Company Name: Om of Medicine, LLC

Year Founded: July 2010

Ownership Structure: Non Profit LLC

Co-Founders: Mark Passerini & Keith Lambert

Headquarters: Ann Arbor, MI

Website: www.omofmedicine.org

Industry Segment/Category: Retailer (Medical Dispensary)

Current Markets/States Served: MI

Current Number of employees: 10

Market Strategy/Mission: Om of Medicine is committed to the highest quality, lab tested medication and total focus on patient care/service/experience. They carry a large assortment of medical cannabis solutions, consumption gear and apparel served in a one on one environment with a patient consultant.

Size of Market: potentially 100,000 in state, including caregivers and grow their own patients

# of Customers: Since launch has served over 7,000 patients.

2014 Revenues: Not Available

Current Retail Product Mix:

• Over 20 varieties of Flowers including Indicas, sativas and hybrids
• CBD enriched edibles, candies, tinctures oils and capsules
• Concentrates
• Consumption Gear
• Clothing

Expansion Plans: Once state licensing legislation passes, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Traverse City, possibly Detroit down the Road. Would like to operate in home state of Illinois as well. Currently exploring options in WI, PA, OH

Financing strategy: To date from personal capital & operations

There is No Place like Om

While pursuing his Psychology degree at the University of Michigan, Mark Passerini, a Chicago native, met Troy Dayton, CEO of The Arcview Group, while both of them were peddling books as commission student salesmen at Southwestern Company, a seller of educational books. The two future activists and Cannapreneurs actually met on a boat in Mexico on a sales rewards trip back in the mid 90’s. After a successful career in sales and sales management at a variety of product and service companies including a stint at Renewable Choice Energy (he followed Troy there as the National Sales Manager) and Orion Energy where he honed his interest in eco-sustainable solutions, Mark learned the ins and outs of the dispensary business helping a friend open a medical marijuana dispensary in Michigan in 2010.

Michigan has had an operational medical marijuana law since 2008. Similar to California, the MI statute allows for caregivers and individual patient’s to grow their own cannabis and cooperatives sell their product to over 150 dispensaries operating in cities and towns that have favorable laws allowing the sale of medical marijuana. Of these dispensaries only a handful are actually licensed and most operate under a murky regulatory environment that has been subject to multiple Federal raids and arrests since the program went into effect. Undeterred, Mark opened the state of the art Om of Medicine dispensary with his partner Keith Lambert in Ann Arbor in July of 2010 after carefully considering the opportunities and risks associated with going into the medical marijuana business in Michigan. Ann Arbor actually decriminalized marijuana possession back in the 70’s and passed its own medical marijuana laws in 2004.

To date, Om of Medicine has served over 7,000 patients and caregivers since it opened with its staff of 10 employees. The energy efficient dispensary (Om of Medicine supports alternative energy sources;  In purchasing wind energy credits through Renewable Choice Energy, it prides itself on making an investment in forward-thinking companies and helping to make the world a cleaner place to live.) is located in the high rent district in Ann Arbor (their rent is over $8,500 a month!).

The dispensary offers an extensive product mix including…

• Over 20 varieties of flowers including indicas, sativas and hybrids
• CBD enriched edibles, candies, tinctures oils and capsules
• Concentrates
• Consumption Gear
• Clothing

…and one on one, private consultations from a highly trained and compassionate staff that counsels patients on their needs and available solutions in a warm and artistically designed and adorned environment.

Om of Medicine also supports local non-profits and contributed over 23,000 lbs. of food to food banks last year and expects to deliver 50% more in 2015. They support the Ann Arbor Arts community, and offer classes, comedy shows, workshops, guest lectures, and seminars to their patient mix. Additionally, Mark is active nationally with the NCIA and is the President of the Illinois Cannabis Industry Association.

Mark anticipates that the approval of House bills 4209 and 4210, introduced last month, will once and for all end the vagueness that was part of the original ballot initiative in 2008 the legalized medical marijuana in the state; last year, similar bills overwhelmingly passed the House but never made it to vote in the Senate because of law enforcement resistance.

• House Bill 4209 would license and regulate above-ground, safe access facilities for state-qualified medical marijuana. Communities that do not wish to regulate such facilities are not mandated by this legislation to do so. Patients should not be forced to rely on the underground market to obtain their medicine.
• House Bill 4210 would provide qualified patients legal protections for their use of non-smoked cannabis derived topicals and edibles, as well as cannabis-based extract products. Patients’ are increasingly turning to these non-smoked formulations and the law should acknowledge this reality.

If the legislation passes this year, Om of Medicine plans on expanding into several other Michigan cities, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Traverse City at the top of the priority list and possibly Detroit further down the road. They are also very interested in becoming a license holder and operator in Illinois.

Once the program works out its many flaws, if you live in any of these cities and are a medical marijuana patient looking for great service, a large selection products and solutions and an aesthetically pleasing environment to secure your medicine, click your ruby slippers together 3 times and repeat after me…there is no place like Om!