MMJ Producers See Bright Future for Entrepreneurs

Michigan — Now that it can be legally sold in Michigan, Greg Francisco is looking forward to the prospect of cashing in on the state’s emerging medical marijuana industry. He may even move from Kalamazoo to Detroit, where he thinks the growth will take off.

“This is a multimillion dollar industry that is just opening up,” said Francisco, a retired school teacher who insists medical marijuana isn’t the same pot that some smoked in high school or college. Years of careful cultivation have led to a fluffy, fragrant variety, he says while opening a medicine bottle.

Medical marijuana is already a flourishing industry that is only going to get bigger in Michigan, Francisco and other advocates say. Since November, when voters made Michigan the 13th state to legalize it, opportunists have been organizing, networking and creating businesses to grow the crop, deliver it to the patients and everything in between.