Gaylord Provisions, Natural Remedies, Apothecary of Gaylord, Superior Green Collective, Top Shelf, Compassionate Caregivers, Northern Lights, and Vanderbilt Holistic are all provisioning centers that were raided on March 27th. Sixteen warrants for 8 businesses and 8 homes in Gaylord, approved by Otsego County prosecutor Mike Rola has yielded no arrests. Over a dozen vehicles, cash, computers, medical records and medical marijuana were seized by the state troopers that worked with Narcotics task forces SANE and TNT. So far locals feel it’s a smash and grab.
Officers searched homes and businesses, persistently asking, “Where’s the Money?” Victims of the raids explained that during the raids officers were laughing and insisting that the provisioning centers, their patients, and caregivers were a joke.
These raids came one day before a town hall meeting televised on Northern Michigan Channels 9&10 discussing the potential of legalization of marijuana, which included Grand Traverse Prosecutor Cooney. Don Koshmider from Cadillac Provisions asked why the state wasn’t working on the bills to regulate provisioning centers/dispensaries in Michigan, instead of raiding patients and caregivers. The audience cheered.
Here is where things get strange. Drew Driver closed his dispensary in Gaylord years ago. According to local patients and caregivers, he currently operates a large warehouse grow behind his family’s electric store in Gaylord. Sources said he doesn’t distribute locally, but he works with dispensaries in Ann Arbor and Detroit. Many people in Gaylord are asking why was he the only one not raided? Was it because he is part of the NPRA?
After talking to Ken Murray who has two dispensaries in the Traverse City are, we find out that Mark Dragovich and several others within our own community are working to snuff out their competition.
This post was edited on June 30th, 2015
