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Recreational marijuana facilities allowed in Bay City
Posted Jul 2, 3:49 PM
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Beth Nakamura/Staff

A display at Mountain View Naturals, a retail marijuana shop in Hood River on March 14, 2016.





BAY CITY - Bay City will allow recreational marijuana facilities after commissioners passed ordinance amendments at the commission’s Monday, July 1 meeting.

One of the amendments allows 25 licenses to recreational marijuana facilities within city limits. City Manager Dana Muscott said the city has been working on the ordinances since November and processes are in place to allow the businesses to operate.

“We don’t know how it’s going to be integrated into the community and how people are going to accept it,” Muscott said. “We’ve had public hearings over the last year and a half and we haven’t gotten really any participation of people giving us their thoughts against it.”

Once businesses get their state recreational marijuana facility license, they can apply for their Bay City license. The requirements for a recreational marijuana business in Bay City are the same for medical marijuana businesses.

Licensed facilities have to be at least 100 feet from any religious institution, 500 feet from any school providing a pre-K to 12th grade education, 50 feet from court and public safety offices and 100 feet from any public park.

Both medical and recreational marijuana facilities require an annual city licensing fee of $5,000. The renewal of the license has be filed annually no less than 30 days prior to the expiration of the current license. Before receiving a renewed license, the city will inspect the establishment to check if it’s in compliance with city requirements.

Bay City is among the first cities in Michigan to pass its own recreational licensing ordinances. Some cities, like Saginaw, are waiting for the state to roll out its rules for state licensing before taking any action.

Muscott said the Bay City Commission considered waiting on passing recreational ordinances until the state comes out with its rules, but decided if something in the city’s ordinances doesn’t match up, it can be adjusted later.
 
275 marijuana cases dismissed in Kalamazoo County a ‘fairness issue,’ prosecutor says
Updated Jul 2, 1:37 PM; Posted Jul 2, 12:39 PM
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Emil Lippe | MLive.com

Kalamazoo County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Getting.

KALAMAZOO, MI — A total of 275 pending possession of marijuana cases were dismissed in Kalamazoo County after voters approved a new law to legalize marijuana for adult use, County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said.

Getting made the decision to dismiss any pending cases that would not have been illegal had they happened after the new law went into effect.

“After having considered the change in the law, and what we felt was a fundamental fairness issue, or, were we going to continue to pursue these cases, we made a decision that we weren’t going to continue to prosecute the pending cases,” Getting said during a June 27 interview.

In December, Michigan became the 10th state to legalize recreational marijuana in the U.S. The law allows for recreational use for adults 21 and over in their own homes, and requires the state to create a regulatory structure to license businesses.

After voters approved the measure in November, the prosecutor’s office first looked at pending cases with court dates coming up, reviewing the police report for each case, and dismissed those first, Getting said. He reviewed some of them himself.

“If they fit within the framework of proposal one, we dismissed those,” Getting said. “A large number of those cases were cases that had been charged, but the defendant hadn’t been arrested on those cases. So the dismissal of those, it removed an arrest warrant out of the system.”

Some of the cases with outstanding warrants were years old, the prosecutor said.

Getting said he was under no legal obligation to dismiss any of the pending cases, noting that other prosecutors in Michigan decided not to dismiss them.

“It seemed to me to be the right thing to do,” he said.

The reduced number of cases does have some impact on the prosecutor’s office, though marijuana possession cases in general have not taken a lot of resources to prosecute, Getting said.

“It’s not such an overwhelming number that everyone is now looking around for something else to do, because, frankly, we’re stretched very thin as it is,” he said.

The prosecutor’s office prosecutes more than 5,000 misdemeanor cases in a given year, Getting estimated. He said there are usually a few hundred involving marijuana possession.

“The things that take up the majority of our time that we’re prosecuting in District Court are all still there,” Getting said.

The new law does not mean his office is no longer handling any marijuana cases, the prosecutor said. He believes the black market will continue to flourish, especially before the availability of marijuana is still coming online as the state approves medical marijuana businesses and works to create rules for recreational marijuana businesses.

Getting reminds residents that it is still currently illegal to sell marijuana (no businesses have yet been approved by the state to sell recreational marijuana) and people can get in trouble with the law if they have more than the allowable amounts of marijuana. The law allows people 21 and older to carry up to 2.5 ounces, and to store up to 10 ounces at home.

Motorists can also face an offense for driving under the influence of marijuana, Getting said.

“We haven’t seen a substantial increase in the number of those cases in the last six months," he said. “But we don’t have the type of availability that Proposal One is ultimately going to create, so do we expect those numbers to go up? Yeah, we expect those numbers to increase."

Getting said he had some problems with Proposal One because of the language it contained, leaving police and prosecutors to deal with some difficulties the new law created.

“If you want to use to do that in a responsible way, to make sure that you’re not doing it in a way that jeopardizes someone else’s safety in the community, that you don’t do it in a way that is exposing people to it at schools or in places where they shouldn’t be exposed to it,” he said.

Don Smith, a partner at Willis Law in Kalamazoo, said he believes prosecutors across the state are dropping the cases for several reasons, including that the likelihood of a conviction has gone down now that the new law is in effect.

“Because someone violated the law on that day, it would be legitimate for them to go forward, but they know a jury is not going to look well on that, being the law changed,” he said.

Attorney Sarissa Montague of Levine & Levine Attorneys at Law of Kalamazoo said a conviction for marijuana possession can have consequences that impact someone’s entire life, and the change in state law impacted multiple cases she was working on as a criminal defense attorney.

“To not have to deal with that or worry about that is a tremendous impact on people and to the people that we don’t even know, who would’ve gotten in trouble in the future, and their families. It’s a lot to go through,” Montague said.
 
Michigan's Marijuana Regulatory Agency Releases Emergency Rules

July 3, 2019 – The Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) has issued emergency administrative rules for the purpose of implementing the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act (MRTMA). Signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the emergency rules enable the MRA to fully implement the marijuana proposal that Michigan voters approved in 2018.

“The release of the rules today provides local municipalities and prospective licensees with the information they need to decide how they want to participate in this new industry,” said MRA Executive Director Andrew Brisbo. “Since we plan to start taking business applications November 1st, stakeholders will have four months to evaluate these rules and make their decisions. These rules set Michigan’s marijuana industry on a path for success while ensuring safety for marijuana consumers.”

Designed to allow prospective licensees to operate under clear requirements, the emergency rules are effective today and will remain in effect for six months. The emergency rules may be extended once for not more than six months. The rules ensure a fair and efficient regulatory structure for Michigan businesses as well as access to safety-tested marijuana for Michigan’s citizens and visitors.

