When Riverview City Council approved an ordinance in December allowing recreational cannabis businesses to open, Curt Molina couldn’t wait to submit his plans for a dispensary.
Molina and his associates camped outside of city hall for several days so he would be the first in line to submit an application. After getting approval to open his dispensary, Molina and his brothers spent $1.1 million to buy a building on Fort Street and another $400,000 to renovate it.
Their dreams of opening Kinship Cannabis Co. came true. But when the dispensary opens in August, Molina and his brothers have something new to worry about.
A group of anti-marijuana activists is heading up a ballot proposal seeking to overturn the adult-use cannabis ordinance and put Molina and others out of business. Riverview may be the first community in Michigan to face a ballot proposal to rescind cannabis sales after they were approved by elected leaders.
The group, Let Riverview Vote, submitted 580 signatures to put the issue on the Aug. 8 ballot, when voter turnout is traditionally low.
The initiative is led by former Riverview Councilman Elmer Trombley, who didn’t return phone calls or emails for comment.
Molina believes the group intentionally put the issue on the August ballot to take advantage of low voter turnout.
“They rushed to get it on the August ballot because less people vote,” Molina tells Metro Times. “The general public comes out in November. Not as many people come out in the midterms.”
To defend the ordinance, Molina and other cannabis supporters launched the website voteno.net and also plan to pass out flyers in July. They will explain the many benefits of the legal cannabis industry: The dispensaries provide good-paying jobs, occupy abandoned buildings, and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in new taxes, which the cash-strapped community of about 12,000 residents could use.
So far, Riverview has approved applications for four cannabis businesses to open, and another is in the process of getting approved.
Molina estimates that each business will hire 20 to 30 employees “at a minimum of $18 an hour, plus tips.”
“We’re hiring people and bringing people into the community to shop and dine,” he says. “The city is losing tax money. Here’s a city where half the buildings are empty and rundown. There’s not a lot of future growth. We’re going to open these buildings and make them beautiful and bring tax revenue to the city.”
With all the perks, Molina says opposition to recreational cannabis businesses is irrational.
“You just got old guys who think marijuana is the devil’s lettuce,” Molina says. “They can’t get past the fact that it’s legal.”
Molina says he’s worried voters may be confused by the proposal since other initiatives are usually to legalize recreational cannabis, not ban it.
“It’s really frustrating,” Molina. “We’re stressed out. We put all this money into it. It’s a clean local business that we’re being harassed about.”
If voters approve the proposal, Molina and the other business owners would be prohibited from getting their licenses renewed next year.
“If they vote yes, the city won’t let us renew our license,” he says. “Then we’ll have to go to court, but we don’t want that. We want to stay open.”
Other downriver communities that have approved adult-use cannabis sales are River Rouge and Ecorse.
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