$FITX Madison Heights businessman sees billions in

A Madison Heights businessman is building a facility in Canada to grow government-controlled medical marijuana that he hopes to turn into a $5 billion a year business that could spread to the U.S.

Bill Chaaban, CEO of Creative Edge Nutrition Inc. headquartered in Madison Heights, is working with that company's Canadian subsidiary, CEN Biotech, to build a marijuana growing facility near Windsor in Lakeshore, Ont.

The company has gotten permission from the national Health Canada department to build its industrial growing facility. Once it is complete and Health Canada inspects it, Chaaban expects he will get permission to grow and sell marijuana for import and export with the roughly 30 countries worldwide that allow for medical or legal marijuana use.

He would not disclose how he raised the estimated $12 million it is costing to build the growing operation, saying only that he got the money from public and private sources.

Canadian law allows the use of medical marijuana by registered patients and caregivers who are allowed to grow limited amounts of marijuana or purchase it from Health Canada. But, starting April 1, patients will have to buy marijuana from several pot growers licensed by Health Canada.

Chaaban is starting out with a 27,000-square-foot facility on 10.3 acres. He said he wants to eventually expand that facility to more than 1 million square feet on multiple floors and within five years grow 1.3 million pounds of pot annually.

"That would translate to $5 billion a year" in revenue, Chaaban said. "We anticipate a profit margin of 80 percent."

Right now workers are installing cameras, fencing and other security features at the Lakeshore facility in anticipation of an inspection by Health Canada to get a permit to grow.

"We anticipate our license being issued in eight to 12 weeks," Chaaban said. Pot production could begin within six months.

Chaaban said he is working with another Madison Heights company called RXNB Inc. that makes hydroponic equipment to grow cannabis.

The Michigan Legislature in December passed a bill that would allow pharmacies to dispense medical marijuana should the federal government ever legalize it. The bill was sponsored by State Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw, who is an M.D. The law would prohibit individuals from growing their own marijuana and only allow pot to be grown by producers licensed by the state Department of Community Health.

The bill would make marijuana a Schedule II drug, a highly restrictive classification that presently includes highly addictive drugs such as morphine, OxyContin, amphetamines, Percodan and Methadone.

Sen. Kahn refused to comment on issues related to his bill when his office was contacted.

Marijuana laws in the U.S. are slackening state by state, even though pot is prohibited under federal law. Two states - Washington and Colorado - have legalized pot, while about 20 others have decriminalized the substance or allowed it to be used for medical patients.

Tim Beck, a Detroit resident and co-founder of the Safer Michigan Coalition, was most recently involved in ballot measures in Michigan that decriminalized possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by adults on private property in Jackson, Lansing and Ferndale.

Beck was also involved in other measures to decriminalize or allow for medical marijuana in other cities in Michigan over the past decade.

"Ultimately, I believe marijuana will be legalized in this country," Beck said. "With Chaaban, his deal is only relevant to Canada, which will go to a full regulatory model. That could be the model we end up with in the U.S. if we get full legalization, but it will be a state-by-state thing."

It will take about a decade before a majority of states in the U.S move to legalizing pot, Beck added.

Chaaban is more optimistic about pot being legalized in the U.S., estimating the federal government could move toward legalization for medical use within two years.

He sees his company doing up to $50 million a year in medical marijuana sales in the U.S. if it is legalized nationwide.

Chaaban said he will be ready if that day comes and would grow marijuana in Michigan and look to build a growing facility in Detroit.

The Creative Edge Nutrition company that Chaaban heads sells nutritional supplements and is a public company that trades as a high-risk "over-the-counter"/Pink Sheet stock for about 7 cents as of Tuesday, according to Business Insider, a U.S. business and technology website.

An attorney, Chaaban said he has never used marijuana even though he is betting on profiting from its medical use.

"I never knew what a marijuana plant looked like until I went to Santa Cruz (Calif.) and saw one" recently, he said.