LANSING — Music acts aren’t the only talker at an annual festival that ends Sunday at the city-owned Lou Adado Riverfront Park.
A medical marijuana dispensary has a presence at the Common Ground Music Festival, and it’s bound to trigger reactions.
The Got Meds Lounge has a 20-feet-long by 20-feet-wide booth near a performance stage and is expected to be there through the weekend.
“We’re on our best behavior,” said Mike Barron, who does marketing for the dispensary. “We paid to be there just like every other vendor.”
Barron said Friday the dispensary, located at South Cedar Street and East Holmes Road, paid “a few thousand dollars” for the booth. According to Barron, the booth won’t sell any marijuana-infused products or any products containing THC, the chemical in marijuana that creates a high.
Dispensaries and related commercial establishments are currently operating illegally, without state or city approval. The city has up to 70 dispensaries operating within its borders.
City Council members have tried for nearly two years to craft an ordinance that would license and regulate dispensaries at a local level. If an ordinance gets approved, it would be coupled with new state laws allowing for licenses that are expected to take effect next year.
On Thursday, 3rd Ward City Council Member Adam Hussain was livid when he saw the Got Meds booth. He attended Common Ground’s first day with his three daughters ages 5, 6 and 8.
“I couldn’t even get my five-year-old the elephant ear she wants every year,” Hussain said. “But I could get some marijuana leaf printed bikinis and some hemp-infused products if I wanted to.”
Hussain, chair of Council’s Committee on Public Safety, is concerned that approval of the Got Meds booth at Common Ground will encourage other dispensaries to promote themselves.
Unlike Hussain, Mayor Virg Bernero’s administration doesn’t believe the booth raises any red flags.
As of Friday afternoon, the Got Meds booth didn’t appear to generate any formal complaints.
Robert Merritt, the Lansing Police Department’s public information director, wrote in an email to the State Journal the police have “nothing to do” with the festival’s sponsors or vendors. Merrritt said he was told Got Meds was only selling T-shirts.
Hussain also points to the city annual six-figure subsidies to support Common Ground and the permission it grants event organizers to use the park Lansing owns.
“Unfortunately this is an administrative responsibility, and the administration dropped the ball,” Hussain said. “To me, it has really cheapened Common Ground this year.”
The city’s 2018 fiscal year budget that started July 1 calls for a $140,000 subsidy to support Common Ground.
A non-profit created by the Lansing Entertainment Public Facilities Authority manages Common Ground. The authority gets paid by the city about $1 million a year to manage three city-owned properties the Lansing Center, Cooley Law School Stadium and City Market.
Got Meds, the dispensary, opened about four years ago and was under fire for its lounge set up. Critics accused it of encouraging those without cards to frequent it.
Times have changed, Barron said.
On Thursday, Barron said he was excited to see visitors often ask how they can get state-issued medical marijuana patient cards so they can buy marijuana and marijuana-infused products at dispensaries.
“The black cloud that started with that lounge kind of blew over,” Barron said. “There’s now blue skies.”
Last month, Got Meds received an award at the High Times Midwest Cannabis Cupevent in Clio, Mich.
The dispensary’s “lemon skunk rocks” were recognized as “best medically infused product.” Barron described the Cannabis Cup as “the Stanley Cup of the marijuana.”
While at the the event Friday, Barron wrote in a Facebook message he’s excited about the Bernero’s administration’s support for the Got Meds’ booth. Barron also added marijuana leaf printed bikinis were still for sale.
“Finally, another door open with many more to be opened,” Barron wrote.
credit:lansingstatejournal.com