The
Greenhousedispensary.store Transitions to Michigan’s Adult-Use Cannabis Market—and to Curbside Sales—as the State Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Starting Line
MELISSA SCHILLER | MAY 21, 2020
Armed with an expanded parking lot, additional registers and a well-trained staff, Jerry Millen was prepared to transition The Greenhouse, his medical cannabis dispensary in Walled Lake, to Michigan’s adult-use cannabis market in March. The real curveball, he says, was Michigan’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was rolled out the week after The Greenhouse launched adult-use sales.
“Right now, we’re all curbside, fortunately or unfortunately,” Millen says.
This is just the latest chapter of an industry that he has watched evolve for more than a decade. Millen began working with medical cannabis patients about 13 years ago, when he started attending compassion club meetings in Michigan. After clearing up some misconceptions with the other members of the group (“They thought I was an undercover cop in their compassion club meeting,” Millen recalls), he immersed himself in the industry, received his caregiver license and started growing cannabis for five patients.
When lawmakers began debating the Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act (MMFLA), which ultimately passed in 2016 to create a regulated medical cannabis industry in the state, Millen went to the state capital to meet with key representatives to help get the legislation across the finish line.
where to buy cannabis oil
“There was a little girl named Bella and her mother, Ida, and honestly, without them, I feel there would be no
cannabis oil for sale industry in Michigan,” Millen says. “Bella … used [cannabis] regularly to help control her seizures. Her mother was gracious enough to help the cause and went around lobbying with us to the state reps to help us get these bills passed, and she went on with the media about the attributes of cannabis and the medical purposes. I worked on that for about four years.”
“Before there were state licenses, there were local licenses, and I was granted a local license for two years before the state licenses became available,” he says.
“I waited, and I still think it’s the right move … because I’m the only dispensary in Walled Lake right now,” he says. “The other two went away—they couldn’t get licensed.”