NEW LICENSE TYPES
In addition to the license types required in MRTMA, these emergency rules create the following additional license types:

  • Marijuana Event Organizer – allows the license holder to apply for Temporary Marijuana Event licenses from the MRA.
  • Temporary Marijuana Event – this license allows a Marijuana Event Organizer to run an event – which has been approved by the local municipality – where the onsite sale or consumption of marijuana products, or both, are authorized at a specific location for a limited time. Licensed Retailers and Microbusinesses may participate. The Marijuana Event Organizer is required to hire security and ensure that all rules and requirements for onsite consumption of marijuana products are followed.
  • Designated Consumption Establishment – allows the license holder, with local approval, to operate a commercial space that is licensed by the MRA and authorized to permit adults 21 years of age and older to consume marijuana and marijuana products on premises. A Designated Consumption Establishment license does not allow for sales or distribution of marijuana or marijuana product, unless the license holder also possesses a Retailer or Microbusiness license.
  • Excess Marijuana Grower – allows a licensee who already holds five adult-use Class C Grower licenses to expand their allowable marijuana plant count.
EQUIVALENT LICENSES
The Medical Marijuana Facilities Licensing Act (MMFLA) provides the structure for medical marijuana facilities. The Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Act (MRTMA) provides the structure for adult-use (“recreational”) marijuana establishments.

The Emergency Rules define Equivalent Licenses between the MMFLA (medical) and MRTMA (adult-use) as follows:

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Equivalent Licenses with common ownership will be allowed to operate at the same location, without separation, if the operation is not in violation of any local ordinances, regulations, or limits. Separate entrances, exits, point of sale areas, and operations will not be required.

Adult-use Retailer and medical Provisioning Center licensees who are operating equivalent licenses at the same location must physically separate the entire inventories and the items on display for sale so that individuals may clearly identify medical marijuana products from adult-use marijuana products. Products subject to the adult-use excise tax may not be bundled in a single transaction with a product or service that is not subject to the excise tax.

To ensure marijuana product is available for individuals 21 years of age or older, the MRA may authorize Grower, Processor, and Retailer equivalent licenses to transfer marijuana product from their medical marijuana inventory to their adult-use inventory. The MRA will publish a specific start date, end date, and other requirements for the transfer of marijuana product between equivalent licenses.

SIMILARITIES/DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ADULT-USE RULES AND MEDICAL RULES
The adult-use marijuana Emergency Rules share a large overlap with the medical marijuana Administrative Rules but also contain some significant differences. In the overlap between adult-use and medical, there are similar rules with important distinctions. These distinctions include:

  • There are no capitalization requirements for adult-use licenses and fewer financial documents are requested from applicants.
  • Adult-use home delivery includes Designated Consumption Establishments and any residence. Medical home delivery is to registered marijuana cardholders only.
  • Adult-use license renewal fees are divided into three tiers in which larger volume licensees will pay more on renewal and smaller volume licensees will pay less.
  • Growers and Microbusinesses may accept the transfer of marijuana seeds, tissue cultures, and clones from another Grower licensed under the adult-use law or the medical marijuana law.
  • Class A Growers and Microbusinesses may accept the transfer of marijuana plants one time from (a) registered primary caregiver(s) so long as the caregiver(s) was an applicant for that license.
  • Current medical marijuana licensees who apply for adult-use licenses will be expedited through the application process if there are no changes in ownership.
  • All adult-use applicants are required to submit a social equity plan. The social equity plan must detail a strategy to promote and encourage participation in the marijuana industry by people from communities that have been disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition and enforcement and to positively impact those communities.
  • Adult-use Safety Compliance Facilities are required to hire a laboratory manager.
ADULT-USE LICENSING TWO-STEP APPLICATION PROCESS
The application process for adult-use marijuana establishment licenses will continue to follow the two-step process that the MRA has been using for the processing of medical marijuana facility operator licenses. The two-step process will allow applicants to begin the application process while still seeking a location for the adult-use marijuana establishment, if they choose to do so.

The first step, pre-qualification, allows applicants to determine if they have state approval before they invest in property, buildings, or equipment. Some municipalities may require this approval before local support is given.

The second step, license application, will allow applicants to indicate which type of adult-use marijuana establishment license is being sought and must include plans for a marijuana establishment located in a municipality that does not have an ordinance in place which would preclude the business.

Since the adult-use marijuana law requires the MRA to make a licensing decision within 90 days of receiving a complete application, applicants are encouraged to utilize the two-step process to help avoid a default denial occurring at the 90-day mark.

Applicants will have the option of submitting step one and step two materials at the same time and may submit an online or a paper form application to the MRA; both the paper and online application will require the same documentation and information.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
  • Growers and Processors may engage in research and development.
  • Growers, Processors, Retailers, and Microbusinesses may offer tested internal product samples for their employees to consume, off-site, to ensure the quality and/or potency of the products.
  • Growers and Processors may provide trade samples of marijuana and marijuana products to other Processors or Retailers to help determine whether they want to purchase the product.
  • A licensee – who holds two or more Processor licenses or two or more Retailer licenses – with common ownership at different establishments may transfer marijuana product inventory between the Processor or Retailer establishments.
  • Microbusinesses may not operate at multiple locations and must operate the corresponding areas of their Microbusiness in compliance with the operation requirements of a Retailer, a Grower, and a Processor.
  • The MRA’s Social Equity Plan will (1) promote and encourage participation in the marijuana industry by people from communities that have been disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition and enforcement and (2) positively impact those communities.
  • A Retailer is not required to retain information from customers other than the following: method and amount of payment, date/time of sale, product quantity, and other product descriptors.
 
Adult-use Retailer and medical Provisioning Center licensees who are operating equivalent licenses at the same location must physically separate the entire inventories and the items on display for sale so that individuals may clearly identify medical marijuana products from adult-use marijuana products.

well, that's kind of BS. If there are any med products that are not...for some reason...available to rec users, just separate them on the menu. Why the physical separation???

All adult-use applicants are required to submit a social equity plan.

Of course they are...sigh
 
Now here's a snake oil salesman for you. Wow. :disgust:


Too high? ‘Parachute’ down with a new pill created by Michigan scientist
Posted Jul 5, 2019
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Steve Goldner, the co-creator of liquid methadone, is investing in the medical marijuana market in Michigan through his company Pure Green. Among his creations is Parachute, a CBD tablet designed to help people who have gotten too high. (Courtesy | Pure Green)


The man who co-invented liquid methadone in the 1970s is now betting his retirement on a new line of medical cannabis products in Michigan.

