Denied:

SAGINAW LEADERS REFUSE MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY BUSINESS LICENSE REQUEST

SAGINAW - City officials have rejected a request to open a licensed
medical marijuana dispensary in Saginaw. Now, the two Reese men behind
the plan want the city to reconsider.

"We're meeting (our attorneys) and getting multiple opinions on how to
pursue it," said Christopher J. Krieger, 28, who would co-own the
dispensary with Keith E. Beyerlein, 26. "We're going to make it more
of a conversation with the city instead of an argument or a fight."

The business would be the first licensed medical marijuana dispensary
in Saginaw.

Krieger and Beyerlein own a hydroponics equipment store called
GrowMart at 2135 Warwick.

The equipment is used to grow marijuana and other plants.

Saginaw officials on March 21 rejected the pair's request for a
business license to open the marijuana dispensary.

A letter from the city states that Michigan law only allows marijuana
to be grown, possessed or transferred between a registered patients
and their registered caregivers.

Beyerlein is a registered patient, but city officials said the
business plan doesn't comply with the law.

"The proposal for his business is not an activity that's allowed under
state statutes, even with the Medical Marijuana Act," city attorney
Thomas Fancher said Thursday.

The city hasn't concluded that marijuana dispensaries are undesirable,
he said. View full sizeGus Burns | The Saginaw NewsKeith E. Beyerlein,
26, of Reese, wants to open a medical marijuana dispensary

"Selling cigarettes is not a desirable business," Fancher said. "It's
whether it's a legal business."

Krieger disagrees with city's position and Thursday filed an appeal of
his business license request to the City Council for a final
determination.

"(Fancher) didn't cite (the actual language) because it doesn't state
it in the law," Krieger said. "Or else he would have in big, bold
letters. ... But because it doesn't exist, he had to give me his opinion."

State Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a brief March 28 supporting
Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick, who is appealing a court
decision upholding the right of Mount Pleasant-based Compassionate
Apothecary to operate.

Compassionate Apoethcary is a patient-to-patient medical marijuana
sales business.

The ruling isn't binding in Saginaw County, but the proposed Saginaw
dispensary planned to follow the Compassionate Apothecary model.

The attorney general's office claims Compassionate Apothecary violates
the law by operating as a for-profit group that allows registered
patients to buy marijuana from other patients who stored their excess
in the club's building.

Compassionate Apothecary employees facilitate transactions for a 20
percent fee, attorney general officials said.

Beyerlein said until the questions surrounding dispensaries are
clarified by law or binding precedent, Saginaw should not outlaw the
practice.

Meanwhile, Krieger said he and Beyerlein are expanding their GrowMart
hydroponics equipment store and opening a franchise location in Caro
within three weeks and another in Mount Pleasant within 20 days.

They hope to expand to nearly 10 franchise stores statewide and become
a regional distributor of hydroponics supplies.