All together now

What looks to be Michigan's biggest medical marijuana expo to date is set for this weekend at the Suburban Collection (formerly Rock Financial) Showplace in Novi. Mostly sponsored by Michigan-based organizations — MINORML, the American Medical Marijuana Professionals (AMMP) certification clinic, Brighton Area Compassion Clubs, High Times magazine, and others — the Medical Marijuana Expo 2011, THC (treating health concerns) in Michigan seems to be a solid event with about 100 vendors. Big Daddy's Hydro and Metro Times have hosted smaller events of this nature before, but this one looks to take it to a higher level.

"Hopefully it will grow from this," says Tom French, expo promoter and owner of AMMP. "We're putting it on to educate the public and promote all of these local companies."

Indeed, the Friday to Sunday schedule is packed with demonstrations, classes and speakers such as Tim Beck, who helped write Michigan's medical marijuana law, giving some insight into the process. Doug Orton of Oakland County NORML will address methods of ingestion, and the Rev. Steve Thompson of MINORML will discuss coming out of the closet with marijuana. Mike Whitty is to take on the psychological and spiritual benefits of cannabis. Those are just some of the speakers. Classes and demonstrations cover things like edible medications, growing, harvesting and activism. Dr. Dean Fior of AMMP will host an "ask the doctor" session.

There should be a very interesting mix of people at the Suburban Collection. The medical marijuana expo is in Hall A. Novi High School has a fundraiser scheduled for the American Cancer Society in Hall B, and there's a gun and knife show in Hall C. It doesn't get any better for the survivalist cancer patients who want to grow their own medicine back in the woods while hunting.

In addition to being an industry expo, the event raises the profile of the medical marijuana community in the public eye. It's the kind of thing people who attended a two-day activist training by Americans for Safe Access in February see as an opportunity to help the cause in Michigan. Michelle Selzer, who lives on the western side of the state but didn't want to give her exact location, took the activist training and plans on working at the ASA booth during the expo.

"I consider myself a volunteer patient advocate," says Selzer. "I've been following the medical marijuana movement since the act went into effect a couple of years ago. I have friends and family who are patients and caregivers. I think it's important to be the face that ends up in front of the city councils and talks about the importance of medical marijuana. Some people are too scared or too sick to do this. I think one of the things I really didn't appreciate before was the need to organize. There are a lot of different groups engaging at many different levels. I never really thought about how to go about building a coalition, building common ground and strategic planning for how we can go about doing that."

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