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This shit is mandatory tested PRIOR to shipment to to dispensaries....or do your dispensaries up there grown their own?
Don't forget that Michigan is in the midst of a corporate 'takeover' on the weed scene.... Many of the newer dispensaries are corporate owned and those corporations have their own grows. These are the companies that are trying to eliminate our caregivers.

There's a guy who runs a podcast out of Detroit called Medical Mondays. This is a list of the corporate grows he'd like to see boycotted... I'm posting it as an example of just a few of the Michigan corporate grows that might be affected by this insurance requirement.

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Michigan Consolidates State Regulation of Cannabis

Michigan is seeking to rebrand its legal cannabis regulation in order to make things more efficient and streamlined moving forward.

The latest cannabis news out of Michigan shows that even government agencies need a rebrand sometimes.

Such is the case in Michigan, where the state’s governor Gretchen Whitmer announced last week that she has taken action “to consolidate the regulatory bodies within the State of Michigan that oversee cannabis and hemp processing, distribution, and sale to improve efficiency.”

As a result of the change, the state’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency will be called the Cannabis Regulatory Agency from now on.

The newly named agency will now regulate “the processing, distribution, and sale of both hemp and marijuana going forward,” according to a press release out of Whitmer’s office.

Prior to the changes, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) regulated hemp, while the Marijuana Regulatory Agency––naturally––oversaw marijuana.

“Consolidating multiple government functions into the newly named Cannabis Regulatory Agency will help us continue growing our economy and creating jobs,” Whitmer, a first-term Democrat, said in a statement on Friday. “And to be blunt-safe, legal cannabis entrepreneurship, farming and consumption helps us put Michiganders first by directing the large windfall of tax revenue from this new industry to make bigger, bolder investments in local schools, roads, and first responders.”


The restructuring comes via executive order from Whitmer, and is scheduled to take effect in 60 days.

“Consolidating the regulation of the processing, distribution, and sale of marijuana and hemp into a single state agency will allow for more effective and efficient administration and enforcement of state laws relating to cannabis,” read the executive order. “The expertise of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development necessitates their continued regulation of the cultivation of hemp. Changing the organization of the executive branch of state government is necessary in the interests of efficient administration and effectiveness of government.”

According to the Detroit News, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency was also established through executive order in 2019, after Michigan voters approved a ballot initiative that legalized recreational pot use for adults in the 2018 election. The agency was also charged with overseeing both recreational and medicinal cannabis in the state (the latter has been legal there since 2008).

That executive order “abolished the Bureau of Marijuana Regulation, created in the wake of the legalization of recreational marijuana in November, and the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board, created under a 2016 law approved by the GOP-led Legislature,” according to the Detroit News, and also “delegated responsibility related to the cultivation and sale of industrial hemp to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.”

Lawmakers in Michigan offered up a series of bills late last year that would have imposed stiffer restrictions on the amount of cannabis a caregiver can grow, lowering the number of allowed plants from 72 to 24.

One of the sponsors of the bills, Republican state House Representative Jim Lilly, said the proposals were designed to give structure to an unregulated industry.

“Two-thirds of the market right now of cannabis in Michigan is unregulated and so what that means is the majority of that product can be untested,” Lilly said, as quoted by local television station WOOD TV. “So, for cancer patients, those with immunocompromised situations, getting access to a safe product is really important. Some of this untested product has been found to contain mold, pesticides, E. coli, salmonella.”

“New York just went through some of this work and they’ve done about 12 plants for six patients, compared to what I’ve proposed at 24, but our current law allows for 72, which for anyone who does any growing or cultivating cannabis knows is far more than six patients can possibly consume,” he added.
 

Michigan marijuana recall reversal let businesses sell contaminated cannabis


More than 500 ounces of potentially contaminated marijuana — including some that tested positive for a fungus that can lead to lung infections or death — was quietly returned to store shelves in Michigan late last year, an MLive investigation revealed.

The action was the latest in a chain of events set in motion by a November 2021 recall of nearly 64,000 pounds of marijuana deemed potentially unsafe by the state’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA).

The recall was prompted by a lack of faith in results from Viridis, a Michigan-based laboratory with two locations. Retests following the recall found some of cannabis contained higher than allowable levels of yeast and mold, and in some cases, the potentially dangerous banned pathogenic fungus, aspergillus, which can cause lung infections leading to death.

However, when a state judge reversed parts of the recall, state regulators said they had few options but to release the marijuana that failed retesting for possible sale. In fact, emails obtained by MLive via the Freedom of Information Act, show at least nine growers or retailers pressured the state to release their product from holds, despite the fact that it failed retesting.

MRA spokesman David Harns told MLive on Jan. 13 that nearly 32 pounds -- that’s 513 ounces of marijuana -- failed safety testing, yet made it to store shelves with no clear indicator on packaging notifying customers of potential danger.

“This product has been sold” or “is currently available for sale,” Harns said.

There were 2,475 other individual products -- items not sold as loose flower, potentially pre-rolled joints -- that also failed testing and were cleared for sale.

Harns said the figure doesn’t include an additional unidentified amount of failed marijuana remaining at processing or grow facilities that had yet to ship to retail stores.

Emails obtained by MLive reveal some companies pushed for the right to sell contaminated weed.


Timeline: Viridis marijuana recall (click link for timeline)​


In emails sent to the MRA, two representatives from Divine Budz, identified as Samer Yokhana and Amanda Janowski, asked for clearance of marijuana that tested positive for aspergillus, considered to be one of the most dangerous contaminates the state looks for.

Aspergillus has potential to cause Aspergillosis, a lung infection that can be fatal. While there are threshold limits in marijuana for the presence of general molds and yeast, detection of any aspergillus automatically disqualifies it for sale.

In a Dec. 10 email, MRA Laboratory Specialist Dr. Patrice R. Fields notified Yokhana that some of the marijuana he and Janowski sought clearance for tested positive for aspergillus. In response, Yokhana asked Price to “look at the original testing,” indicating that despite failed retesting the marijuana met safety standards prior to the recall.

The MRA’s recall pertained to any marijuana flower tested by Viridis Laboratories, which operates labs in Lansing and Bay City. An audit of samples that passed testing from the Viridis Lansing lab were later tested and found to contain aspergillus. But on Dec. 3, Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray overturned part of the recall, saying since the audit only pertained to the Lansing lab, the recall for product tested in Bay City wasn’t justified.

“Our product was 100% tested at the Viridis North location (in Bay City),” Yokhana said in an email to the MRA. “I understand what you are saying, but the judge’s order for a (temporary restraining order on the recall for marijuana tested in Bay City) is for everything to return to status quo before this happened, which means this failed testing needs to return to its original form …

“This has and is costing us (an extensive) amount of losses.”

Samer Yokhana is named in state licensing records as a supplemental applicant, meaning he is a manager or partial owner, of two marijuana grows, including Vasmed in Vassar and Elite Pharms in Bloomfield Hills. Divine Budz is a marijuana brand with an active Facebook page listing Yokhana’s email address in the contact information.

MLive called a phone number associated with Divine Budz that was answered by a woman who identified herself as “Amanda.” The woman promptly hung up when the reporter identified himself. She did not answer when the number was called back.

