Apache Junction businesses upset about medical marijuana growing tenant

APACHE JUNCTION, AZ - Something is causing a big stink at an Apache Junction strip mall.

Shop owners concerned their businesses are going to pot want to clear the air.

“First, when you opened the door, it basically smacked you," said florist Kathy Romano. "The smell was just so heavy."

It wasn't the aroma of flowers that overwhelmed her.

Romano says she had to move her shop at Thunderbird Plaza several doors down, after just four weeks, to escape the smell of marijuana.

“I lost $1,000 worth of product, wholesale, within the first two weeks of opening my door,” she said.

Romano blames ethylene gas, thrown off by medical marijuana growing in the basement area of the building, right below her former location.

“It was never disclosed that it was downstairs,” she said.

The Apache Junction Police Department said they've checked out the grower and his operation and no laws are being broken.

But Romano and other business owners, including Mayor John Insalaco, question it's location in a strip mall.

“In a stand alone place is one thing," said Insalaco. "But to do this in the middle of a plaza, where you’ve got other businesses, that's wrong.”

He says the stench of marijuana bothers those who work in the stores and their customers.

There's concern it’ll drive away business.

“They're mad, they're upset, they're losing customers and they're getting sick,” said Insalaco.

The business owners want to make other cities and landlords aware of the potential problems, of allowing medical marijuana to be grown so close to other businesses where you have customers walking around.

“Every city, entity, has an industrial area," points out Romano. "Put it there!”

The owner of the portion of the building where the medical pot is being grown said he’s tired of fighting with his neighbors over the issue.

Vinton Peck said he has informed his tenant, who’s on a month to month lease, that he must move out by February 28 ^th.

The other business owners were hoping to have the air cleared much sooner.

Peck says the grower can’t leave any earlier than that because his plants are blooming and doing so would ruin his crop.