SHEKINA PENA

The Owner of Your Healthy Choice Clinc, 628 E. Michigan Ave., Talks
About Opening a Medical Marijuana Shop Downtown, Legalization and Hemp Farming

How has medical marijuana, in your perspective, changed Lansing over
the past year?

It has definitely been a rocket for businesses and employment. I
truly believe it has helped the community. I am excited for the
moratorium because it's going to help us revamp and get some
leadership from City Council. If there are city permits and fees
coming, then let's do that so we can start getting respected as a business.

The last year, with people coming out and making businesses for
themselves - it's been a blessing, I think. Medical marijuana has
changed a lot of people's lives.

What was it like starting a medical marijuana business right on
Michigan Avenue, just a few blocks from the Capitol?

It wasn't that tough at first. I worked at Sparrow (Hospital) for
years and I thought, 'We have nothing to hide.' I have a very open
book business - come check my taxes and my accounts. I don't stash
money in my house. I was excited to get out there on "Main Street"
and do it. And then when they had rallies at the Capitol we could
walk down there and walk back, so it was kind of neat.

Are you concerned about some of the recent federal raids near Lansing?

I'm not. I think they're looking for grow houses and importers. Our
medicine comes from farmers who are cultivating here in Michigan. We
don't have grow houses. I have no idea what's really going on or what
they're searching for. But hopefully, here, they'd just walk in the
door and not kick it in or put guns to peoples' heads. That's kind of scary.

Where do you think Lansing stacks up compared to other communities in
Michigan as far as letting this industry mature?

There are a few dispensaries in Ann Arbor, and when I visited a
couple of them, I was shocked. They're right in the business
districts too - they're just out there, around the corner from the
police station. I think what Lansing and other cities (with
dispensaries) are doing is amazing. I know we're liberal here and
have more on City Council (that support it) than other cities that
are bigger. We're also in a historic area, so it's like history being
made. But it happened and we're here.

You specialize in the medicinal aspects of marijuana and really
stress that with patients. How do you deal with the opinion that
cannabis is nothing more than a drug, that there's no such thing as
medical marijuana, that people are just getting high?

We get a lot of that. But we were just raised that way. I raised my
son telling him that it's a drug and you don't do it and that you
don't abuse cocaine. A lot of people don't know the history of
cannabis. But once we start talking about it and educate people on
it, it's enlightening. People fear what they don't know.

If they could even put the levels of THC in each product, have them
labeled before they are put out there, that would be great. I've had
the idea of testing labs for businesses along Michigan Avenue and all
of Lansing, so people can see what type of medicine they're getting.
That's what I'm thinking, so we can really get down to the medicine
part of it, but we'll see.

Where do you stand on legalization?

I'm for it. We have a clinic and we get a lot of certifications, but
we barely make money anyway. Even though when you get it legal you
still have all these (medical) businesses, the reality is hemp
farming. We need more growers, we need it legalized because it will
benefit all of us in the long run. And the physicians in their own
private care offices should be signing up people for free. So I say
legalize it.

Where do you see things moving forward?

Hopefully in the next couple years we start talking about hemp
farming in Michigan. That would replace the automotive industry,
period. No one's looking at that. Hemp is so much softer and more
efficient than cotton and you can use it for oils and gas and paper -
there are so many benefits. Hemp paper is so expensive because we
don't have it growing everywhere. But it would benefit all of us and
create so many jobs. It would spark industry.

Between that and legalizing it, we need to open the door for more
research on it. Look at Rick Simpson oil. He got kicked out of his
country, but why? Because he's revealing something that
pharmaceutical companies don't like? If this maybe could be a cure
for someone's cancer, then let's try it. I don't understand it.

Hopefully we can also break down those levels of THC because I know
someone can grow Blueberry, I can grow Blueberry, and yours may be
way better than mine. But looking at it, touching it and it being
sticky, we won't be able to tell until we break it down, test it or smoke it.

But, even with that, if we smoke yours and smoke mine how will we be
able to tell? We're both high (laughs). Hopefully we can break it
down like they do in California with testing labs.