Editor's note:

BAY CITY

— At least 75 Bay County residents are believed to be involved in a risky occupation, one federal authorities say is illegal: They grow or sell medical marijuana.

They work mostly in secret, hoping their plants and the drug they distribute isn’t raided by police or targeted by thieves.

“There’s always fear there, because regardless of state legality, it’s always federally illegal,” said “Terry,” a Pinconning area marijuana grower who asked not to be identified.

“I try to maintain and teach (others) as though it is still illegal, because you never know how this is going to go and you do have a cash crop that thieves are going to want to steal,” he said.

Regardless of their precautions, marijuana growers often are known or suspected by neighbors, and some are concerned about what’s going on next door.

“Dawn” is a woman who lives on Lincoln Street in Bay City, near the home of a marijuana grower involved in a violent dispute in June with a roommate who wanted the plants. She’s concerned about safety in her neighborhood and also asked not to be identified.

The pot-grower next door

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“I don’t approve of it,” she said. “There are so many people coming and going. I know he’s not growing it for himself. There are cars there all the time.”

Another Lincoln Street neighbor says he doesn’t mind living near a marijuana grower, so long as the growing facility is secure and patients who receive the drug there keep a low profile.

Some local law enforcement officers say Michigan’s Medical Marihuana Act puts them in a bind when it comes to dealing with licensed marijuana growers.

“It does make it a lot more difficult to enforce the law and differentiate between people who need marijuana for medical purposes and people getting marijuana for a bogus condition,” Sheriff John E. Miller said. “It’s a poorly written law. It needs to be cleaned up.”

Miller said police don’t know the identities of licensed growers or locations of their grow rooms. It makes monitoring the situation difficult, if not impossible.