Patient makes first purchase at Michigan cannabis provisioning center

 

BUCHANAN, Mich.—Southwestern Michigan's first medical cannabis provisioning center, Zen Leaf, hosted a grand opening event on Friday and made its first official sale to a patient with a medical cannabis card.

The first official purchase was made by Sara Crouse, who was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 2016.

Crouse spent eight months in the hospital following a rupture in her intestinal wall. Once allowed to go home, Crouse was on multiple different opioids including fentanyl, Oxycontin, Vicodin and Percocet.

“It was a little scary at first because I wasn’t sure exactly what I was getting into but when I started utilizing it in the evenings especially I found that it helped with my inflammation, my pain, my discomfort,” Crouse said.

She experienced the negative side of using opioids and decided to trade in nearly all of her medication for cannabis.

“I was taking Ativan to sleep every night but I was able to eliminate all of the medication I was taking in order to move forward with my life really,” Crouse said.

Crouse has returned to work full time and now only uses cannabis and a biologic to control her Crohn’s Disease. She hopes the community will keep an open mind with the new business in town.

“It’s very life changing its very empowering too, when you go through a severe situation which I’m sure many people in this world have its nice to know that you have alternatives out there, you have options and you can be contributing member of society,” Crouse said.

Crouse spent about $30 on the products at Zen Leaf today by using opening day discounts. 

Zen Leaf Provisioning Center opened up for registered patients on May 24 at their facility on E. Front Street in downtown Buchanan.

Owner Billy Breen was excited to finally open up the shop to registered patients.

“I’m really emotional about it, it’s something we’ve worked really hard to, we’ve kept the patients in mind the whole time,” Breen said.

Grand opening activities included free refreshments in the lobby, door prizes for patients, photo backdrops, and grand opening day discounts and specials.

Only registered patients were admitted into the sales area.

Mayor Patricia Moore says new provisioning centers are on their way into town as well.

“So far we’ve had such a positive experience with these companies, they’ve been great to work with, they want to become part of our community and we look forward to finding ways to partner with them in the future,” Mayor Moore said.