whether local recreational sales were needed since residents can drive to nearby Honor to shop.
But traveling outside the township, even by just 12 miles, is a problem, not a solution, Ezell says.
Michigan voters approved medical marijuana sales in 2008; in 2018 voters passed Proposal 18-1, legalizing recreational marijuana for those 21 years and older. Federal law still prohibits use of the psychoactive plant.
When Proposal 18-1 passed, that’s when Ezell says as many as half his customers stopped renewing their medical marijuana cards, which require a $60 application fee and began shopping at recreational stores where no card is required.
One of those is longtime customer Aaron Hickey, who said he supports Ezell’s efforts.
“I had a card, but when Michigan approved recreational, I did not renew,” Hickey said.
Shoppers who bypass Green Lake Township aren’t just patronizing recreational marijuana shops, but are spending money that could stay in the township at out of town grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants, Ezell said.
Royal Oak attorney Barton Morris, Jr., chair-elect of the Cannabis Law Section of the State Bar of Michigan, said incentives remain for medical marijuana users to renew their cards, but the problem Ezell described is one faced by medical marijuana retailers statewide.
Medical-only cardholders can enjoy preferred pricing, specialized medical products, the ability to shop at medical-only stores and a dedicated checkout line for medical users at retailers who sell to both are all incentives for card holders to renew, records show.
“My perception of what is happening is that municipalities are simply too slow and too hesitant to move forward with recreational,” Morris, Jr. said. “They said they wanted medical, and medical is where they’re going to stay.”
A review of data collected by the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency bears this out.
In October 2019, the state received 10,433 applications for medical marijuana cards, which are good for two years; in August 2022, the latest month for which figures are available, that number dropped to 4,994 applications.
Economic data collected by the agency is equally telling.
In August 2022, medical product sales totaled $18,479,072.33, while that same month recreational product sales in Michigan totaled $189,398,447.40, records show.
Morris, Jr. said he thinks officials who approve medical but not recreational may be doing a disservice to those entrepreneurs who took a risk and dedicated significant resources to securing a medical sales license in hopes of eventually securing a recreational one.
Which, state data shows, can be significantly more lucrative.
Morris, Jr. does not represent Ezell and said he was not familiar with the specifics of marijuana sales in Green Lake Township. But he said he has advised others in similar circumstances to do what Ezell did — get going on a petition drive.
Ezell said recreational retailers offer discounts that negate medical pricing, adding there are nearly 100,000 reasons for the township to allow recreational sales.
“That’s my estimate of how much money Green Lake has left on the table by not opting in,” Ezell said.
Sales records for Interlochen Alternative Health show if Ezell was a recreational seller, he would have paid the township $58,000 in taxes in 2019, $28,000 in 2020, a local licensed medical grower would have paid another $28,000, plus fees nearing another $20,000, he said.
That’s because the 2018 decision by voters to legalize recreational use came with a 10 percent tax on retail and other sales — a tax not included in medical sales.
The proposal allows municipalities like Green Lake Township to ban recreational use businesses, but tax revenue is shared only with those municipalities opting in.
Ezell estimates Green Lake Township since 2018 would have received just under $100,000 if officials had allowed recreational use businesses to locate within township borders.
“We could have put that towards a new ambulance which we don’t need now but will in the future,” said Pat McDonald, a local attorney and township trustee who was a minority “yes” vote on recreational.
Township Trustee David Bieganowski, a majority “no” vote, said he’s heard from many constituents who do not favor adding recreational retailers to the community and the prospect of tax money has not swayed his decision.
“It’s being used as bait and I’m not convinced recreational use is something that would benefit our township,” Bieganowski said.
“We have the biggest state park in Michigan, we have Interlochen (Arts Academy), people walk from both those places to Interlochen Corners to grocery shop and they shouldn’t have to walk past that,” Bieganowski said.
Sherry West, another trustee who has voted “no” on allowing recreational sales, did not return a call seeking comment Friday.
Ezell’s business is located in an Interlochen Corners retail development, though he said if recreational marijuana sales were allowed in the township, and he received a license, he’d build a new store on vacant property he owns just outside of town on U.S.-31.
Election records show in 2018, Green Lake Township voters approved the statewide proposal to legalize recreational sales 1,508 votes to 943. This vote carries a lot of weight with Treasurer Andy Marek.
“Whether I’m for or against, people voted and I’m in office to represent the wishes of my constituents,” Marek, a previous “yes” vote, said.
Neither Ezell, nor any elected officials, were willing to wager whether the petition would pass.
“People who live here are pretty independent,” Marek said. “I glad it’s on the ballot. I’m glad the voters will get to decide.”
The petition, if passed, would also include three recreational growers, three processors, three secure transporters and three safety compliance businesses, records show.