Hours later, a man who identified himself as Yokhana, returned a call and said his company’s marijuana “didn’t fail for aspergillus. They just did a recall for Viridis labs.”

When asked specifically about the emails sent to the MRA, Yokhana said a manager would contact MLive with more information, but no one ever did.

Thaier Fandakly, who identified himself in an email with state officials as a technology manager representing Mediq Laboratories, a Linwood-based grow facility, became so frustrated with the MRA’s failure to clear failed marijuana, that he complained in emails sent directly to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel on Dec. 15.

“According to Judge Murray’s order on (Dec. 3), all recalled products should be treated as if (the) recall never happened,” Fandakly wrote. “I’m requesting our products be changed to ‘test passed’ immediately.

“This is costing our business irreparable harm each day (the) MRA delays the reversal. Additionally, this is upsetting our vendors that we have worked hard to keep a good standing relationship with.”

MLive sent several messages to the email address in MRA records for Mediq Laboratories, and received no response. In a phone call to a number linked to Fandakly, a man who identified himself as a former coworker said he contacted Fandakly, who did not wish to comment.

Six of the companies initiating emails reviewed by MLive, including MNS Stephens Ventures in Warren, Custom Genetics in Whittemore, Aunt Sparkies in Vassar, Levels Cannabis in Center Line, Goldkine Cannabis in Warren and High Mountain Cannabis Company in Vassar, never responded to requests for comment via phone or email contact.

Three businesses, Mediq Laboratories in Linwood, Puff Cannabis in Madison Heights and Divine Budz in Sterling Heights, said they didn’t wish to discuss the emails when contacted by phone.

Three other companies with emails included in the MRA records release -- Green Mitten Pharms in Bentley, Wanda Products in Luzerne and Golden Harvests in Bay City -- said by phone or email their marijuana was never sold to customers or never failed testing but was on hold awaiting retesting. When the recall was lifted, the samples no longer required retesting and the businesses asked MRA to remove the holds.

David Pleitner, the CEO of Golden Harvests, in an email to MLive, said one of 28 samples failed retesting.

“It should be noted, this product passed its original test and passed one of two retests meaning two out of the three results passed full compliance,” he said. “However, out of an abundance of caution, we took immediate action with our retail partners and the product was either returned to us for remediation or destroyed.”

Joshua Smith, a cofounder of Green Mitten Pharms, when contacted by phone said his company’s marijuana never failed testing but was scheduled for retesting, which resulted in the MRA placing a hold on the product.

Emails from Jeff Tenniswood, who’s listed in state records as an owner of Troy-based Wanda Products, were included in the MRA records release, but Tenniswood said in a call with MLive his company’s marijuana never failed safety testing. It was placed on hold due to the recall and scheduled to be retested when the judge reversed the portion of the recall encompassing his product.

At that point, Tenniswood told MLive the business didn’t feel retesting was necessary, since it originally passed safety compliance requirements at the Viridis Bay City lab that was no longer part of the recall.

“The whole reason for having a regulated market” is to ensure product safety, Tenniswood said. “If it failed, then absolutely, it needs to be remediated for secondary testing. For us, that wasn’t the case. For us, our stuff never failed.”

Attorneys for the MRA filed a court motion asking the Court of Claims to reconsider the ruling, but it was denied and the MRA did not appeal.

The MRA did not notify the public specifically what products failed testing, as it has for past recalls, but did release a list of nearly 400 retailers that possessed recalled product.

The agency opened at least 22 investigations related to health complaints blamed on recalled marijuana that included reports of flu-like symptoms, nausea, headaches, asthmatic reactions and a case abdominal pain that resulted in pancreatitis and hospitalization.

“Each and every action the MRA took regarding this product safety recall was based solely on protecting Michigan’s cannabis consumers,” MRA spokesman David Harns said. “When we were taken to court in an effort to stop the recall, we raised concerns through our court pleadings about potential health and safety concerns. When a large portion of subsequent tests failed, we made sure that the court was aware.

“The MRA was enjoined by court order from taking any further action on the marijuana product that was carved out of the recall, even after filing a motion for reconsideration. The dedicated public servants at the MRA remain committed to keeping the safety of Michigan’s cannabis consumers as our primary focus as we work to establish Michigan as the national model for a regulatory program that stimulates business growth while preserving safe consumer access to marijuana.”

In its motion for reconsideration, the MRA said 26% of retested marijuana from the Bay City Viridis lab failed, according to court documents.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Viridis tests were flawed, and the company maintains its testing methods are and were accurate.

“The failed retests have no bearing on the accuracy of our initial laboratory results,” Viridis Laboratories CEO Greg Michaud said in December. “Once a sample has cleared point-in-time testing, the associated product goes through a variety of uncontrolled environments from transportation to processing/packaging, and finally to the provisioning centers where the product is handled by staff and customers. Contamination can and does occur at any part of these handling processes.”

In a comment for this story, Michaud said: “MRA rules currently do not require or even allow cannabis testing beyond the point-in-time testing. If the MRA believes that post-testing microbial growth is a health and safety issue, they should require re-testing of product if it’s still on shelves after a certain time has passed since the initial test.”

Viridis has conducted free retesting for thousands of samples to help ensure product safety since the “ill-advised and unnecessary recall,” Michaud said.

If customers attempt to purchase product that was originally tested and passed by the Viridis Bay City lab, the labeling will not indicate it failed retesting.

Retailers face a similar lack of transparency.

If we had the recalled marijuana “and it was sitting here on hold, if the flower producer sent it to be retested, and the judge lifted (the recall), we wouldn’t know that it got retested and failed during that period in time,” said Troy Boquette, the general manager of Freddie’s Joint, a retailer in Clio.

According to the MRA, product that failed safety testing would appear as such in the statewide system.

Freddie’s Joint was not among the companies that emailed the MRA to have product cleared, but like most retail locations in the state, did have in its inventory marijuana impacted by the recall.

“I don’t like the courts being the scientists and determining what’s safe and what’s not,” Boquette said. “I mean, it’s really black and white to me.

“It’s either safe or it’s not, and if the state of Michigan or a licensed testing facility says that it’s not safe, then it’s not safe to me, so I think anybody who would sell it is -- just, I’d question their motive.”
 

Hazel Park Lounge Could Be Michigan's First Legal Pot-Smoking Establishment


A taste of The Netherlands is expected to soon come to John R in Hazel Park, where one of Michigan's first marijuana consumption lounges is working to get the necessary approvals to open.

Hazel Park and Kalkaska are the first cities where prospective pot-smoking sites have submitted for state licenses, Crain's Detroit Business reports. Sadly, however, the business publication says you won't be able to choose from a bud menu like you can at weed hangouts elsewhere — it will be BYOP.

The name of the cream-painted storefront along John R in Hazel Park reads in stark black letters: Hot Box Social. The business is in line to become the first in Michigan where smoking pot at a business is legal. It submitted application materials in January and is waiting on some changes before it could potentially receive a consumption establishment license and start operating.
A big catch for Hot Box Social and all other consumption lounges is that they can't legally sell cannabis on site. How they get around this, generally, is by either having patrons buy product at a nearby retail establishment and bring it in themselves, or by getting their edibles or flower delivered to the consumption site. Delivery is allowed.
Hot Box is at 23610 John R, north of Nine Mile Road.

