蜜芽传媒

Former NBA star Chris Webber has big plans for his home city of Detroit - but they're not without controversy.

Once the undisputed home of the automobile industry in the US, Detroit has experienced a real downturn and has become for many an area of deprivation.

Now the Hall of Famer is investing in a $175 million marijuana complex which will include a training centre, a dispensary and a cultivation facility.

The training program will recruit students from minority and underrepresented communities and teach them the skills needed to grow and sell cannabis.

In Michigan the drug has been legalised for medical and recreational use - but cities have to determine how the rules should work locally.

Adrienne Roberts is a reporter for the Detroit Free Press.

"In writing this story, I immediately got some emails from people who were upset by this and said 'why marijuana?'... And I think from Webber's perspective, marijuana, he said, helped him when he was playing in the NBA and travelling all the time and you need something to get you to sleep and get on a regular schedule and relax. And he wants to give back through this drug that helped him."

(Photo: Chris Webber waves to the crowd in Michigan Stadium in 2018. Credit: Getty Images)

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