Among them is Parachute: a pure-CBD pill that dissolves underneath the tongue and is effective within five minutes -- meant to help rescue someone who has gotten too high.

"People take edibles and then they get too high -- it can be pretty dreadful," said Steve Goldner, founder of Pure Green. "CBD is a tremendous ameliorator."

The experience of being too high from an edible has been famously -- and almost infamously -- chronicled by Maureen Dowd in a 2014 column for the New York Times. Dowd was in Colorado reporting on the cannabis industry -- and decided to sample a medicated chocolate bar. The encounter, she wrote, left her in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours.
While Goldner’s career has spanned both science and the law, it began in the New York Medical Examiner’s office. He was tasked with developing techniques to detect different drugs -- like marijuana and LSD -- during autopsies.

At the time, his friends were returning from the Vietnam War with serious heroin addictions. He wanted to help them recover. Shortly after starting his own lab in Long Island, he helped create the liquid formulation of methadone. It’s now the most common way to consume methadone.

Much of the latter part of career was spent as a Michigan-based consultant and lawyer, helping companies with health care products gain the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. More recently he launched Pinnacle Labs in Troy to help establish testing standards for medical cannabis.

As Michigan laws prevent safety compliance facility owners from participating in any other aspect of the medical marijuana business, Goldner closed his lab and focused on starting Pure Green -- a medical marijuana processing company.

Unlike edible gummy candies or cookies infused with marijuana -- which can take several hours to be fully effective and have varying dosage recommendations -- Goldner has developed a line of medical marijuana products that are consumed more like traditional medication.

At his Inkster-based Pure Green facility, Goldner has created a line of mint-flavored tablets that dissolve under the tongue and promise to deliver effects within minutes.

“The advantage is that it gets absorbed like nitroglycerin,” Goldner said.

Goldner said he wanted to create medical marijuana products that were consumed more like traditional medication.

“For guys that want to take Viagra, we don’t tell them to roll it in a joint and smoke it,” Goldner said. “We don’t ask them to put it on a part of their anatomy and set their genitals on fire. That’s not how you dispense product.”

Goldner received his processing license from the state in September 2018 and since has made six different products at a facility in Inkster. This June Pure Green launched Parachute -- the rescue medication -- which Goldner said already has received strong interest.

Pure Green is also licensed to grow up to 6,000 medical marijuana plants at a location in Au Gres.
 
Now here's a snake oil salesman for you. Wow. :disgust:


Too high? ‘Parachute’ down with a new pill created by Michigan scientist
Posted Jul 5, 2019
MS2AZWJZNBFOVB5Y2DVKVG3JBQ.jpg


Steve Goldner, the co-creator of liquid methadone, is investing in the medical marijuana market in Michigan through his company Pure Green. Among his creations is Parachute, a CBD tablet designed to help people who have gotten too high. (Courtesy | Pure Green)


The man who co-invented liquid methadone in the 1970s is now betting his retirement on a new line of medical cannabis products in Michigan.

Among them is Parachute: a pure-CBD pill that dissolves underneath the tongue and is effective within five minutes -- meant to help rescue someone who has gotten too high.

"People take edibles and then they get too high -- it can be pretty dreadful," said Steve Goldner, founder of Pure Green. "CBD is a tremendous ameliorator."

The experience of being too high from an edible has been famously -- and almost infamously -- chronicled by Maureen Dowd in a 2014 column for the New York Times. Dowd was in Colorado reporting on the cannabis industry -- and decided to sample a medicated chocolate bar. The encounter, she wrote, left her in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours.
While Goldner’s career has spanned both science and the law, it began in the New York Medical Examiner’s office. He was tasked with developing techniques to detect different drugs -- like marijuana and LSD -- during autopsies.

At the time, his friends were returning from the Vietnam War with serious heroin addictions. He wanted to help them recover. Shortly after starting his own lab in Long Island, he helped create the liquid formulation of methadone. It’s now the most common way to consume methadone.

Much of the latter part of career was spent as a Michigan-based consultant and lawyer, helping companies with health care products gain the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. More recently he launched Pinnacle Labs in Troy to help establish testing standards for medical cannabis.

As Michigan laws prevent safety compliance facility owners from participating in any other aspect of the medical marijuana business, Goldner closed his lab and focused on starting Pure Green -- a medical marijuana processing company.

Unlike edible gummy candies or cookies infused with marijuana -- which can take several hours to be fully effective and have varying dosage recommendations -- Goldner has developed a line of medical marijuana products that are consumed more like traditional medication.

At his Inkster-based Pure Green facility, Goldner has created a line of mint-flavored tablets that dissolve under the tongue and promise to deliver effects within minutes.

“The advantage is that it gets absorbed like nitroglycerin,” Goldner said.

Goldner said he wanted to create medical marijuana products that were consumed more like traditional medication.

“For guys that want to take Viagra, we don’t tell them to roll it in a joint and smoke it,” Goldner said. “We don’t ask them to put it on a part of their anatomy and set their genitals on fire. That’s not how you dispense product.”

Goldner received his processing license from the state in September 2018 and since has made six different products at a facility in Inkster. This June Pure Green launched Parachute -- the rescue medication -- which Goldner said already has received strong interest.

Pure Green is also licensed to grow up to 6,000 medical marijuana plants at a location in Au Gres.

Red lights in the rear view mirror sobers you up pretty quick IME.
 
11 things to know about Michigan's new recreational marijuana rules
Posted July 07, 2019 at 11:30 AM

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Employees work to harvest marijuana plants at Green Peak Industries Research and Development Facility, located at 1669 Jolly Road in Lansing. (Jake May | MLive.com)

Michigan officials issued a set of heavily anticipated emergency rules for the recreational marijuana market this week that will define how the commercial sale of the now-legal drug will operate.

The rule set comes more than six months after 57 percent of Michigan voters chose to legalize marijuana and hemp in the state.

Broadly, the recreational marijuana market is designed to mimic the medical marijuana market -- but with fewer hurdles to starting a business and more opportunities for social consumption.

Here are 11 key points to understand from the state's emergency rule set:



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Bryan Melle of Grand Rapids puts cannabis into a grinder during the 48th annual Hash Bash Saturday, April 6, 2019 in Ann Arbor. (Ben Allan Smith | MLive.com)

1. Retail sales are still months away
Since the law took effect in December 2018, Michigan residents age 21 and older have been able to possess and consume marijuana.

But they haven't been able to buy weed legally yet -- as the only state-licensed businesses open and operating are required to serve only card-carrying medical patients.

The emergency rules didn't indicate any sign of when the first retail sale may happen, but did lend some clues.