Nearly 300 Michigan municipalities reportedly have approved ordinances allowing for the establishments.

In metro Detroit, Hazel Park has no local limits on consumption lounges that have been recorded by the state, while Ferndale and Warren have banned them. Highland Park allows three. Detroit, if its proposed recreational cannabis ordinance passes, will allow 35 consumption lounges to operate in its borders.
Though marijuana is legal for recreational or medicinal use in the majority of U.S. states, bar-like consumption has been slow to catch on. According to the Cannabis Industry Journal, fewer than 10 states currently allow lounges, and the pandemic has stifled growth where they're permitted.
 
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Join us for the 51st Ann Arbor Hash Bash, the longest running cannabis reform rally in the world. This year you can participate in person on the Diag at the University of Michigan or via livestream on our social media platforms as we continue to fight to end the war on drugs and protect the rights of patients, caregivers and individuals.
 

Michigan Sends $150 Million In Marijuana Tax Dollars To Cities, Schools And Transportation Fund As Officials Approve First Social Consumption Site


Michigan officials on Thursday announced that they will be distributing nearly $150 million in marijuana tax revenue, divided between localities, public schools and a transportation fund. And separately, regulators have approved the state’s first licensed cannabis consumption lounge, which is set to open this month.

The state Treasury Department said that the new funding, made possible from tax revenue generated from the state’s adult-use cannabis program, includes $42.2 million for 62 cities, 15 villages, 33 townships and 53 counties.

That’s more than four times the level of funding that the state paid out to municipalities with cannabis tax dollars last year.



Each eligible jurisdiction will therefore receive more than $56,400 “for every licensed retail store and microbusiness located within its jurisdiction,” the department said in a press release. There are currently 374 cannabis licensees in the state.

Last year, the eligible jurisdictions received about $28,000 per licensed retailer and microbusiness operating in their area.



“The Michigan Department of Treasury will distribute these dollars as soon as practical to eligible local units of government,” State Treasurer Rachael Eubanks said. “The doubling of this year’s payment amounts will have a larger impact on local government budgets.”

Meanwhile, another $49.3 million will go to the School Aid Fund for K-12 education and $49.3 million will support the Michigan Transportation Fund.

“It’s rewarding to see that the agency’s balanced regulatory approach is effectively protecting consumers while still allowing Michigan businesses to grow and thrive,” Andrew Brisbo, executive director of the Marijuana Regulatory Agency, said. “The funding provided directly to local governments—and the thousands of jobs created across the state—show that Michigan is leading the way in the cannabis industry.”

All told in 2021, Michigan saw $1,311,951,737 in marijuana sales for adult-use and $481,225,540 for medical cannabis. In December alone, there were more than $135 million in recreational cannabis purchases and about $33 million in medical marijuana sales.

Meanwhile, regulators have approved the state’s first-ever social consumption site for adult-use marijuana in Hazel Park. It stands to reason that, as that sector of the marijuana industry grows, even more tax revenue may follow.

“It’s great to see this part of the cannabis industry taking off after nearly two years of delay due to the pandemic,” Brisbo told Marijuana Moment. “As we continue to lead the nation in innovation, we’re committed to staying in touch with licensees and stakeholders to make sure we are stimulating business growth while preserving safe consumer access to cannabis.”

Nowfal Akash, chief information officer of Trucenta, which will operate the newly approved Hot Box Social, said in a press release that the business’s “plan is to first use the space for corporate, social, and special events.”

“Come summer, we’ll start scheduling events so the public can experience Hot Box Social with consumption-friendly activities like social gatherings, educational opportunities, and arts-focused activities,” Akash said. “Our hope is that Hot Box Social will be used to bring a new experience for companies hosting brainstorming meetings, friends who are gathering for private parties, and one-of-a-kind fundraisers to raise money for nonprofit organization.”

Michigan isn’t the only state that’s collecting significant tax revenue from legal marijuana sales and working to put those dollars to good use.

Massachusetts is collecting more tax revenue from marijuana than alcohol, state data released in January shows. As of December 2021, the state took in $51.3 million from alcohol taxes and $74.2 million from cannabis at the halfway point of the fiscal year.

Illinois also saw cannabis taxes beat out booze for the first time last year, with the state collecting about $100 million more from adult-use marijuana than alcohol during 2021.

That state is dedicating portions of tax revenue to mental health services, as well as local organizations “developing programs that benefit disadvantaged communities.” In July, state officials put $3.5 million in cannabis-generated funds toward efforts to reduce violence through street intervention programs.

States that have legalized marijuana have collectively garnered more than $10 billion in cannabis tax revenue since the first licensed sales started in 2014, according to a report released by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) in January.

California officials announced in June that they were awarding about $29 million in grants funded by marijuana tax revenue to 58 nonprofit organizations, with the intent of righting the wrongs of the war on drugs. The state collected about $817 million in adult-use marijuana tax revenue during the 2020-2021 fiscal year, state officials estimated last summer. That’s 55 percent more cannabis earnings for state coffers than was generated in the prior fiscal year.

Nearly $500 million of cannabis tax revenue in Colorado has supported the state’s public school system. That state brought in a record $423 million in marijuana tax dollars last year.

Back in Michigan, another Michigan city this week moved to decriminalize psychedelics like psilocybin and ibogaine as activists continue to pursue a broader statewide policy change to legalize the entheogenic substances through the ballot. Detroit and Ann Arbor have also enacted psychedelics decriminalization, while Grand Rapids lawmakers have expressed legislative support for the reform.

The latest city to enact the policy change is Hazel Park, coincidentally the same city that will be host to the state’s first marijuana consumption lounge.
 

Detroit Finally Approves Recreational Cannabis


Two years after the city opted-in to recreational marijuana, Detroit's City Council has finally approved a new adult-use cannabis ordinance, bringing recreational cannabis to the state's largest city.

The City Council voted 8-1 on the ordinance Tuesday following two hours of discussion. The Council was initially expected to hold the vote last month but held another public hearing Tuesday after the city's Law Department determined that proposed amendments from the council were substantial enough to merit a second hearing.

A federal judge ruled last summer that the city's first ordinance (approved in 2020) was "likely unconstitutional" for providing too much preference to "Legacy Detroiters."

Mayor Pro Tem James Tate smiled with joy after the vote, saying it has been "blood, sweat and tears," to get to the finish line and thanked his fellow representatives, who have worked together over the last two years seeking equitable opportunities for longtime Detroiters to participate in an industry that's estimated to yield $3 billion in annual state sales.

City Council President Mary Sheffield said she supported the ordinance because voters overwhelmingly wanted the legalization of recreational marijuana which will "create generational wealth, create revenue for traders, the opportunity for our residents to purchase and consume safe and regulated cannabis within our city limits," she said, thanking Tate for his work over the last two years.

How Licenses Will Be Awarded​


The amendments provide options for provisional licenses, adding social equity and non-equity tracks and creating rounds of distributing an increased total of 100 licenses. The licenses will be awarded over three phases which will be spaced out three months apart.

In the first round, there will be 20 licenses available for each track, social equity and non-equity. There will not be an option for provisional licenses in the first round.

