The Big Money Gang Rape of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Industry
Whenever something is going right in America, it seems like the usual special interests arrive to mess things up. On the issue of medical marijuana, it’s no different.
The battle is currently being waged in Lansing. Rep. Callton’s “medical marihuana provisioning center regulation act” passed the House and is now in the Senate. The language in the bill presently would allow the industry to function and flourish without any unreasonable restrictions. However, lobbyists such as Ron Boji and Mazen Samonas are working to change all of that.
“I hate seeing corporate raiders use government to take money out of the pockets of good, honest, hard-working people,” George Brikho of EverGreen Management said. “I hate seeing vultures like these guys plot and scheme to take money away from the sick, the poor, the needy, the little guy. That’s why I helped form EverGreen Management, to fight people like Ron Boji and his corrupt cronies.”
EverGreen Management was founded by Brikho and his partners earlier this year to make sure that the medical marijuana industry wasn’t overrun or destroyed by corporate lobbyists and heavy-handed government bureaucrats. They have fought on behalf of Rep. Callton’s important legislation to make sure that its integrity is not jeopardized as it moves through Lansing.
Under new proposed amendments to Rep. Callton’s bill which are still in the works, special interests could pocket up to 10 percent of the revenue from the medical marijuana industry because of a state-mandated monopoly on the transportation services related to medical marijuana. These are the rules that EverGreen is working diligently to keep out of the legislation.
Brikho says that he knows this information to be correct because his management group was informed by an insider source, Ron Boji himself.
“We have put the heat on Boji for quite sometime, and we have made it clear to him that he will not push us around in Lansing,” Brikho said. “He admitted to one of EverGreen’s directors that he is working on behalf of the beer, wine, gas, tobacco industries in pushing these regulations. They aren’t written to help patients, but rather powerful special interests.”
“Let’s not toy around here. These merchants kill people. They make money selling death,” Brikho said. “I don’t want them to taint this industry. I will fight these lowlifes tooth and nail, and never get in bed with them under any circumstances.”
Because of these arbitrary distribution rules that don’t appear in other states’ medical marijuana laws, these established distributors would get a government-mandated cut from the marijuana industry. This needless middleman position would ultimately drive the price of medicine upward, and hurt the patients who desperately need this medicine to survive.
Making matters worse, it is also strongly suspected that Boji and his associates are not just planning to create a monopoly for transportation services related to marijuana. That is just the tip of the iceberg. This transportation monopoly could open Pandora’s Box toward the limiting of growers and provisioning centers, which would severely limit the access of patients to the medicine they desperately need.
“This is a take over as far as I am concerned,” Brikho said. “All of these big interests saw marijuana as competition, and they fought against it. Now that it’s taking off, they want to use their power to squeeze all of us who worked to make the industry what it is. This is highway robbery, and it’s primarily hurting the most vulnerable in our society. It’s an incredible outrage.”
EverGreen is concerned about the effect of corporate lobbying on our politics. They believe it is an epidemic throughout the country, and it has permeated every layer of government. Whether it’s the federal level, the state level or the local level, rules and regulations are not crafted to ensure the public interest and the greater good of society. Instead, they are crafted to ensure that the lobbyists and the corporate interests they represent rake in the cash, while their smaller competitors are crushed.
Brikho believes Ron Boji and Mazen Samonas are emblematic of this nationwide problem.
“The bottom line is they cannot compete in the marketplace like a decent men. They have to use government like their own personal piggy bank to make their ill-gotten gains,” Brikho said. “They represent everything that the Founding Fathers fought a revolution to get away from.”
“If they or anyone else ran a superior enterprise than me and they took my business that way, more power to them. That is how a healthy competition should work, and it creates a benefit for the consumer,” Brikho said. “But the way these goons manipulate the system to line their own pockets is despicable, and that’s exactly what they are up to in the medical marijuana industry. And I am putting them on notice for their reprehensible behavior.”
George Brikho and EverGreen Management will do everything in their power to keep Rep. Callton’s “medical marihuana provisioning center regulation act” in tact without any substantial changes to the legislation.
“We must let our voices be known,” Brikho said. “Spread the word. Call your state senator. Demand that they refuse to kowtow to special interests. Demand that they put patients and caregivers first, and leave Rep. Callton’s bill alone.”
You can find your legislator’s information at the following link: http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/