Ottawa Compassionate Care

Corn and soybeans rank first and second as Michigan’s most valuable crops. Many are surprised to learn that cannabis, more commonly known as marijuana, is number three. Extrapolating from USDA and Drug Enforcement Administration data, the value of Michigan’s cannabis crop is estimated to be $325 million annually.1 Marijuana horticulture is big business in Michigan.
The Michigan marijuana crop has generated plenty of spirited coffee shop discussion. Some find it amusing, others not so much. Some Michigan farmers take a live-and-let-live attitude, some are incensed, others are intrigued and want to know more, a few are even tempted. But everyone agrees on one thing; anyone growing the cannabis plant in Michigan is more likely to be labeled felon than farmer.

With the recent passage of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act by voter initiative, cultivating marijuana is now legal in Michigan, under certain limited circumstances.2 Patients may cultivate up to 12 plants inside “a locked, enclosed facility,” or they may appoint a primary caregiver to grow the plants on their behalf. A caregiver may cultivate medical marijuana for a maximum of five patients, allowing for plots of as many as 60 plants, 72 if the caregiver is a patient himself. A single medical marijuana plant can easily produce upwards of $1,000 worth of herbal medicine.

Primary caregivers cultivating medical marijuana may provide their crop without fear of arrest only to patients to whom they are connected through the state’s Medical Marijuana Registry. On the other hand, there are steep penalties for diversion to the illicit market. There is also an as- yet untested provision in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act that allows growers providing medical marijuana to unregistered patients to mount a medical necessity defense.

Caregivers may not sell their crop to their patients for a profit. The law does, however, allow caregivers to be “compensated for costs,” which can include both tangible costs such as fertilizer, seed or equipment and intangibles like time, expertise and opportunity costs.

As with any new law, there has been a learning curve as local units of government have tackled the issue of marijuana cultivation. Engaging in a legal agricultural enterprise, medical marijuana cultivators are considered farmers and their plots are regarded farms. As such they are protected by the Michigan Right to Farm Act of 1981 (MI-RTFA)3. Local units of government may not zone out medical marijuana farms or impose conditions of operation more stringent than state regulations. Still, several cities around Michigan have attempted to ban marijuana cultivation entirely and are now facing costly litigation based in part on violations of the MI-RTFA.

Medical marijuana represents a potentially lucrative new crop for Michigan farmers. But it doesn’t have to end there. Hemp, the non-psychoactive cousin of marijuana, is also in high demand as a fiber crop. Millions of dollars of hemp fiber is used in Michigan industry every year. Unfortunately, none of that hemp is grown in Michigan, depriving our struggling economy of much-needed dollars, dollars that instead flow to Ontario just a few score miles away. Changes in state and federal law are desperately needed to clear the way for Michigan farmers to begin growing this valuable crop.

The cannabis plant has been cultivated as long as mankind has engaged in agriculture - it was among the very first domesticated plants. Cannabis was a valuable crop on Michigan farms during our early years and again during World War II. It is only for the last 60 years that cannabis has been conspicuously absent from Michigan fields. After decades of iron-bound prohibition on cultivating this valuable crop, the pendulum has begun to swing back the other way. Marijuana is a crop, the places where it is grown are farms and those who grow it are anxious to take their rightful place as proud members of Michigan’s agricultural community.
Signed
Rev. Steve Thompson, Executive Director MI-NORML, Benzonia
Greg Francisco, M.A., President MI Med MJ Association, Paw Paw
Everett Swift, Executive Director MI-Hemp, Hillman,
Jerry Glasscock, Executive Director UP-NORML, Gilligan.
Cited sources:
1) Marijuana Production in the United States (2006), Jon Gettman, PhD., The Bulletin of Cannabis Reform, Dec 2006, http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr2/MJCropReport_2006.pdf
2) Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, Initiated Law #1 of 2008.
3) Michigan Right to Farm Act, Act 93 of 1981