In the second round, there will be 15 licenses available for each track and will add provisional options, which require applicants to obtain property zoning within 18 months of being certified before receiving their license from the city.

The highest-scoring applicants out of a 100-point rubric will be put into a lottery for the first licenses.

It judges their business plan, site control and their due diligence to pay taxes. It requires a "good neighbor" plan — that businesses show how they are committed to hiring Detroiters, purchasing from local businesses, have a pricing commitment and plan to invest in the surrounding neighborhood to leave a positive impact.

Separately, applicants have the opportunity to score up to 27 additional points by giving away portions of the business to a longtime Detroiter for social-equity certification.

Tate said they are in the process of reducing the zoning restriction from 1,000 feet to 750 feet and potentially increasing the funding from $500,000 to $1 million; should it be successful.

Interested in Obtaining a License in Detroit?​

As Michigan's largest city prepares to begin accepting adult-use applications, hopeful cannabis operators in Detroit should start the licensing process as soon as possible to maximize their chances of winning a license.
 

Michigan Police May Have Screwed Up More Than 3,000 Cases Related to Marijuana Testing

The agency has halted blood toxicology testing for THC until further notice.​


Isn’t it ironic how the first state in the midwest to legalize marijuana for recreational use has a defective drug tester? According to MLive, Michigan state police found that the blood tests for detecting THC hasn’t been working for years. That means, a couple thousand criminal cases involving THC tests could be impacted.

The report says the agency hasn’t revealed what the defect was but they estimate it has been an issue since March 2019.

“After further review, we now believe this discrepancy may impact cases that occurred on or after March 28, 2019, where the alleged violation is based on the finding of THC alone and there is insufficient evidence of impairment, intoxication, or recent use of marijuana to otherwise support the charged offense,” said Col. Joe Gapser in a press release.

Per the report, the laboratory data found that about 3,250 reports may have been impacted by faulty tests.

Read more about the plan of action from press release:

These individual cases are being identified and will be shared with the prosecuting attorney of record for further investigation as to any potential impact to the individual involved. In addition to temporarily halting testing of THC samples and disclosing the issue to prosecutors, the MSP/FSD has taken the following action steps:
Reported the issue to our accrediting body, ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), and requested they conduct an independent review.
Temporarily halted the disposal of blood samples to preserve this evidence should re-analysis be required.
Started validating a new cannabinoid confirmatory method that will be able to distinguish CBD from THC. This method will be validated before being put into use to ensure similar issues with drug interference will not happen in the future.
Started the process to establish a contract with a private, accredited laboratory for processing THC samples in the interim before the new method is validated.
Before Michigan legalized the tree, possession and use were considered a misdemeanor with a penalty of up to 90 days in jail. If you were a plug, you could face up to 4 years on a felony charge. Though it’s legal now, there are still restrictions. According to ClickonDetroit, cannabis use must be in private and you can’t carry it in places frequented by children. Yet again, if you’re a plug selling 5 kilograms or more of weed, you may face incarceration.

Given that Black people are disproportionately targeted with marijuana-related misdemeanors, I can only wonder how many faulty THC tests they were subjected to. The ACLU found that between 2001 and 2010, Black people were nearly four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession.

As states across the country move toward capitalizing off of it, they sure are moving slowly to expunge the records of those who were accused of what is now legal.
 

Black market battles, plummeting prices: a look at Michigan marijuana in 2022


It’s been a great year for Michigan marijuana customers, who are paying less than ever for increasingly potent cannabis.

As of November, the average retail cost for an ounce of marijuana had dropped to a record low of $95 with some strains dipping to near $60 an ounce in retail stores.

It’s also been a healthy year for the industry as a whole. Retail Michigan marijuana sales are currently on track to surpass $2 billion in annual revenue by year end.

But the year has presented struggles for others, including businesses facing shrinking profit margins as prices plummet and state regulators engaged in a seemingly insurmountable battle with the long-entrenched black market.

Here’s a look back at highlights from the year in Michigan marijuana with a glimpse forward to 2023.

New leadership

More than half way through the year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer made a significant leadership change in August, replacing departing former Cannabis Regulatory Agency Director Andrew Brisbo, who helped launch the recreational marijuana in December 2019, with Director Brian Hanna.

Hanna, who has a law enforcement and investigations background, was named the “acting director” in September and elevated to the full-fledged agency director on Dec. 2. He made it well known that he wanted to step up enforcement of illicit marijuana making its way into the regulated market.

“We’re hearing about this illicit product in the market, that’s in the regulated market -- we want to find that,” Hanna told media on Oct. 25. “We want to expose that. We want to make it known.”

Hanna and the CRA have taken noticeable action.

The CRA disciplined eight businesses with fines or suspensions in September, a dozen in October and five in November, including the indefinite license suspension of Green Culture, a retail store in Flint accused of selling suspected unlicensed products.

Black market

The Michigan CRA temporarily suspended both the medical and recreational licenses for Green Culture after an investigation revealed the company had been selling improperly labeled hemp products that contained THC over the legal threshold. The investigation also revealed products had been improperly delivered and labeled, according to the agency.

The CRA on Oct. 10 suspended business for 30 days at and fined the House of Marry Jane, a medical marijuana retailer in Detroit, $75,000 after a surprise inspection in May 2021 revealed duffel bags of untagged and potentially black-market marijuana seemingly intended for sale.

Michigan requires all licensed marijuana products to pass safety testing and be logged into a statewide tracking system before sale.

Later in October, Hanna indicated there is plenty of other suspected unscrupulous activity going on within the industry.

There are “rumors of trucks driving around with (THC) oil, going licensee to licensee, offering illicit oil at a cheaper price,” Hanna said. “That’s the kind of stuff we’re looking for.

“I think this is the first time I’ve heard of a truck driving around from another state with oil ... That’s pretty eye opening.”

Michigan has a theoretically tight tracking system but there are ways to subvert it.

For instance, a marijuana processor could obtain THC oil, which is commonly used to produce vaping cartridges, from an unlicensed, black-market source and combine it with existing, licensed oil. If the business then reports the inflated combined quantity of oil to the CRA tracking system, the illicit oil would get legal tags and become nearly undetectable.

Based on simple math, that’s what some in the industry believe is happening. THC oil, or distillate, is extracted from cannabis, often the less desirable parts of the plant known as trim.

“I have to imagine there are some loopholes in the system where you are able to slip it in somehow,” said Harry Barash, who founded the 8,200-member Michigan Cannabiz Professionals Facebook group and operates Meet. Connect. Puff, a Hazel Park-based cannabis event planning business. “When you look at the amount of trim that the CRA reports, and how much distillate is being produced from that, the numbers are out of whack,”

Prices plummet

For consumers, the story of the year was pricing. Marijuana customers are getting more for less as the market saturates with an increasing number of growers and retailers.

The average retail price for flower has seen a monumental decline. In two years, between November 2020 and November 2022, the average retail price for an ounce of flower plummeted from about $376 to $95, a 75% decline. There’s been a nearly 50% dip in just the last year.

“The consumer is definitely the winner, right now,” Barash said. Barash. “I just don’t know how long this model is going to be sustainable for the licensees.

“Either there’s going to be failures and less product being produced, which will drive up prices, or everyone is going to have to learn how to live on lower margins,” Barash said.