The Marijuana Regulatory Agency will begin accepting business license applications Nov. 1.

Once businesses are licensed by the state, regulators could choose to allow medical marijuana products to be sold on the recreational market. As the medical program has struggled with licensed supply issues, that may not occur.

Industry experts predict sales may occur by the first quarter of 2020, and no later than March 2020.




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The board works during a Leoni Township Board of Trustees meeting on March 12, 2019. (J. Scott Park | MLive.com)

2. Cities and townships have until Nov. 1 to ban businesses
State officials intentionally left four months in between the time they announced the recreational marijuana rules and when they would start accepting applications to allow local governments time to read and interpret them.

Since November 2018 when Michigan voters chose to legalize, more than 600 communities have passed a ban on adult-use marijuana businesses. That means about 4.7 million Michigan residents live in a place that has banned the cannabis industry, according to an MLive analysis.

Some of those bans are temporary, as cities and townships wanted to wait and see how the industry would be regulated before deciding how they wanted to zone and regulate it themselves.


Map: Communities with recreational marijuana bans

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Employees work to harvest marijuana plants at Green Peak Industries Research and Development Facility, located at 1669 Jolly Road in Lansing. (Jake May | MLive.com)

3. "Emergency" rules
Under the state law voters approved last year, officials with the Marijuana Regulatory Agency are required to start accepting business license applications by December 6, 2019.

In order to meet that deadline, regulators decided to issue a set of "emergency" rules now that expire in six months.

In its filing July 3 with the Secretary of State, the agency wrote: "To date, no administrative rules have been promulgated under the authority granted to the agency. Specifically, there are no current administrative rules to provide for the lawful cultivation and sale of marihuana to persons 21 years of age or older or to ensure the safety, security, and integrity of the operation of marihuana establishments. There is a need for clarity in the implementation of this act."




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Festivalgoers dance to Bassnectar performance during the third day of the Electric Forest Music Festival on Saturday, June 29, 2019. J(oel Bissell | MLive.com)

4. Social use will soon be allowed
Smoking and consuming marijuana at special events and festivals will soon become a reality in Michigan, if organizers choose to get a permit from the state.

Smoking lounges and clubs will also become possible soon under a special state license. However, regulators said alcohol and food sales can't occur in those establishments.


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Om of Medicine marijuana dispensary at 111 S. Main St. in downtown Ann Arbor, Jan. 30, 2019. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

5. It will be easier to start a recreational marijuana business than a medical marijuana business
People interested in starting a recreational marijuana company will have an easier time getting into the industry than those trying to start a medical marijuana company.

Regulators have decided to eliminate the need for business license applicants to show they have funds to finance their enterprise.

That's significantly different than the capitalization requirements medical marijuana businesses have had to disclose: they've had to prove to state regulators that they had from $200,000 to $500,000 in assets, depending on the type of license they were applying for. One-fourth of that had to be liquid.

Licensing fees for recreational businesses will also be lower than those for medical businesses. For example, entry-level grow licenses cost $4,000 (for 100 plants) in the recreational industry and cost $10,000 (for 500 plants) in the medical industry.

Additionally, a license for a retail store costs $20,000 to $30,000, depending on volume, in the recreational industry; whereas medical provisioning center licenses cost $66,000.




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Inside Utopia Gardens, a medical marijuana dispensary on Detroit's near east side, Sept. 12, 2018. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)

6. Medical and recreational marijuana can be sold in the same store
Medical marijuana provisioning centers will be able to sell adult-use cannabis products in the future with little effort.

The medical products and adult-use products have to be physically separated, according to the state's rules.

But the store can use the same main entrance and point-of-sale systems for the transactions.


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Om of Medicine marijuana dispensary at 111 S. Main St. in downtown Ann Arbor, Jan. 30, 2019. (Tanya Moutzalias | MLive.com)



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A first look on a tour of the Green Peak Industries headquarters at Harvest Park in Windsor Township. (Jake May | MLive.com)

7. Home delivery will be an option
Any adult 21 and up will be able to order marijuana deliveries to their home in the future -- in the same way that medical marijuana patients can do now.





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Dakota Verbeck, Lindsey Garcia, Tyler Putney, and Bryan Melle, all of Grand Rapids, sit in a circle while Melle rolls a joint during the 48th annual Hash Bash Saturday, April 6, 2019 in Ann Arbor. (Ben Allan Smith | MLive.com)

8. No weed drive-thrus
State regulators made a point of banning weed drive-thrus in their emergency rules.

They also are banning mobile weed shops and online mail-order sales.



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Medical marijuana plants of all sizes are seen at VB Chesaning, LLC, Monday, Dec. 10, 2018. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive)

9. Mega-growers are getting a hand from the state
Under the new state law, the number of large-scale grow licenses a business can hold are capped at five. That means the maximum number of plants a commercial grower could have is capped at 10,000.

For some large-scale businesses, that's not close to enough. Regulators have created a new license type -- called excess grow -- for large-scale businesses that operate in both the medical and recreational market. The new license type allows growers to have more plants than is currently capped under state law.


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Employees work to harvest marijuana plants at Green Peak Industries Research and Development Facility, located at 1669 Jolly Road in Lansing. (Jake May | MLive.com)



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(Amy Biolchini | MLive.com)

10. Medical marijuana plants will be used to start recreational industry
State officials will allow medical marijuana plants to be transferred to licensed recreational marijuana grow facilities to help the adult-use market launch.



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An attendee exhales smoke in the crowd at Hash Bash in Ann Arbor Saturday, April 6 2019. (Jacob Hamilton | MLive.com)

11. A social equity plan is in the works
State officials plan to help out communities that have been disproportionately affected by the past prohibition of marijuana by releasing a social equity strategy.

According to the emergency rule set, that could include waiving or reducing application fees for certain qualified applicants.

The social equity plan will be released later this July.
 
Caregivers control more than 1 million cannabis plants in Michigan

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FLINT- Michigan’s registered medical marijuana caregivers have permission to grow more than one million cannabis plants, while licensed commercial cultivators are authorized to grow one tenth of that number.

These figures are crucially important to understand as Michigan ramps up efforts to boost the industry prior to licensing businesses for the state’s adult use cannabis market later this year. Even with accelerated licensing approvals it seems highly unlikely that commercial production of cannabis will be sufficient to satisfy the needs of the adult use market for quite some time.

In August of 2017 Director Andrew Brisbo of the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation reported in a direct communication that approx. 93,000 medical cannabis patients had designated a caregiver to grow on their behalf. Each caregiver has permission to grow 12 plants for the patient’s use. That indicates there are a potential 1.14 million cannabis plants under the control of the state’s registered caregiver population.


