DOWNTOWN DISPENSARY SEEKS EXEMPTION FROM BAN

Medical Marijuana Outlet Proposed for Patients, Caregivers

ROYAL OAK -- The city will set a hearing date for a second business
requesting an exemption to the temporary ban on medical marijuana
dispensaries and growing operations.

The applicants want to start a company called Mary Jane's Flowers --
no tie to the floral gift shops in Royal Oak and Ferndale with a
similar name -- that would sell medical marijuana to qualified
patients and caregivers.

The business would be located by Metals in Time, which is at the
southwest corner of Main and Fourth streets, according to Jalal J.
Dallo, a Troy attorney representing himself and his partner, Angela Shafou.

"It's going to be a place where patients with cards can enter or
caregivers for patients and purchase medical marijuana and ways to
ingest it," Dallo said, referring to options such as smoking and
eating. "The store will offer a holistic way to get better instead of
popping pills."

Medical marijuana relieves pain, nausea and vomiting, and increases
the appetite of patients with cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
Ferndale has a dispensary called Clinical Relief on Hilton Road just
north of Eight Mile Road.

However, Royal Oak, which had 20 inquiries to its Planning Department
early this year, enacted a six-month moratorium on all the business
proposals. Even though the moratorium expires in late October, Dallo
said the ban is creating an economic hardship for the landlord, the
prospective business associates and even the city.

"We're talking about two more months where the city could collect
taxes and increase tourism," Dallo said. "Curious people are going to
come to see this business and then they will do things in Royal Oak."

City Commissioner Chuck Semchena is concerned about what else
businesses related to medical marijuana might attract. He invited
Robert L. Corso, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Agency to
make a presentation at the beginning of Monday's meeting called
"Rising crime rates and Michigan's new marihuana law." (The state law
refers to cannabis used for medical purposes as marihuana.)

Semchena also is urging city officials to consider a permanent ban on
medical marijuana businesses by passing an ordinance that prohibits
any business in violation of federal law, which makes marijuana
possession a crime.

Semchena also opposes exemptions for Mary Jane's Flowers and an empty
warehouse on Torquay Avenue, which a prospective tenant wants to
divide into locked spaces for 25 different growers.

"They're going to have to show hardships that can only be cured by
growing marijuana immediately," Semchena said.

The landlord of the 23,000-square foot warehouse is getting his
hearing Monday. He has the industrial space has been on the market
for two years and he will lose it to foreclosure if can't rent it.

Semchena said the property was listed with a real estate agent for
about $990,000.

"I'm sure if he lowered the price he could sell it," Semchena said.

Mary Jane Flowers wants to locate near the recently opened Michigan
Medical Marijuana Patient ID Center, which is on the second floor of
a Fourth Street office building downtown. Since April the staff has
been telling potential patients how to get state ID cards and advises
caregivers about their rights. The business didn't need any special
approval to open and the moratorium doesn't apply to it.

Dallo said the moratorium shouldn't apply to Mary Jane's Flowers either.

"Michigan law says medical marijuana is allowed. Who are they to ban
it?" he asked.

Moratorium violates rights of patients to obtain medical marijuana
without fear of prosecution, caregivers to assist them and property
owners and business owners, Dallo said.

"This law was designed to be implemented," he says in a letter to the
city commission requesting an exemption. The city of Royal Oak's
position to take a wait-and-see approach is a pragmatic and sound
approach, however the law has been effective for two years."

Mary Jane's Flowers will be a cooperative business and good neighbor,
Dallo added.

"We will run everything we do before this honorable commission first," he said.