Stop Two on the Marijuana Tour

Photo Credit: potlocator.com

The second place that would accept an interview was this little place, who's name was hard to see because the sign was so small. I eventually learned that the place is called Your Healthy Choice Clinic & Compassionate Compliant Cannabis Club.

I walk in the door and am surrounded by the color purple. I was greeted by a woman who, quite frankly, may have been sampling or currently on the product when I walked in the door. She told about how "Corey is the go to guy, Corey would know everything I need to know." Then she showed me, on the wall, the picture of Danny Tervino, the"Godfather of medical marijuana," and his girlfriend, who owns this particular dispensary.

The lady, who didn't introduce herself to me, then showed me the wall of medibles available. For those of you that don't know, a medible is medical marijuana you can eat. They had everything from breakfast burritos to ice cream. Chocolate turtles, Chex mix, suckers, you name it, they had pot in it.

I had my chance to speak with Corey Hathaway, who was a treat. Very helpful, and a firm believer in the effectiveness of medical marijuana. He had no problem telling me he was a user himself for arthritis pain from doing construction. Before taking a job with Hydroworld two years ago, he owned his own small construction company, then the economy fell and so did his company.

It was an interesting interview, my favorite part was that on his desk were eight different kinds of pot in jars. Now why I understand he didn't want it filmed... But he was very helpful and very informative. Told me about the many benefits of medicinal marijuana and how it helps him out.

The Popcorn Bag

So I set off last Saturday on an expedition to get as many interviews from the the dispensaries as posible on Michigan Avenue. There are 11 dispensaries on Michigan Avenue alone in Lansing, according to this magical list right here. While most were difficult to locate, and the ones Conor and I did manage to find, were very afraid at the mention of the word interview. No cameras, no recording devices, and actually, no interview with the exception of a couple places.

The first of the two places to allow me to interview them was a place called "The Popcorn Bag." It wasn't the most appeasing place to the eye on the outside, but they were willing to be interviewed, solely because I was a student and not a real reporter...

But this place was intriguing: The Popcorn Bad. I interviewed with Frank Lain, well just Frank until the end of the interview. But Frank had some very interesting things to say.

Lain was the former Chair of the Board of Commissioners for the Lansing Board of Water and Light, one of the largest such organizations in the state of Michigan. He's a Navy veteran and a former fireman and engineer.

Frank shared with me an incredible story.

It was a Sunday, and he was approached by an elder woman, begging for him to sell her some medicinal marijuana for her husband. They don't sell on Sundays, they don't even keep marijuana at the story on Sundays. He explained this to her and apologized.

Moments later, the husband came up to him to apologize on his wife's behalf. The man was throwing up in an ally. He had terminal cancer, and couldn't keep food down; his weight fell to 98 pounds. He explained to Frank that he couldn't keep food down because of his chemo therapy.

He told Frank that one of his friends told him to try it, and so he did. If he weren't desperate he never would have tried it. But whenever he smoked, he could keep his food down. Frank told me that this man had gotten his weight back up to 168 since being on medicinal marijuana and his quality of life has improved dramatically.s