MEDICAL-MARIJUANA FACILITY IN ROYAL OAK?

Man Wants to Lease to Growers

The owner of a Royal Oak warehouse wants the city to let him lease
the building for what could become Michigan's largest
medical-marijuana facility.

The Royal Oak City Commission is to consider tonight whether to set a
public hearing on the request by James Canner, listed on Web sites as
executive vice president of a robotics firm, to convert a building
for growing marijuana.

If Canner's tenant puts marijuana plants in all 23,000 square feet,
the building could be the biggest marijuana facility in Michigan,
Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine publisher Rick Ferris said.

"We've worked on some of the biggest ones, in Romulus and Detroit,"
but the Royal Oak plan seems bigger, Ferris said. He owns Big
Daddy's, an Oak Park-based landscaping firm that recently opened
stores in Detroit, Dryden and Oak Park to sell hydroponics equipment
for growing marijuana indoors.

Canner did not return a call seeking comment. City documents show he
met May 26 with Royal Oak Planning Director Tim Thwing, asking to
create a "grow room for state-registered caregivers."

In a June 9 memo, Canner said he needed a tenant to avoid foreclosure
on the building, and that no marijuana sales would take place -- only
the growing of marijuana by state-approved individuals, called
caregivers in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act.

Michigan's law is unclear about whether caregivers can band together
at one site.

Canner said the site would have 24-hour security, that the city could
charge fees to each caregiver and a tax to patients, and that "this
is a perfect alternative" for empty industrial sites across Michigan.

In an April memo that said such facilities encouraged crime, Royal
Oak Police Chief Chris Jahnke estimated such a facility could produce
pot for 100,000 to 120,000 marijuana cigarettes a year.

"My concern is that this place would produce so much more marijuana
than the medical clients could use," City Commissioner Chuck Semchena said.

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MEETING IS TONIGHT

The Royal Oak City Commission is to decide tonight whether to set a
hearing date on a request by a warehouse owner to lease his property
as a medical-marijuana growing facility. That would require exempting
him from the city's moratorium on opening such facilities. The
meeting is at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 211 Williams.