GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Despite two lawsuits claiming unfairness, Grand Rapids' medical marijuana lottery draw still went on as planned Friday afternoon.
There are 80 applications in the pool, most of which are for provisioning centers, or dispensaries, to be built in the city.
There were no licenses handed out. Rather, this was a drawing to decide the order in which applicants will go in front of the Grand Rapids Planning Commission for special land use approval. If and when they are approved, that's when medical marijuana shops will start opening up.
The first application to be heard is for a provisioning center to be located at 3425 Plainfield Ave. NE from Green Skies Healing Tree LLC.
The city created a point system called MIVEDA, which centers around local ownership and local employees. It is out of a total of eight points. Those that met all eight points were put into the raffle drum first. The groups that had seven points were next to enter the drum, and so on.
"We got seven points because we're from the area. My family is originally from Alpena, but I'm living in Grand Rapids. I love this town, so this was a chance for us to do a family venture together," applicant Kevin Currier said. "I think it was about as fair as they can make it. There's heartbreak during these lottery processes which means I think it worked out well. There wasn't any massive riots so I think it seemed to be fair."
If an applicant gets approved, for instance the first one to be heard at the Plainfield Avenue location, that means that any other applicant for a provisioning center within a 2,000 foot radius cannot be approved.
"We have two provisioning centers in different zones in the City of Grand Rapids. We did that strategically to have a better chance of being potentially drawn. Unfortunately our MIVEDA score is a four, and they choose in groups eight, seven, six and five before they get to us," Great Lakes Natural Remedies Chief Strategy Officer John Phillips said. "So the way the rules are set, if any of those buildings are chosen within 2,000 feet of our address, then they will be selected for licensure and we will be out, basically."
The planning commission does not have a date set for that first location to be heard, however city leaders expect it to be some time near the end of May.
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