Looking to open a business growing, producing or selling medical marijuana? The Ferndale City Council decided this week that you will have to pay a $2,000 operational fee to do so. According to council members, $2,000 is a bargain; some communities levy a $5,000 annual licensing fee for medical marijuana production facilities.
The Ferndale City Council decision is expected to set a precedent for other communities faced with setting medical marijuana production codes. The $2,000 annual fee covers the cost of additional public manpower and time spent on inspections, monitoring and regulating marijuana production. Mayor Craig Covey is quoted as saying the fee is “not (meant) to be punitive but to recoup our own costs.”
Ferndale City Clerk Cherilynn Tallman sets city worker manpower hours at 32 for completion of marijuana facility licensing tasks. Thus far, Clinical Relief is Ferndale’s only marijuana facility. Clinical Relief closed when Oakland County deputy sheriffs raided its owners’ homes in Waterford, Lake Orion, Royal Oak, Ferndale and Macomb County in August. This kind of gray area in laws surrounding the growing of medical marijuana is exactly what the $2,000 licensing fee will cover. Ferndale is just one Michigan community that is dealing with new medical marijuana legislation.