| ABC 6 |
| Landlord Melodye Broadley put up this sheet announcing her tenant is growing medical marijuana because she was upset about it. |
A Rhode Island landlord claims she’s worried about a medical marijuana-growing tenant’s garden being a fire hazard — although it passed a fire department inspection. And she claims to be worried about a robbery — so she put up signs announcing the presence of marijuana in the building.
Landlord Melodye Broadley’s dispute with a marijuana-growing tenant in her building went public for a few hours Thursday, when she papered the Pawtucket property with signs complaining about Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law.
Broadley claimed she supported the idea of the state allowing the use of marijuana to treat certain medical conditions, reports John Hill of The Providence Journal. But she claims the act that established the medical marijuana program “tramples” on the rights of building owners where the cannabis is grown.
| ABC 6 |
| Remember this face. If you are a medical marijuana patient in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, do NOT rent from this woman. |
The tenant moved into an apartment in Broadley’s four-unit building in June, without mentioning his plan to grow marijuana in the apartment. Broadley claims the lighting the tenant uses to grow the plants “has caused problems with the fire alarm system in the house, and she says she fears the lights are a fire hazard.
He refused her request to stop growing marijuana, Broadley said.
Broadley claims the odor of the blooming marijuana plants prevented her from getting a tenant for an empty apartment in the building.
“I still don’t believe you should be able to set up a greenhouse in my house,” Broadley said, not mentioning if she planned to evict everyone with a houseplant.
Her tenant couldn’t be reached for comment. He is one of more than 2,300 Rhode Islanders with a medical marijuana growing license.
| ABC 6 |
| Tenant Brent Cogdill is carefully abiding by state laws regarding medical marijuana cultivation — and his garden and wiring has passed a Fire Department inspection. |
Broadley said her tenant had told her he is approved by the state to grow marijuana for a medical problem.
Most of the signs Broadley hung outside the apartment house Thursday complained about the medical marijuana act. A bed sheet with a green marijuana leaf drawn on it, declaring “Medical Marijuana Is Grown Here,” was hung on the porch.
Fire Chief William J. Sisson said his department had inspected the apartment after heat from the grow lights set off a temperature alarm. When the alarm was replaced and the tenant changed how he was using extension cords, Sisson said the building and the marijuana cultivation in it were both up to code.
Broadley claimed the tenant is two months behind on his rent, and she has started eviction proceedings. Her lawyer, George Babcock, said the basis for the action is the rent problem, not the marijuana cultivation.
| ABC 6 |
| A novel approach if the landlord is really concerned about robbery, don’t you think? |
Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law prohibits any discrimination against people with medical marijuana grower or user licenses — as it should.
Broadley claimed marijuana should only be grown indoors when the grower owns the building — effectively excluding almost an entire economic class from producing their own medicine.
“I need medicines, too,” she said. “Can I set up a lab in my basement? That’s not my issue.”
Judging by nonsensical statements like that, one could easily conclude that a few other things are, indeed, issues for Ms. Broadley.