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That was two years ago. Director Brisbo now oversees the Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA), the number of caregivers has risen from 43,000 to roughly 47,000- nearly a 10% increase- and the number of patients which have designated a caregiver likely increased by a corresponding percentage. The number of plants assigned to the state’s caregivers is almost certainly greater than the number projected above.

Caregivers are almost always patients themselves. 47,000 caregivers each growing 12 plants for their own use in addition to cultivating for designated patients potentially elevates the number of plants under caregiver control to over one and a half million.

By comparison, commercial cultivation operations in Michigan have received a total of 78 licenses from the MRA and have a maximum cultivation limit of 108,000 plants. That data is provided per the MRA website and was updated on July 5, 2019.

The process of approving commercial centers for retail, production and other license types was boosted earlier this year when the obstructive Licensing Board was disbanded by order of the governor. That group of legislatively-designated watchdogs was routinely criticized for rejecting business applications in an inconsistent and discriminatory manner.

The new faster-track process still will not empower enough commercial entities before the end of the year to supply the adult use market’s anticipated demand for cannabis.

Currently all the caregivers and commercial entities licensed by the state are serving the medical cannabis market in Michigan. That market, the second strongest in the nation, is nearly 300,000 patients large.

The number of Michigan’s recreational or adult use consumers of cannabis dwarfs that figure. A study published in 2018 in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal reports that 14.6% of American adults in medical marijuana states use cannabis each year, and that number jumps to 20% in states with legalized cannabis use for adults. A similar study published earlier determined that 52% of adult Americans had tried cannabis at some time in their lives.

Michigan has legalized adult use cannabis and 7.7 million adults, per worldpopulationview.com, indicating 1.54 million Michigan residents use cannabis each year. When Michigan opens the doors to the first recreational cannabis retail outlets in late 2019, the cannabis customer base will instantly grow five times larger.

Fortunately, Michigan’s cannabis production program allows caregivers to contribute cannabis to the medical marketplace and into the adult use program, too. Currently, medical cannabis sold in the state’s provisioning centers is more than 80% caregiver sourced, according to Director Brisbo’s recent speech at the Detroit Canna Con event.

That situation is not likely to change much between now and the beginning of adult use cannabis sales later this year or in early 2020. It takes nearly four months to grow a cannabis plant, so commercial cultivation entities licensed in August or after will not have had enough time to grow, process and distribute plants prior to the launch of the adult use market.

Supply chain problems have plagued other states which have graduated from a medical use to an adult use program, as Michigan is doing. Typically the initial demand by adult use consumers draws down the stockpile of cannabis in short order. This leads to supply deficits, which trigger cultivation spikes, which then create market gluts and initiate wild price fluctuations in the cannabis marketplace.

“Caregivers ought to be formally included in the commercial system and supply chain in some reasonable manner,” said Jamie Lowell of MILegalize, one of the authors of 2018’s Prop. 1 “It would be counter productive to deny the experience, quality, and diversity of product that could be permanently added to the to the regulated market place. Caregivers have proven to be reliable and resilient producers. They have repeatedly come through for patients and the state to help with supply as the commercial system is implemented despite being consistently targeted by law enforcement, the legislature and cannabis business interests.”

Michigan can avoid the chaos and disruption other states have experienced by stabilizing the supply chain prior to launching the adult use marketplace. Caregivers and their more than a million plants will be that stabilizing influence in Michigan’s emergent legalized cannabis retail world.
 
This article reads a little disjointed.

I don't know any caregiver maxing out their plant numbers. I personally wouldn't have the room, or desire to add plants.

If anyone in charge wanted more caregiver involvement they should make it easier to do. And I really don't see that happening.

And why would we? It's just a temporary deal that will go away when mega grows come on line.
 
They certainly aren't making it attractive to continue being medical. Why should patients pay $100 for the medical card (plus $35 if you designate a caregiver) and then another $100 for a follow up visit after a year (mandated even though the card is for two years) when we could just walk up to a counter or have home delivery with no additional costs? I think the writing is on the wall with this.

There are a couple of charts that could not be loaded in this post... follow the link to see them.

Michigan’s medical marijuana market could crash after recreational shops launch

Michigan has the second-largest population of medical marijuana patients in the nation, but that could change significantly after the recreational market launches in the state.

Data from across the country show the number of medical marijuana patients significantly drops in a state once the product is legalized for recreational use, according to figures collected by the Associated Press.

That trend could already be underway in Michigan. In December 2018 there were 297,515 medical marijuana patients, but as of June 1 there are 287,094 patients. Officials say it’s too early to tell what is causing the decline in patient figures.

The medical marijuana market has struggled with supply issues from the beginning, as there hasn’t been enough commercially grown product to meet demand. That market is just beginning to take hold in Michigan -- and the state is months away from launching the adult-use industry when it starts accepting business license applications Nov. 1.


Last week Marijuana Regulatory Agency officials released the emergency rules for recreational marijuana businesses. The rules include a way for medical marijuana to be sold to any adult 21 and over -- but it takes a special action of the agency in order to make it possible. Agency Director Andrew Brisbo said he’ll wait to make that call until closer to November.

“We approached it in this way because we also want to ensure that there’s adequate supply to the medical market for patients that are using marijuana products to treat their medical conditions,” Brisbo said.

Prior to the legalization vote in November 2018, there were 29.7 patients for every 1,000 residents in the Michigan.

At their peaks, the medical marijuana program in Colorado had 25 registered patients for every 1,000 people in the state, and the program in Oregon had 19.4 registered patients for every 1,000 people in the state. Michigan had one of the highest patient rates compared to states that have comparable patient data.
But since marijuana has been legalized in states like Colorado and Oregon, the population of patients has dropped significantly. Colorado saw a 4.5 percent drop and Oregon saw a 5.5 percent drop.

California, which has the largest medical marijuana population in the country, does not have enough data to compare it to other state trends.

In Oregon, voters approved medical marijuana in 1998, two years before Michigan voters did the same. Yet by the time legalization of recreational marijuana came to a vote in Oregon, the medical program had far fewer patients -- about 80,000 -- than the 279,000-plus patients in Michigan when Proposal 1 was on the ballot.

Just like Michigan, Oregon lawmakers set to add regulations to the medical marijuana system two years before the recreational vote was on the ballot.

In Oregon, launching a licensing program and retail sales took several years. After voters passed recreational marijuana in November 2014, the law took effect in 2015 and the first licenses were issued in mid-2016. Oregon didn’t have a full year of robust retail sales until 2017.

