Watson Township appears to be on track to be the first municipality in this area to have an ordinance to allow growing medical marijuana.
After turning down or taking no action on three previous requests for an ordinance earlier this year, board members Thursday night voted 5-0 to direct the Planning Commission to come up with a local ordinance that would permit growing and processing marijuana under specified conditions.
The move came after presentations by Watson resident John Caras, his business partner Scott Hershberger of Richland and medical cannabis advocate Jen Spaulding of Onondaga. Caras and Richardson, both are veterans of the Marine Corps and have extensive experience in security systems and in helping other veterans suffering from health issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD).
Cara is proposing to erect a completed secured grow facility for 1,500 plants on his property near 123rd Street. He noted that Watson residents overwhelmingly supported the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act in the 2008 general election and he believes a new ballot proposal to legalize it for recreational use will pass in 2018.
Hershberger, who runs a real estate company serving veterans and a grower and cultivator of organic foods and substances, said some of the cannabis products are lotions, edibles and plants.
“It’s not just for some hippie for recreational use,” he told board members. “We create something that’s on a par with the pharmaceutical industry… We believe this should be prescription medicine (to treat such maladies as PTSD, glaucoma, pain, seizures and for chemotherapy patients).
“We do believe it has medical benefits for veterans and is better than having to take pills like Vicodin.”
He said there were 124,000 medical marijuana patients in 2012, but four years later there are 218,000, do the need and demand is growing.
Spaulding added a personal touch, telling her story of serving in the U.S. Army and being attacked in Iraq. She was discharged in 2010 and at one time was given just two weeks to live with a brain tumor. She was given Rick Simpson Oil in a desperate attempt to save her and she’s able to tell the tale.
A life-long opponent of consuming marijuana, she was told Rick Simpson Oil contains cannabis.
“I’m still living with 
cancer and my organs are shutting down,” she said. “But I’m still alive… I eat a chocolate chip cookie to go to sleep every night and I have iced tea and lotions. If I have to stop the cannabis, I’ll dies of the morphine.”
She said she supports having a legal grow in West Michigan because, “I shouldn’t have to fight my government to have a place that safe to get my medicine.”
Caras stressed his grow operation would not dispense any cannabis or marijuana, but would instead provide a site for licensed transporters to take it to a licensed processing facility. He added that if the township is not satisfied with the operation, it can pull the plug any time.
“The way you tell us to operate our business is the way we’ll do business,” he promised.
A man in the audience said, “The burden on the township will be minimal. The state will regulate this.”
He promised his facility would be a steel building with steel doors, an alarm system and badge access.
Trustee Michelle Harris, who had plenty of misgivings about the proposal, said the process of crafting an ordinance and eventually adopting it would take a lot of time, taking it easily into next year.
She, Trustee Chuck Andrysiak, Clerk Kelli Morris, Treasurer Sue Jones and Supervisor Kevin Travis all voted affirmative.
PHOTOS: Scott Hershberger (left) and John Caras made most of the presentation.
Onandaga resident Jen Spaulding made an impassioned and personal plea on behalf of the proposed grow in Watson Township.