As companies are forced to achieve those lower margins, there are fears that product quality may suffer. This is the equivalent of craft beer versus mass-produced Budweiser.

“As the market becomes more price friendly, it does become less quality conscious,” said Rick Thompson, who leads the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and sits on a consumer advisory committee for the CRA. “If the market price is so low that you can only produce lower quality in order to remain competitive, then that’s what industry growth will do.”

The state added more than 100 retail businesses this year, increasing the total to 591, as of November, according to the CRA.

While there’s a cannabis store for nearly every 17,000 Michigan residents, the locations are clumped disproportionately in communities that have not banned recreational commercial sales. Almost 1,400 of the Michigan’s 1,700-plus cities, townships and villages have opted not to allow recreational sales.

But the price crunch isn’t coming from the retail end. On Nov. 30, there were 1,673 various grow licenses issued among medically and recreationally licensed businesses in the state.

“There’s been more product grown than what the consumers can reasonably consume or that the retailers are able to sell,” said Robin Schneider, director of the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association with more than 430 business members. She insists marijuana quality in the state has yet to suffer and remains among the best in the nation.

Detroit, finally

Helping to find customers for the glut of excess marijuana, Michigan’s largest city, Detroit, after years of litigation and planning, joined the state’s recreational retail market when it awarded 33 licenses on Dec. 22.

City leaders plan to eventually issue a total of 60 retail licenses which would account for about 10% of Michigan’s pot shops.

“But it’s probably going to result in a lot more overall sales, just because of the density,” Barash said, citing the 600,000-plus population in Detroit. “There will probably be a lot more stores in Detroit that do better than stores in some of these smaller-town markets. Detroit could make up 15-20% of the overall rec market and that by itself could” drive statewide prices up.

While Detroit was one of the first Michigan cities to join the regulated medical marijuana market when it opened in 2016, city leaders wanted to be more careful with recreational business licensing. City politicians and administrators said they wanted to create a business climate that offered opportunity to more than just deep-pocketed investors and huge multi-state marijuana operations, often with little connection to the Motor City.

They wanted residents and those who have previously been harmed by past marijuana prohibition and police enforcement to have a better chance at sharing in the prosperity offered by the emerging industry.

After crafting an early version of an ordinance intended to accomplish those goals, a series of lawsuits were filed, claiming the law gave unfair preferential treatment to longtime residents.

U.S. District Judge Bernard A. Friedman previously placed the Detroit program on hold and called the ordinance “unfair, irrational and likely unconstitutional.”

City leaders passed a different version of the ordinance that resulted in further legal delays after more lawsuits were filed in May, but Judge Friedman on Dec. 21 ruled against a request for an injunction in the most recent case, clearing the way for the license program to begin.

Detroit plans to issue a total of 60 retail licenses with half going to “legacy” businesses affiliated with Detroit residents that meet certain criteria.

Potency inflation

Misrepresenting the potency of marijuana, known as potency inflation, is an issue that’s infected nearly every state marijuana market.

“THC potency inflation is a national problem,” Thompson said, “and Michigan’s case is just a microcosm of what we’ve seen on a larger scale.”

High THC potency drives the profitability and value of marijuana in the current market.

Marijuana producers like to see high potency numbers but there’s a conflict of interest surrounding how those potency figures are determined.

The result, many in the industry believe, is unreliable potency labeling that is increasingly surpassing 30%. According to the DEA, marijuana seized and tested from the early 2000s had potency averaging less than 8.5%.

In today’s market, marijuana producers pay licensed safety labs to put marijuana products through a gauntlet of tests checking for contaminates as well as potency. Those results are then linked to the marijuana product until its purchased from retail shelves.

For this reason, there are instances of producers “lab shopping,” that is, sending multiple samples of a harvest out for testing by various labs and selecting the one that provides the highest THC potency results.

This creates a scenario in which the lab that provides the highest potency results gets the business and accuracy is not the driving factor.

“Potency inflation is an ongoing, longstanding, widely known issue across cannabis in the U.S. right now in legal markets ... " Lev Spivak-Birndorf, founder and chief science officer for Ann Arbor-based PSI Labs, told MLive in June. “I call it the cycle of potency inflation: people want high potency, so then stores are under pressure to try and deliver that ... and that drives growers to seek labs that give the highest results, and thus, we have this rampant lab shopping that we have going on.”

Spivak-Birndorf said the highest potency marijuana tested at his lab has reached 32%, much less that the 40%-plus potency advertised on labels for some strains in recent months. The CRA audits any marijuana that tests above 29%.

While industry insiders don’t believe the problem is limited to a single testing lab, the CRA has raised concerns about the potency results issued by Viridis Laboratories, which operates locations in Lansing in Bay City.

Viridis Laboratories

Viridis and the CRA are engaged in an ongoing legal battle that began when the CRA issued a recall in November 2021 on an estimated $229 million worth of marijuana. The CRA claimed safety test results issued by Viridis Laboratories -- the lab that tested all that marijuana -- were unreliable.

The CRA claimed Viridis gave passing results to marijuana that it later determined through retesting was contaminated with potentially harmful pathogens.

A more recent complaint filed by the CRA against Viridis focused also on potency testing.

Viridis Laboratories has developed a reputation for issuing marijuana THC potency results that some businesses, competing labs and the CRA feel are suspiciously high, if not impossible.

As of May 19, the CRA said nearly 80% of all potency audits involved marijuana previously tested by Viridis exceeded the threshold potency of 29% at a rate more than seven times higher than other labs across the state.

Viridis leaders claim the CRA has a vendetta against the company because it has a lopsided grip on the testing market, which attorneys for Viridis in court documents previously estimated to be in excess of 70%.

Viridis in November obtained independent certification for its potency method, which it insists is accurate and reliable. The CRA has declined to comment on the issue, citing ongoing litigation.

‘Not a good look’

The Michigan market is not shrinking, but there is an economic pinch being felt. That’s expected to continue through the new year.

“A number of businesses will likely sell, go out of business, we’ll see more mergers and acquisitions as businesses attempt to combine resources and stay afloat,” Schneider said. “It’s really turning into a scenario where the best brands will win, and the consumers are dictating the winners and losers.”

In Saginaw, there’s a newly constructed building that was intended to open as a marijuana shop.

It sits empty, listed on real estate websites for $1.9 million, waiting for a buyer. While the price is steep, marijuana-approved retail locations have been highly sought after by investors looking to enter the market in recent years.

This property has been on the market for greater than three months in a city of 43,000 with already eight active recreational retail licenses, nearly one per every 5,300 residents.

Barash, who works as a vice president and cannabis industry specialist for Southfield-based real estate firm NAI Farbman, said the eagerness to dump big money into unproven marijuana businesses and real estate is dwindling.

And there are other signs of economic stress.

“People not paying their bills is a big issue theses days,” Barash said. “People are screwing over licensees, they’re screwing over realtors, leaving a lot of people holding the bag. It’s not a good look for the industry.”

And as businesses struggle to pay bills, they’re shifting resources and sometimes cutting corners, whether it’s by reducing quality or taking more desperate steps, like purchasing cheaper black-market product.

