[420 Girl]

Drug recovery advocates say the decision to open a hydroponic supplies store near an addiction recovery center was in bad taste.

B.C. Hydro owner Kevin Spitler said his new business caters to indoor gardeners and most of his customers grow marijuana for medical use.

At 1027 W. Territorial Road, the store is three doors east of the newly renovated Alano Club of Battle Creek.

Bags of fertilizer line B.C. Hydro's walls and 1,000-watt grow lamps hang from its ceiling. Spitler's dog Bella and a video surveillance system greet customers at the door.

The supplier opened for business Jan. 11, a little more than a year after Michigan voters made marijuana use legal for certain medical conditions such as arthritis, cancer, glaucoma, anxiety and depression. Spitler called medical marijuana a "growing industry."

"Several similar stores have popped up all over Michigan," he said.

Spitler said the store does not sell marijuana or its byproducts -- only the tools needed to grow it indoors.

But local drug recovery advocates are disappointed the supplier chose that location.

"I think it's a shame that they've got to run this thing right next to a house of recovery," said Roy Tooke, Alano Club of Battle Creek board president. "I think they could be a little more tasteful than that."

Tooke said he is not concerned about its presence tempting recovering addicts any more than the liquor store that has been operating across the street from the Alano Club for several years.

Suzanne Horsfall, executive director of Battle Creek's Substance Abuse Council, agreed that recovering addicts will experience all kinds of triggers in life and need to be supported in their decision to quit.

"We just need to support the people who are going to the Alano Club, but we can't isolate them," she said. "It's everywhere you go."

Tooke is concerned, however, that dozens of people have been gathering at the store and using the Alano Club's parking lot.

"Apparently they just don't care, would be my opinion," Tooke said. "It's really just all about them."

Spitler said there was no special reason for locating on West Territorial Road. He said he was driving around and found that the rental price was right on this location.

The building owner is renovating a second structure sandwiched between the hydroponic supplier and the Alano Club's parking lot, Spitler said. The owner intends to use the second structure as a "compassion club" where people can learn how to grow marijuana plants and become legally registered in Michigan.

Thomas Williams of Coraopolis, Pa. recently acquired the B.C. Hydro building and the neighboring building at 1035 W. Territorial Road, according to Calhoun County records. He did not respond to requests for comment.

The first public meeting of the Battle Creek Compassion Club will be 1-3 p.m. April 18, according to Spitler and the club's Web site, battlecreekcc.ning.com.

"We want people to know the benefits of medical marijuana," he said.

Greg Francisco, executive director of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said the compassion club could help people addicted to other drugs. He said it was "a happy coincidence" the compassion club might open next door to a 12-step recovery center.

"A lot of alcoholics will use medical marijuana to kick their addiction to alcohol," Francisco said. "Like smokers switching to lollipops."

Spitler said he switched to topical cannabis ointments from prescription painkillers when he discovered the oil did more for his chronic pain.

The 36-year-old Delton man said in 2003 a power surge threw him "like a rag doll," crushing several vertebrae. He also developed an electricity-induced anxiety disorder in which he could not even plug a cord into a household socket.

Through desensitization therapy, he said he has in the past year overcome his fear, and now sells high-intensity discharge lights for growing plants, he said. He is registered with the state to grow, carry and use marijuana for his own chronic pain.




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