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Promptly at 12:25 pm on a pleasant fall day at our regular home in the Lansing Center, President Hanes brought our meeting to order with a gentle tap on the Rotary bell. The club as always rose to sing a patriotic song, today “God Bless America” followed by the invocation by Scott Watkins. President Hanes went off script and awarded two new member red badges to Scott Wheaton and Parker Sessa, welcome to the club. Casey Jacobsen roved the room for introduction of our many guests, including a guest who brought a guest. Additionally, we had to visiting Rotarians from the Jackson and the Flint clubs. Diane Sanborn declared the health of the club as great, but Green, which prompted other club members to spontaneously declare “Go White” on this MSU Homecoming weekend. Next President Hanes asked Laurie Baumer to give us an update on the Rotary Park, Laurie mentioned she has received daily reports of the park’s usage, even on this early fall day as she walked into our meeting. President Hanes then requested that Sarah Wietecha stand up to recognized for her work on our social media accounts, for example in the last month our Facebook page has had over 1,700 views. Next President Hanes announced that Jenn Duby has accepted the position of Area Operations Manager for the Agencies on Aging Association. Jacob Sabins presented September birthdays, announced the September Rotarians reached just over $1,300 with 68% participation, with still time this month to make your donation if you have not done so. The question of the month was for September Rotarians “Describe you perfect birthday”. Laying on a Caribbean island drinking margaritas, listening to music with his wife, while John Dale Smith played steel drums. Paula Cunningham noted every birthday is special spent on a yacht eating lobster with family, at least until her alarm goes off in the morning. John Dale Smith introduced special music as Amanda DeKatch, who is staring in “Bright Star” at the Peppermint Creek Theatre. Amanda sang the opening number from the play “If you knew my story” and “way back in the day”. As always with our special music, Amanda knocked it out of the park.  Julie Pingston introduced our speaker Capitan Greg Michaud, Retired, from the Michigan State Police and now the founder and CEO of Viridis Laboratories. After his career with the Michigan State Police in which he retired in 2016 as the head of the State Police forces crime laboratory. Mr. Michaud after doing his due diligence founded Viridis Laboratories, which is one of the first laboratories licensed by the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency to test marijuana for Michigan’s medical marijuana industry and will be a key provider of testing marijuana in our state for the soon to be licensed recreational facilities beginning in January of the next year. The key for Mr. Michaud’s decision was seeing accounts of Charlotte Figi, who suffered from Dravet syndrome, which was causing her to have on average approximately 300 epileptic seizures per week, which halted her development and threatened to kill her with every episode. After trying conventional medicines for seizures with no measurable results her parents turned to Cannabis, specifically Cannabidiol or CBD, which is the chemical in cannabis which unlike tetrahydrocannabinol or TCH does not produce a “high” which most associate with cannabis or marijuana. After starting the treatments with CBD, Charlotte’s seizures became almost non-existent, with seizures occurring only once or twice a week. This has allowed her to grow and develop in her childhood that without the CBD would have been impossible. Her story has led to the FDA approved drug called Epidiolex, which is the first drug approved that is derived from marijuana and is approved for treatment of severe seizures from epilepsy.  Once Mr. Michaud saw this story, he was convinced that cannabis can be used for medical purposes and sparked his passion to be involved with new industry. Viridis Laboratories is licensed to test marijuana for potency, moisture content, chemical residue, heavy metals, residual solvents and microbial contamination. This testing is key in assuring that marijuana available for medical purposes as well as the forthcoming recreational market is safe for use by consumers in the State of Michigan. As it stands currently laboratory testing by facilities in the our state is the only assurance that marijuana available in our state is safe for use by consumers, since marijuana is still considered a Schedule 1 drug by the federal government and therefore the federal government is prohibited from regulating or testing marijuana until marijuana is removed from Schedule 1 by the DEA or by federal legislation. Prior to Michigan allowing medical marijuana to be licensed, the state’s medical marijuana was available only through Michigan’s caregiver referendum, which kept the sale and use of medical marijuana in the “dark” for many of Michigan’s residents. As Mr. Michaud noted, with the passage of the medical marijuana legislation in Michigan, the industry can remove the shadow that has hung over the industry and is following a very similar path that alcohol did after the end of prohibition. With strong state regulation and safety testing the industry can eliminate or at least severely limit the black market similar to the how it did for alcohol in the 1930s with prohibition’s repeal. While many are still reluctant to accept marijuana as a legal product in our state and country, legal marijuana appears to be here to stay and Mr. Michaud and his organization are passionate to keep legal marijuana safe through the testing standards enacted by our state. After many questions from our club, President Hanes thanked Mr. Michaud for his presentation by announcing our club’s donation to bio sand filter projects throughout the world and the presentation of our Rotary coin commemorating Rotary’s four-way test. With that President Hanes brought the meeting to a close until next Friday at the Country Club of Lansing. |