“The business model has changed,” Barash said. “The profit margins are not what they used to be ... High risk, high return. Well, now it’s high risk, low return, so that’s a bad combination.”



The CRA disciplined eight businesses with fines or suspensions in September, a dozen in October and five in November, including the indefinite license suspension of Green Culture, a retail store in Flint accused of selling suspected unlicensed products.

Black market

The Michigan CRA temporarily suspended both the medical and recreational licenses for Green Culture after an investigation revealed the company had been selling improperly labeled hemp products that contained THC over the legal threshold. The investigation also revealed products had been improperly delivered and labeled, according to the agency.

The CRA on Oct. 10 suspended business for 30 days at and fined the House of Marry Jane, a medical marijuana retailer in Detroit, $75,000 after a surprise inspection in May 2021 revealed duffel bags of untagged and potentially black-market marijuana seemingly intended for sale.

Michigan requires all licensed marijuana products to pass safety testing and be logged into a statewide tracking system before sale.

Later in October, Hanna indicated there is plenty of other suspected unscrupulous activity going on within the industry.

There are “rumors of trucks driving around with (THC) oil, going licensee to licensee, offering illicit oil at a cheaper price,” Hanna said. “That’s the kind of stuff we’re looking for.

“I think this is the first time I’ve heard of a truck driving around from another state with oil ... That’s pretty eye opening.”

Michigan has a theoretically tight tracking system but there are ways to subvert it.

For instance, a marijuana processor could obtain THC oil, which is commonly used to produce vaping cartridges, from an unlicensed, black-market source and combine it with existing, licensed oil. If the business then reports the inflated combined quantity of oil to the CRA tracking system, the illicit oil would get legal tags and become nearly undetectable.

Based on simple math, that’s what some in the industry believe is happening. THC oil, or distillate, is extracted from cannabis, often the less desirable parts of the plant known as trim.

“I have to imagine there are some loopholes in the system where you are able to slip it in somehow,” said Harry Barash, who founded the 8,200-member Michigan Cannabiz Professionals Facebook group and operates Meet. Connect. Puff, a Hazel Park-based cannabis event planning business. “When you look at the amount of trim that the CRA reports, and how much distillate is being produced from that, the numbers are out of whack,”
 
I'm not a fan....how about you, Mom? :naughty2:


Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoes several Medical Cannabis bills


The governor of Michigan vetoed 11 bills including three that would amend the state’s medical cannabis system.​


Calling them rushed, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently vetoed 11 bills including three medical cannabis bills, with others related to retirement and tax. The governor did however sign into law six other bills approved by the Legislature.


Michigan Advance reports that Whitmer said in her veto letter to the Legislature on Dec. 22 that the bills “were rushed through a lame duck session and need closer examination.”


Whitmer vetoed a few Republican-sponsored medical cannabis bills that would have made some changes to the processing and distribution of cannabis.


Rep. Roger Hauck (R – Union Township) introduced two bills that were vetoed: House Bill 5871, which would have amended state law to ease access to medical cannabis products, making them easier to be transferred from one facility to another. HB 5871 would also prohibit a background check of an applicant’s spouse under certain circumstances.


House Bill 5965, on the other hand, would have updated some language and definitions in the state’s Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, such as the title for the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA).


Another medical cannabis-related bill was vetoed. House Bill 5839, introduced by Rep. Pat Outman (R – Six Lakes), would have prevented the CRA from denying a person a license to sell cannabis based on their spouse’s job, including if their spouse works for the state or federal government.
 

Why this Michigan cannabis company pivoted to ‘bud-and-breakfasts’

Dérive Travel is betting there’s a market for cannabis hospitality and tourism services


Connie Maxim-Sparrow is used to switching gears when she has to. She says she first became involved in Michigan’s cannabis industry by accident. At the time, Maxim-Sparrow was using the skills she learned working in government to help businesses write grants, and soon after Michigan voters approved cannabis for medical purposes in 2008, she helped a client become a licensed cannabis grower. By 2017 she founded Sparrow Consulting to help companies obtain licenses and develop business plans. Soon, Michigan legalized cannabis for adult-use, and eventually Sparrow Consulting had helped businesses acquire several hundred licenses across 10 states, she says.

But now, as the price of cannabis has plummeted in Michigan, Maxim-Sparrow is pivoting again.

“This market kind of peaks and ebbs and flows, and the licensing aspect has really slowed down substantially,” she says. “And then on top of that, the market is extremely unstable, and we’re seeing a lot of cannabis operators struggle to pay their bills.”

To adapt, Sparrow Consulting has launched Dérive Travel, a new cannabis hospitality and traveling service, joining similar Michigan-based endeavors like Michigo and Sparx and Recreation.

Maxim-Sparrow says the idea came amid the pandemic, as she found herself in an “empty nest” after her children moved out.

“My husband and I kind of looked at each other and said, ‘The market is not going well. We have this lovely home. What should we do?’” she recalls.

They got the idea to transform their Muskegon home into “The Nest,” a “bud-and-breakfast” rental modeled after a bed-and-breakfast, with plans to open a second one in Dowagiac.

Maxim-Sparrow says the rental units have private “bud bars” in each room, including items like bongs, rolling papers, and other paraphernalia. Dérive Travel will also partner with local cannabis dispensaries for discounts and online ordering and delivery. She also envisions hosting private dinners where chefs can come over and serve up cannabis-infused meals for guests, and partnering with other facilities like grow operations to offer tours of the cannabis industry.

She says the goal is to create a safe space for people to explore cannabis.

“We’re really focused on everyone from the canna-curious to canna-consumer,” she says. “There’s still a substantial stigma related to cannabis use, and we’re still seeing the war on drugs prevent, I think, some people from trying cannabis. There’s not really ways for people that are curious about cannabis to come into a comfortable space to learn about it.”

Not everyone knows about directory services like WeedMaps, she says, and cannabis businesses face hurdles when it comes to traditional advertising. Plus, dispensaries can be intimidating to newbies.

“It’s still very underground for the average soccer mom who might be stressed out because she’s raising her three kids, and would not contemplate using cannabis versus, say, anxiety medication” she says. “We’re seeing cannabis starting to become very much readily available and affordable, plus we’re also seeing people choosing cannabis over other substances.”

She compares the idea to that of sex toy parties.

“Everybody started going to sex toy parties when they were being hosted in their friend’s house and it wasn’t so ‘clutch your pearls,’ right?” she says. “I think we’re seeing some of that with consumers that are interested in cannabis, but they don’t even know where to start. And frankly, maybe they don’t want a co-worker to see them walk into a dispensary?”

Maxim-Sparrow says she thinks that the service could be appealing to people from states that have recently legalized adult-use cannabis like Missouri to come see what Michigan’s market is like.

“There are lots of illegal states in the United States where people are very curious as to what life looks like a legal state and very much want to come and experience that,” she says.

“I think that the cannabis producers and those of us in the industry are going to have to find ways to convert consumers into cannabis versus just kind of ignoring them,” she adds. “And I think that there’s a hungry group of people out there that are very curious.”

After becoming involved with last year’s inaugural Cannabash music festival in Muskegon, Sparrow Consulting has also launched a new company called Dedaco, a cannabis event and production company that will take over operations for Cannabash in 2023.