Though medical marijuana businesses helped to launch the recreational industry in Oregon, the recreational marijuana industry is now robust enough that it is overtaking the medical business.



"The old medical system is going away in Oregon, and it's becoming our recreational system's place to provide it and make it work in a structured, regulated way," said Steve Marks, executive director of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. The commission regulates the recreational marijuana program in Oregon.

Medical marijuana products are often more potent and offer more THC -- but the prevalence of recreational businesses has made it easier to skip registering as a patient and going directly to a shop to self-medicate.

"The state bureaucrats and politicians have been lobbied by heavy industry to make sure the medical side has basically all been but shut down," said Mike Mullins, owner of Stoney Girl in Portland, Ore. -- a chain of marijuana shops that sell both medical and recreational products.



Mullins has been in the medical marijuana market from the beginning of the program in Oregon, and has seen commercial recreational products dominate the shelves.

"The medical goods that we bring in here are from the commercial market, they're not from the medical market -- so there's very much a difference in the quality of products to begin with," Mullins said. "You'd pretty much become a diabetic in eating gummy bears before you'd have the effect that you needed if you are a patient."

Some of the operators in Michigan’s medical marijuana market are sounding the same alarm bells about the products that are available right now from licensed growers. Some patients claim that large-scale growers aren’t producing the concentrated extracts and oils that they use as medicine -- and can only find edible gummies, infused chocolates, marijuana flower and vape pens.




 
Your right, it's not fair to medical users.

But there still is the sticky zero tolerance law for driving. And the 10% excise tax on non medical.

Hopefully the state will lower medical card fees. And mandate regular doctors give state mandated recommendations without reprisals. But I'm not holding my breath.
 
Report: Michigan Police Kept $15 Million Taken Mostly From ‘Little Guys’ In 2018

Over 6,000 persons had more than $15 million worth of property and cash seized and kept by Michigan law enforcement agencies in 2018. Many of them were never convicted of a crime or even prosecuted. Those are some of the findings of a report released June 30 by the Michigan State Police on the practice of civil asset forfeiture.

Most of the seized property was cash ($13,481,835), according to the report, was then used by police agencies to supplement their own budgets.

Michigan’s civil asset forfeiture law was adopted in 1978 with the intent of depriving criminals, especially drug dealers, of the proceeds from illegal activity. But critics say the the practice too often tramples on the property rights of low-level drug users, some of whom are never prosecuted for the underlying alleged crime. In April, the Michigan Legislature enacted reforms to the law. Starting in August, there must be a criminal conviction, in most situations, before officials can retain seized assets.

According to the report, property was seized from more than 6,000 persons in Michigan in 2018. Of these individuals, only 2,810 were convicted of the crime for which the property was seized, and 514 were never charged at all.

Jarrett Skorup, the director of marketing and communications for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, has written extensively on civil asset forfeiture. He said of the report, “It’s disturbing ... that hundreds of people never charged with illegal activity are losing their property. Forfeiture should be used only on those convicted of a crime in which someone actually gained money or property from that illegal activity.”

Skorup said research by advocates for reform found many instances in which the target of forfeiture was not a drug kingpin. Instead, it was a low-income petty drug user whose $2,500 car was seized by police. Many such individuals are never charged, and they surrender ownership rather than contest the seizure in court, Skorup said.

To address the concerns of law enforcement officials, the new law requiring a conviction for forfeiture does not apply to property worth more than $50,000 if it may be associated with illegal drug trafficking. This property will still be subject to forfeiture even if its owner is not convicted of a crime.

In June, the Institute for Justice, a leading national advocate for forfeiture reform, released a study analyzing the effects of federal forfeiture practices on crime and drug use. It found them to be negligible. The study added that civil asset forfeiture is most intensely used in communities in financial duress.

“Forfeiture doesn’t help police to fight crime,” said Lee McGrath, IJ’s lead legislative counsel, “but police do use it to raise revenue.”

McGrath said Michigan’s new forfeiture law “is an important step in reform ... but the important question is how it will affect state law enforcement and property owners (targeted by forfeitures) in the future.”
 
"The medical goods that we bring in here are from the commercial market, they're not from the medical market -- so there's very much a difference in the quality of products to begin with,"

I do not understand why this would be so. Growing is growing and if the test requirements are the same, then its the same product. Now, protecting supply for patients...that is, in scarcity ensuring that patient needs get fulfilled before rec needs....well, that makes sense but the product is the product and if there is a demand for it, then it will be produced.

I sort of see it like Nexium...was prescription, now OTC.

The issue of sales tax is another small fly in the ointment. In MD, we don't pay tax on pharmaceuticals incl MMJ. But, I sure can pay a lot of sales tax with my $150 annual Dr Cert renewal fee and $50 MMJ card state fee. Right?
 
Plan for automatic expungement of cannabis records proposed in Michigan


There continues to be some large gaps in justice when it comes to the state by state cannabis legalization movement. Among them is a key question; What happens to those individuals with cannabis offenses that took place before the laws changed? Believe it or not, many of them aren’t automatically, retroactively covered by new laws that decriminalize or legalize weed going forward. In Michigan, one senator is looking to right this wrong.

On Tuesday, Senator Jeff Irwin of Ann Arbor presented a piece of legislation that would guarantee automatic expungement for those with past, low level cannabis misdemeanors on their records. Estimates project that the bill could affect around 235,000 people. That’s key, as criminal records can make a difference in people getting employment, or qualifying for state benefits. Automatic expungement would also dodge the high cost to the state of clearing cases individually in court.

“Automatic expungement for all of our lowest-level cannabis offenders allows people to move on with their lives and making it automatic is essential because many people can’t afford an attorney, or the legal fees associated with an application,” Irwin said, as reported by Click On Detroit. “Cannabis is now legal in Michigan and petty offenses in the past should be no barrier to getting back to work or school.”

In fact, only six percent of individuals with past marijuana crimes have participated in Michigan’s current expungement petition procedure.

“This is so important to a large number of people in Michigan, who when they’re applying for jobs or student loans, they’re put in a position where their record can affect their future,” said Irwin.

The bill’s introduction follows this week’s passage of legislation in New Hampshire that establishes a petition process for individuals with low level possession offenses committed before the state’s decriminalization in 2017. That bill does not, however, allow for automatic expungement. Automatic expungement laws have also been passed in California and Illinois, where possession of 30 grams or less of cannabis is now automatically pardoned by the governor.

The processes dictated by many states to apply for such expungements involve attorney fees, and potentially taking time off from work to attend court dates. Such measures are prohibitive, especially when we’re talking about the low income communities that were disproportionately affected by Drug War policing during their states’ prohibition eras.

