Five years ago, when Randall Buchman told his friends he was working in cannabis they thought he was selling dime bags on the corner.
That’s changed. Now, “I’ve gone from the black sheep to the genius," Buchman said. “It’s exciting and gratifying to see that.”
Buchman’s medical marijuana company -- Emerald Growth Partners -- is one of hundreds vying for a piece of the Michigan market as the cannabis economy takes root.
But unlike many of the businesses whose owners are out-of-state, or come from an unrelated industry, Buchman has been a medical marijuana patient and caregiver since 2010 in Michigan. He knows how to grow cannabis; and he hopes that will set his company apart.
“Ninety percent going into growing is pretty basic -- the extra 10 percent is what separate people that fully excel,” Buchman said. “Where the skill comes in is identifying problems early enough to do something about them.”
Buchman started using medical marijuana at the age of 23 in 2010, as a way to treat chronic pain that he endured since breaking most of his ribs in a jet ski accident as a teen.
It started with four grow lights in his dad’s basement. And failed miserably. Over time he added 48 plants. Then 60. Then 72, which is the legal limit. By 2013 he started his own commercial-scale grow facility. He bought out tenant after tenant from the building in Harrison Township, and then eventually purchased the whole thing.
“I was young and excited and ambitious -- I knew that’s where the future was going,” said Buchman, now 33.
Emerald Growth Partners has hired the former head of retail for Shinola, Travis Harrison, to lead its provisioning center strategy. So far the company has announced plans for its first provisioning center in East Lansing, under the brand name Pleasantrees. The company is waiting for a dentist to move out of an office space they’ve purchased before they can move forward with the retail store.
Overall, the company is pursuing four large-scale growing licenses, a processor’s license and wants to open 12 provisioning centers.
Buchman graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in business.
“I’m definitely unique in the fact that I have a substantially sized company and I came into the industry as a caregiver,” Buchman said. “It’s unique that I was able to build the company, raise the company and maintain the majority ownership.”
Caregivers in Michigan have been the source of much of the medical product sold at licensed provisioning centers throughout the past year.
So why aren’t more caregivers pursuing a license like Buchman?
“They’re making money doing what they’re doing,” Buchman said.
Though that may be short-lived. The Marijuana Regulatory Agency will not allow caregivers to supply the recreational marijuana industry once it launches. The first business license applications will be accepted by the agency Nov. 1.
Buchman said the microbusiness licenses that will be available in the recreational marijuana program give caregivers a way to enter into the regulated market with fewer barriers.
“Raising capital is easier said than done,” Buchman said. “No one is writing 7-figure checks without asking tough questions.”Read more from MLive about medical and recreational marijuana.