Maxim-Sparrow says last year’s Cannabash drew about 7,000 attendees to see acts like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Trick Trick, and Willy J Peso.

“Cannabash was a huge hit last year, and that really taught us that consumers are hungry for a normal destigmatized situation,” Maxim-Sparrow says. “They want to experience cannabis as if it is something normal, no different than alcohol at a music festival.”

The lineup for the 2023 Cannabash is expected to be released on Friday, Maxim-Sparrow says.
 

Michigan Cannabis Market Nets $60M Windfall for Local Governments

Adult-use sales began three years ago in Michigan

Tens of millions of dollars have been doled out to local governments across Michigan as a result of the state’s cannabis industry.

FOX 2 Detroit reports that the state sent out nearly $60 million to counties and local governments.

“Local governments that have approved the recreational sale of weed in their county, city, village, or township will see approximately $51,800 for every retail store and micro-business that it’s handed out licenses to,” the station says.

According to FOX 2 Detroit, “Only 30% of total adult-use sales go to local governments, with the other 70% going to schools and roads. When contributions from last year are paired next to figures from 2021 and 2020, they show an industry that shows no signs of slowing down.”

Voters in the state legalized adult-use cannabis in 2018, when they approved Proposal 1.

That initiative made it legal for adults 21 and older to toke up, and cleared the way for a regulated cannabis market that launched in 2019.

But despite strong sales numbers, Michigan, like other regulated cannabis markets, has become oversupplied with pot.

Politico reported last year that the “number of cannabis grow operations serving the state’s recreational market has almost doubled in the past year,” and that the “number of active marijuana plants now exceeds 1.2 million, roughly six times the volume seen in 2020.”

“Michigan has way too much weed,” Politico said then.

“By one estimate, Michigan has enough cultivation capacity to supply three times as much weed as the state’s consumers are buying — and that doesn’t include the huge illegal market that by all accounts commands a large share of sales.”

That, according to Politico, makes Michigan “emblematic of what’s been happening across the country all year — and why the industry’s been in a funk even as legalization spreads: Ill-fated hopes that a Democratic-controlled Washington might loosen decades-old restrictions on the drug have given way to a market glut and plummeting prices that have put scores of businesses at risk of collapse.”

But that is not to say that Michigan’s recreational cannabis industry hasn’t experienced growth.

As FOX 2 Detroit noted, “224 municipalities had registered 1,148 business licenses” last year. That’s up from 163 municipalities and 748 licenses in 2021, and 104 municipalities and 356 licenses in 2020.

The station has more details on the state’s latest cannabis sales figures:

“The latest figures come from the Michigan Department of Treasury which reported $198.4 million in revenue from recreational pot last year. Another $69.4 million will go to School Aid Fund, while $69.4 million will go to the transportation fund. In total, $1.8 billion in sales from weed came last year. To put that in context, there were $341 million in total sales in 2020. In 2021, the state reported $1.1 billion in sales.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, supported Proposal 1.

Late last year, Whitmer vetoed several Republican-sponsored bills that, among other things, aimed to ease access to the state’s medical cannabis program, which began in 2008, for both patients and prospective operators.

In her veto message, Whitmer said that the proposals were passed hastily by lawmakers and required closer examination.

“I look forward to working with the new Legislature in January on priorities that will continue our economic momentum, help lower costs, and expand education supports for Michigan students. It is time to be serious about solving problems and getting things done that will make working families’ lives better right now,” Whitmer said at the time.
 

Michigan ends Weed testing for some state jobs


Michigan officials have approved a rule that ends drug screenings for cannabis for many state jobs.​


The Michigan Civil Service Commission adopted a rule change last week that will end drug screenings for marijuana for applicants to many state jobs. The new rule overturns previous state policy that automatically disqualified applicants to state positions that tested positive for cannabis, although applicants to some positions will still be required to pass a marijuana screening before hiring.


The rule change effectively treats cannabis like alcohol for many applicants for state jobs. Pre-employment drug screenings will still be conducted to test for cocaine, opiates, amphetamines and phencyclidine, also known as PCP. The policy change, which goes into effect on October 1, also eliminates a current rule that bars applicants to state positions that test positive for marijuana from applying for another state job for a period of three years.


The rule change was adopted by the Civil Service Commission at its meeting on July 12. Commissioner Nick Ciaramitaro said the change is needed to comply with Michigan’s marijuana legalization statute, which was approved via a statewide ballot measure in 2018. Voters also legalized medical marijuana ten years earlier with the passage of a 2008 ballot proposal.


“Whether or not we agree with it or not is kind of beyond the point,” Ciaramitaro said in a statement quoted by MLive. “Use of marijuana on the job is different than having used it months before you take the test … It doesn’t make sense to limit our ability to hire qualified people because they took a gummy two weeks ago.”


According to the Civil Service Commission, nearly 350 applicants for state positions were eliminated from eligibility for employment based on a positive cannabis screening since recreational marijuana was legalized five years ago.


Michigan residents made the decisions to “treat marijuana, recreational marijuana, much like alcohol,” said Commission chair Jase Bolger.


“Not that anybody should be overindulging on alcohol on Friday night, I’m not suggesting that they should be getting high on Friday night,” Bolger added, “but to treat them the same when they show up to work on Monday morning seems consistent with the current public policy in the state.”


Some Applicants Still Face Testing For Cannabis​


However, not all state jobs will be affected by the rule change. Negative drug screenings for cannabis will still be required for those applying to the Michigan State Police or the Department of Corrections or for healthcare positions, and applicants for state jobs that require driving, operating heavy machinery or handling hazardous materials.


Before the new rule was adopted, Bolger responded to public comments about the proposal, noting that state employees will not be permitted to use cannabis or be under the influence of marijuana while they are working. Screenings for marijuana will be permitted if an employee is suspected of being under the influence of marijuana while at work or as part of a job-related accident investigation.


“Because of ongoing testing requirements under federal law and safety considerations related to test-designated positions, the proposed amendments would preserve the status quo for pre-employment, random-selection, post-accident, follow-up, and reasonable suspicion testing for those positions,” the Civil Service Commission wrote in a memo outlining the policy change.


Peter Neu, a spokesperson for the Michigan Association of Governmental Employees, told local media that the group advocating for state workers is in favor of the rule change ending marijuana screenings for many government positions.


“We believe the changes appropriately bring Michigan Civil Service Commission regulations in line with laws passed by citizens in Michigan,” said Neu. “The state of Michigan currently has a recruitment and retention problem, and we believe the changes will help recruit a wider number of potential employees.”


Although he voted to approve the rule change, Michigan Civil Service Commissioner Jeff Steffel, a former 28-year state police trooper, said he’s “not totally on board.”


“Why is it the work done by our state employees any less important in terms of marijuana impairment than what it is for police officers, nurses, etc.,” he said. “So I think it is bad policy to not screen for marijuana and not prohibit those people from being employed.”


“I don’t care if someone uses marijuana; I don’t care about many of the social issues out there,” Steffel added. “Live and let live. I do care about performance of state government, and I would like us to continue testing for marijuana, because in three or four years, if we find there’s a problem, we can make changes.”