Fifty-six percent of Michigan voters opted for a recreational cannabis system last year, but the state is still hashing out what, exactly, that business will look like. Earlier this month, Governor Gretchen Whitmer introduced a set of emergency rules that will allow local jurisdictions to see if they wish to opt into the system. The protocol she signed temporarily into effect includes a tiered licensing system, and allowances for on-site cannabis consumption for some events and retail locations.

Ever since legalization, some lawmakers have been concerned with how to extend social justice to past offenders. Last year, the proposed House Bill 6508 would have allowed for low level, incarcerated offenders to petition the state for their release. That bill stalled upon arriving at the House law and justice committee.
 
Lansing mayor's proposal would allow recreational pot businesses, cap dispensaries at 28

14f8ec8a-0ed3-4f77-b391-1f2ad1a03e71-weedjars.jpg

Most marijuana dispensaries store jars of marijuana flowers. Owners offer brands of marijuana with creative, attention-grabbing names. (Photo: USA Today file photo)


LANSING — Lansing Mayor Andy Schor has proposed limiting the number of recreational and medical marijuana dispensaries in the city to 28.

Schor has proposed an amendment to the city of Lansing’s marijuana ordinance which would add recreational marijuana to the types of licensed marijuana businesses allowed within the city, according to information released Friday.

The new ordinance would modify regulation of provisioning centers and marijuana retailers to be based on the number of locations, rather than the number of licenses. That means a single location could have both a medical and recreational license to dispense marijuana.

It also increases the number of dispensaries permitted in the city by three. The city's current marijuana ordinance limits the number of dispensaries to 25.

“Lansing voters overwhelmingly supported the legalization of recreational marihuana and we need a system that will appropriately regulate the number and location of dispensaries within the city,” Schor said in a press release. “The proposed amendment we sent to council ensures that we can allow the recreational and medical usage of marihuana in Lansing as supported by the voters, while also preventing an overabundance of locations of dispensaries in Lansing.”


The state of Michigan recently released emergency rules that allow any medical marijuana license holder in the state to be approved for a recreational license. The city of Lansing will not be a part of the licensing process unless it finalizes a regulatory structure for recreational marijuana by November 1, 2019, according to the release.

Lansing received 85 applications when it closed its first phase of medical marijuana dispensary licensing in December 2017. Lansing opened its second application phase in May. Businesses had a 30-day window, until June 27, to apply for license slots.


Schor's proposal wouldn't apply to the second phase, according to the news release.

Recreational marijuana became legal statewide in December 2018. Michigan voters first legalized medical marijuana in 2008, but it took the state nearly a decade to begin licensing and taxing the businesses that sell the drug.
 
MICHIGAN COURT RULES-NO MARIJUANA SMOKING IN PARKED CARS

According to MLive the Appeals Court concluded that it is illegal for medical marijuana patients to smoke marijuana in their car when parked in public places.
This ruling comes for a case in August of 2013. When a medical marijuana patient, Robert Michael Carlton smoked a joint in his car parked at the Soaring Eagle Casino. According to WZZM13, the police were notified that a man was smoking in his car while parked at the casino by the casino’s security workers.
The medical marijuana patient was charged with possession of marijuana. The Isabella County Prosecutor’s Office charged him because he was smoking in a public place.
The prosecution argued that the smoking in his car was irrelevant. Rather, he was smoking on public property, the casino’s parking lot, and the parking lot is open to the public. The defense believed that because the car is not a public place, but private, that the charges should be dismissed. Carlton is a registered medical marijuana patient.
WZZM13 reported that the district court judge “sided with Carlton” and charges were dismissed and the ruling was upheld by the Isabella County Circuit Court. but the Court of Appeals decided to reverse the decision and sent the case back.
“It (the Court of Appeals) found that Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Act does not permit card holders to smoke “in any public place.”
COA Judge Douglas Shapiro disagreed with the majority ruling. He wrote that because Michigan medical marijuana law has specifically said that smoking on public transportation is prohibited that suggest that vehicles are seen as private in some circumstances.
He said, “The majority looks only at whether the vehicle itself is in a place defined as public. But the statutory language leaves open the possibility that in some circumstances a private vehicle can constitute a ‘private place’ even though it is located in an area to which the public has access.”
 
I've been hearing calls to the police about your neighbor growing weed are now being ignored. And it seems there is a lot of backyard grows this year. I went back and reviewed the rules. It seems have a roof is no longer required, just limited access and not visible from neighbor. And it's a civil fine if ticketed and possible removal of the offending plant. Cool!
 
Michigan’s Adult-Use Rules Put Cannabis Pioneers Out in the Cold

Michigan’s first adult-use cannabis stores are expected to open near the end of 2019, but many of the state’s medical marijuana pioneers could find themselves shut out of the new retail industry.

The state's new adult-use rules require seriously deep pockets. That shuts a lot of locals out of the game.
The state has been in a scrambling-for-licenses stage since the passage of a statewide adult-use legalization initiative in Nov. 2018. Early indications are that those licenses are going predominantly to a few of the state’s biggest players—and not to the smaller caregivers who built the medical industry over the past ten years.

Michigan’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA), which oversees both the existing medical marijuana industry and the coming adult-use retail sector, released its rules and regulations for the recreational cannabis market earlier this month. While the new regs included a number of welcome deviations from the state’s draconian medical marijuana rules—such as eliminating the steep financial equity requirements for license applicants—the more restrictive medical regulations will remain in place for most applicants until late 2021. In other words: Forward steps are being made, but the state continues to tilt the field away from smaller entrepreneurs and experienced cannabis hands.

Take, for instance, the rules around cannabis farming.

For medical cannabis farmers, the state is offering three classes of licenses: A, B, and C. Class A licenses are for small craft-scale growers with 500 plants or less. Class B are for moderate-scale commercial farmers with 1,000 plants or less. Class C is reserved for the biggest growers, with up to 1,500 plants.

Consolidation is happening fast. One company now holds eight grow licenses.
So far, the state has issued 67 grow licenses in the Class C category. Only 9 Class A licenses have been issued so far, and only one Class B license has been claimed.

This may be the most telling statistic: Those 67 Class C licenses, reserved for the biggest growers, are held by only 29 different growers. Eight companies hold multiple licenses. Green Peak, Michigan’s fastest-growing cannabis company, now holds 12 Class C growing licenses. Attitude Wellness, a Green Peak competitor, holds 9 Class C licenses.

“We’ve seen four and five applications for the same entity being approved simultaneously,” says Rick Thompson, a leading cannabis advocate and organizer of the Michigan Cannabis Business Development Conference.

