Logansport’s Joshua Vernon never set out to create a career for himself in cannabis, it just sort of happened after a move to Florida in 2021.
The 2014 Lewis Cass graduate had been working in the hospitality industry when he was presented with an opportunity to work in the cannabis industry. Since then, he’s moved to Michigan and is the retail manager for Sunset Coast Provision Center, located in Cassopolis, Michigan.
Suncoast has been recognized as the No. 2 best cannabis company to work for in the nation by “Cannabis Business Times.”
There’s a difference between the cannabis industries in Florida and Michigan.
In the Sunshine State, cannabis is completely medicinal, he explained. People need to have a medical marijuana card to go to a dispensary.
“That’s where I got my foot in the door with cannabis. Down there, you get a lot more one on one interactions,” Vernon said. “It’s much more medicinal. That’s where I learned about cannabinoids and how they affect you and terpene profiles and all these things that are helping folks with their ailments.”
In Michigan, cannabis is available for recreational use. Suncoast sells it in many forms, from traditional rolled joints to toothpicks, candy or sodas.
They work with Jim Belushi and his brand of cannabis — Belushi and Dan Ackroyd’s autographs are draped across a dry erase board in the cultivation area — and they are in talks with Willie Nelson.
Vernon said one of the things that surprised him about the cannabis industry is just how many people depend on it for medicinal use.
“I had a woman come in and she was 96 years old,” he said. “She had never used cannabis. So that was a unique experience, being able to talk to her and point her in the right direction and what she needs. It’s not the end all be all for everything, but it provides a good stable point for people who maybe want to get off opiates and harder pharmaceuticals and narcotics.”
Walk outside Suncoast on any given day and there are bound to be Indiana license plates in the parking lot.
Vernon estimated 60% to 70% of his business comes from Indiana. That’s not just people making a quick jaunt across the border. It’s people driving from Indiana’s southern tip to purchase cannabis. “Cannabis is growing at a rapid rate,” Vernon said. “If Indiana ever legalizes it, I would love to come back to the Logansport area and be one of the first people to open a dispensary. But who knows. Who knows the direction in which things are coming.”
A BOOMING BUSINESS
As the first cold winter months of 2024 faded into warm weather, Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency was reporting that the state’s cannabis retailers had over $1 billion in adult-use transactions to open the first quarter of the year.
That was a 21% increase over the $880 million spent in Michigan on cannabis in 2023, the Cannabis Business Times reported in May.
According to ClickonDetroit.com, more than 250 Michigan townships, counties, cities and villages received a portion of $87 million in cannabis funding in 2023.
Each location with licensed cannabis retail stores and microbusinesses were eligible to receive $59,000 for every such business in their region.
Additional funding in the amount of $101.6 million was given to the K-12 School Aid Fund, which helps cover things like special education, at-risk programs, early childhood education, adult education, school lunch and breakfast and more.
Another $101.6 million in funding was given to the Michigan Transportation Fund.
In a March 2024 interview with WTOL11, state treasurer Rachel Eubanks said the communities receiving funding could use the money in whatever way best fit their need.
The cannabis windfall has led to revitalized communities, with money being invested into schools and streets. In Detroit, the city is using funding to help marginalized groups, many who fell victim to marijuana laws in the past, develop their own businesses.
Cannabis businesses are also working with the state and their communities to give back. In Detroit, “The Good Neighborhood Plan” asks those businesses to ensure half of their employees live within the Detroit city limits.
Hazel Park has its “Promise Zone,” which supplies scholarships to students in its local school district.
Vernon tries to give back to his community as much as he can. Suncoast sponsors local events and works with local organizations such as their library.
“Some of these towns wouldn’t have been able to survive without (cannabis),” he said. “People aren’t coming here necessarily for an antique shop, they are coming here to get cannabis. But guess what, they are eating at your local restaurant, they are stopping and checking out your struggling antique shop, your struggling local business. There have definitely been towns that have been revitalized by cannabis. Buchanan, population less than Logansport, they have five dispensaries in their small town. Indiana plates all day long.”
HOOSIERS WANT LEGAL CANNABIS
Indiana is one of 12 states that does not offer a medical marijuana option. A poll conducted by Ball State University’s Bowen Center for Public Affairs showed that 10% of Indiana’s population thought cannabis should be illegal.
Indiana’s Republican supermajority have been resistant to hear bills related to cannabis, however. In 2024, 10 bills were proposed but none made it to a committee hearing.
In the past, Governor Eric Holcomb has pointed to it being a federal crime and said he would not sign any bill that came to his desk.
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice recommended that cannabis be moved from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III, which would classify marijuana as a drug that has low dependency risk and medicinal value.
Rick Rouser, a Logansport Democrat who is challenging Republican Ethan Manning, R-Logansport, for representative of Indiana State District 23, believes it’s time to legalize cannabis in Indiana.
“There are several benefits,” he said. “Obviously, we would tax it. The tax revenues are quite significant if we look at our neighboring states. Michigan last year had $266 million in tax revenue. Some of that is coming from Indiana residents. People try to lower taxes all the time, but we still need that money to support our schools. That would be a good way to raise revenue and create jobs.”
Rouser said he talked to constituents during the Cass County Fair who said they would like to see the state at least legalize medical marijuana so it could be used for their chronic pain. One person told Rouser they were on chemotherapy and that they drive to Michigan to get cannabis to help them reduce the side effects.
He said studies have shown there is an opportunity for legalized cannabis to also reduce the state’s struggles with opioid use.
“If you regulate it in the way other states are doing it, I don’t see that there is a big problem,” Rouser said. “You can make it for 21 and above and regulate it just like we do alcohol. We do that successfully in the state.”
Representative Heath VanNatter, R-Kokomo, has been one of the biggest proponents in Indiana for cannabis. In 2023, he co-authored a bill that would legalize both recreational use and medical use of marijuana by anyone over the age of 18 and medical use for anyone under the age of 18 with an identification card recommended by a physician. The bill was never presented for discussion.
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