Thompson is referring to the practices of the medical market’s now-defunct Medical Marijuana Facilities Licensing Act (MMFLA) Board. That board, appointed by the state’s previous governor, Rick Snyder, gained a reputation as the most anti-cannabis cannabis licensing board in the nation. It was comprised of two retired police officers, a pharmacist, a career Republican, and an automotive executive.

When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer succeeded Rick Snyder, she dissolved Snyder's notoriously anti-cannabis board.
The MMFLA process was notoriously unfriendly to anyone with limited financial means. Application fees ran upwards of $10,000, and a grow license could run nearly $50,000 on top of that. The state also required applicants to prove they had access to financing in the $150,000 to $300,000 range. Add to that the hefty fees charged by legal firms and consulting services, which are practically a necessity to prepare a proper application. “No small business could afford the expense up front,” says Thompson, “so bigger businesses have dominated the medical licensing process.”

MMFLA board members also gained a reputation for rejecting applications from longtime cannabis professionals for seemingly arbitrary and capricious reasons. When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer succeeded Snyder earlier this year, one of her first cannabis-related acts was to dissolve the MMFLA Board.

The legacy of that board remains, though. The big players who made it through the MMFLA licensing process have been scooping up market share by purchasing independent licenses, just as smaller dispensaries are being bought out by bigger retailers across the state.

On the west side of the state, White River Wellness and Emerald City Wellness were both acquired by Green Peak within the last year. Emerald City was one of the state’s many independent provisioning centers (a dispensary, in Michigan terms) operating on the old temporary caregiver laws, before the medical market’s regulatory system (MMFLA) was rolled out. “Those are the ones we’ve seen people go after,” says Connie Sparrow of Sparrow Consulting, a cannabis startup firm based in Michigan, “because [the owners] can’t get licensed and people want the real estate.”

In order to obtain a state license, the owner of a medical marijuana dispensary must undergo a forensic auditing process that’s been described by many experts as the most intensive facilities licensing investigation in the nation. It’s a process that all but requires a dispensary to hemorrhage funds to attorneys, accountants, and consultants.

“Small dispensaries are desperate for revenue,” Sparrow says, “so real estate investment trusts are coming in. The trusts want to invest, but [remain] an arm’s length away from the industry.”

“Everyone who’s coming in to invest in the industry wants to get out within a few years,” she adds, due to the current gold rush climate in Michigan.

With an existing medical market of nearly 300,000 patients and an estimated adult-use market of seven million, there’s certainly room here for big cannabusiness and then some—but size isn’t the only factor. Like the product itself, the market share growth of big companies has carried an entourage effect. Big companies come into the state, but they don’t necessarily hire within the state.

Michigan-based agencies, consultants, and freelancers who worked to build independent brands, are feeling snubbed.
A number of brands represented by large out-of-state trusts have hired their ancillary service providers—attorneys, PR firms, branding agencies and other consultants—out of New York or Chicago, instead of from local talent pools. Michigan-based agencies, consultants, and freelancers who worked to build independent brands are feeling snubbed.

The state’s strenuous employee background requirements play into this dynamic. Many of Michigan’s most experienced cannabis employees, consultants, and experts have worked in the industry here for years. And the state’s law enforcement agencies have been raiding and arresting dispensary and cannabis farm employees for years. So finding local talent with both growing experience, or dispensary experience, and a clean law enforcement record, can be a challenge.

It can be especially difficult to staff up with an eye toward both cannabis experience and diversity, as people of color have been subjected to decades years of racially biased policing on all levels, and especially when it comes to cannabis.

Past Cannabis Offenses Are a Barrier

“I cannot find a single African American person who has growing experience who doesn’t have a felony—not one,” says Sparrow, who often takes pro bono clients. Obviously, not all people of color who grow cannabis in Michigan have criminal records. But Sparrow’s comment illustrates the frustration that many in the industry are feeling right now.

“The biggest problem is reparations,” Sparrow adds. “We have to figure out what we’re going to do with the black and brown people who have been locked up for years. If the conglomerate corporations have really good missions where they’re trying to create equity and diversity in their workforce, I think they should be forced to hire the felon.”

Prior felonies for marijuana-related crimes have kept individuals from participating in Michigan’s legal market as caregivers and license holders. Now they’re threatening to keep those drug war victims out of the legal adult-use industry, too.

“So which is the big monster,” asks Sparrow: “big business, or felony convictions? You’re still losing half the workforce.”

There may be at least a little help on the way. On July 18, Michigan’s MRA released the details of a new social equity program, which would reduce recreational licensing fees for residents of 19 communities that have been identified as being “disproportionately affected” by the war on drugs. The newly announced program also includes extra provisions for those with past marijuana-related crimes and/or who had been caregivers. While medical licensing requirements will still apply to adult-use businesses sized class B and up, the new program does have the potential to open up opportunities for small canna business growth in a few high-need areas.

A Two-Year Head Start

The MRA’s new rules for adult-use marijuana facilities do not include the high financial equity requirements for applicants, and many see that as a big step toward opening the licensing process to smaller-scale local operators. But there’s a catch. The new law says that applicants for adult-use licenses must also meet the existing medical cannabis requirements for a full two years after the new adult-use regulatory system is up and running. So really, the big financial hurdle is still in place until, possibly, November 2021.

The biggest financial hurdle will remain in place until the end of 2021.
“That was included to prevent the recreational licensees from having an unfair advantage over the applicants who’ve just gone through the medical licensing,” explains Matt Abel of the law firm Cannabis Counsel. There is an exception for micro-businesses and applicants for Class A grow licenses, but many are concerned that this “zombie” financial equity requirement will act as one more barrier keeping smaller-scale local companies out of the industry.

“The real problem is that the legislature created such a burdensome [medical] regulatory program” under former Gov. Snyder’s MMFLA, says Rick Thompson. “It took a long time to get rolling, then the board created a whole new set of problems with licensing. So I blame the legislature. We’ve had business licensing for a year, and we still can’t supply 300,000 [medical cannabis] patients. That’s not a good result.”

Even if the MRA’s new financial rules won’t apply to medium and large scale growers for at least two years, it’s possible that they could prompt a change in the regulation of the current medical market. “There is no mention in the medical statute for a capitalization requirement,” says Denise Pollicella of Cannabis Attorneys of Michigan, referring to the original Michigan Medical Marihuana Act of 2008. “I think the fact that the MRA chose not to continue those capitalization requirements in the rec rules completely undermines the [rationale for the] capital requirement for medical facilities.”
 

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