David Harns, a spokesman for the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency, which is responsible for regulating cannabis marijuana while currently banning use by prospective employees, said the agency looks forward to complying with the new rules.
 
Ah...what about growers or are they lumped in with "retailers"....though, that's kind of odd wording if so. Mom?


Detroit now accepting 2nd round of Recreational Marijuana business licenses

Fifty marijuana business licenses are up for grabs in Detroit.​


The second round of applications for recreational marijuana businesses opened Tuesday. Available are 30 licenses for marijuana retailers, 10 licenses for micro businesses, and 10 licenses for consumption lounges.

Last December, the city announced its first 33 recreational cannabis licenses, with the first business opening the next month.

In this round, applicants have until Aug. 31 to submit proposals. Decisions will be made six to eight weeks after the deadline.

Marijuana business licenses are valid for one year, and licensees must obtain a state operating license from the Cannabis Regulatory Agency before starting operations.
 
Ah...what about growers or are they lumped in with "retailers"....though, that's kind of odd wording if so. Mom?
I think the retailers would be the corporate grows, while the 'micro businesses' are going to be the smaller caregiver grows.

However.... wtf do I know? They change this shit so often that it's hard to keep track. Especially about the micro businesses. My caregiver was thinking about doing a micro business and that was growing. This new round of licenses could define that an entirely different way.
 

How Michigan's booming Marijuana industry is affecting customers and businesses


The legalization of recreational marijuana in Michigan has had quite an impact.​


June was a record month with recreational sales of over $254 million, and medicinal sales close to $7 million.


With all that cash flowing, the tax dollars from those sales are also making record profits for the state.


The marijuana industry from a retail standpoint has been budding recently for consumers as prices drop for some products.


It's also transforming the state's economic landscape and creating jobs. There are many dispensaries across the state like Lume or Jars Cannabis.


"It's definitely a competitive marketplace place. Consumers are definitely getting some great bundles. Some great deals," Donovan Adam, the director of sales a Jars Cannabis, said.


The total recreational sales in 2022 were $1.8 billion, which generated around $200 million in taxes for the state.


That money goes back to schools, counties and cities.


Sales since 2020 have skyrocketed for recreational use and more cultivators started popping up.


In 2021, there were fewer than 350 cultivator licenses in the state and they were selling for $4,000 a pound.


Now, there are more than 850 cultivator licenses and a pound of marijuana is less than $1,000. The bad news was for smaller cultivating operations, with some being bought up or simply closing their doors.


"It's not a green rush anymore. You better be a really good operator. One of the things we did was look at our company top to bottom and just got super efficient," Nir Saar, the president and COO of Doghouse Cannabis.


The Michigan Cannabis Manufacturer's Association pitched the idea of putting a temporary license moratorium in place to try and stop the plunge in prices.


Another contributor in the falling prices is the black market, which the CRNA has been cracking down on.


"Since Brian Hanna has taken over at the CRA, there's been a significant uptick in people being fined for doing things the wrong way or on the edge," Dough McLaughlin with Lume Cannabis said.


It's not just the cultivators feeling the pinch, it's also the cannabis real estate market that's shifting.


"I would say in the last 90 days of business there is a higher number of upkeep in terms of buyers and operators that want cultivation and processing buildings," Corbin Yaldoo with Corbco Ventures said.


But for the industry, it might not be until 2025 that they reach a full bounce back.
 
IMO, this article highlights two aspects typical of government: 1) they fucked it up and, 2) they grab money from some to distribute to others in order to buy votes from a favored demographic.



Cannabis businesses cry foul over city’s equity rules


Fluresh Slapped with $60,000 Fine for Owner's Relocation, Funds Directed to Marijuana Social Equity Nonprofit.


In April, Fluresh was fined $60,000 for the owner's move from Grand Rapids to Traverse City and must pay the total into the city’s new marijuana social equity nonprofit fund, which aims to distribute money to projects that benefit disadvantaged groups in the city impacted by drug laws, for the next three years.


Brandon Kanitz, CEO of Grand Rapids-based marijuana company Fluresh LLC, moved to Traverse City in September 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic had closed schools, the family man needed help with child care and his wife's family lived in the Grand Traverse region.


But moving put Fluresh in violation of Grand Rapids' medical marijuana social equity system, which requires 25% local ownership. The city's licensure scoring system provided "bonus points" to companies that committed to local ownership, a diverse workforce and diversity among its supply base, among other stipulations.


However, at the time, it was a problem without consequence as the city had yet to finalize its social equity program or enforcement regime. Then came Jan. 1. The city now requires companies to abide by the social equity commitments or face a fine of up to 5% of sales or risk their business license not being renewed.


In April, Fluresh was fined $60,000 for Kanitz's move and must pay the total into the city's new marijuana social equity nonprofit fund, which aims to distribute money to projects that benefit disadvantaged groups in the city impacted by drug laws, for the next three years.


"It's a circus," said Sharon Reid Williams, general counsel for Fluresh. "We made the commitment, yes, but the city dragged its feet for years on what enforcement would look like. There was so much confusion around the city's policy that it took this long to figure out. We were unclear what the hell we were supposed to do. So now we've got to pay a portion of our sales? There is no businessperson that would sign up for this if they knew ahead of time."


The city says the fine and nonprofit arrangement is innovative and just to offset decades of negative marijuana laws. But industry representatives say the system is unnecessarily cumbersome and puts further risk on operations under rules that don't apply to any other sector.


A system for giving back​


Municipalities across the country were encouraged by state governments to create cannabis-related programs to regulate businesses and fund social equity, a sort of mea culpa from drug laws that often discriminated against underprivileged and minority communities.


Grand Rapids established the Cannabis Justice Workgroup to handle the creation of its program, and in July 2020 it recommended that the City Commission approve the formation of the nonprofit Community Reinvestment Fund to carry out its equity goals. But the pandemic derailed those plans and the fund wasn't created until February 2022.


The penalties associated with noncompliance of equity agreements and donations will make up the nonprofit fund, said Ciarra C. Adkins, the interim director for the city's office of equity and engagement.


But even though enforcement is now ongoing, how much the city is collecting from fines and where it will be distributed has yet to be decided.


"These are conversations we're actually having with the board right now," Adkins said. "Those are some big decisions for the board to make. We think this is an innovative opportunity to support communities of color, knowing there have been historic harms."


Williams takes offense to the entire fund as the company always intended to support disadvantaged communities, especially those near its operations on the city's south side, including the neighborhoods of Burton Heights, Garfield Park, the Madison area and Martin Luther King Park.


Now it has no choice in where those dollars go, she said.


"When the city asked me about this (nonprofit fund), I told them it wasn't a good idea," Williams said. "It's misplaced. It's not individuals in the cannabis industry that overpoliced or enforced redlining or housing discrimination in the city. It was the government. I fundamentally have a problem with this only being an albatross on the neck of the cannabis industry. It doesn't mean we can't have an impact in the areas of focus. That board takes our money and then decides where it goes. I want to see our dollars going into the areas we serve. I care about the 49507. They need to show me their commitment to the 49507."


Good intentions​


There are also larger questions afoot about how the fund will progress and the social equity fines will be imposed, said Paul Albarrán, associate attorney for Grand Rapids-based law firm Varnum LLP.


"Look, when the city started this whole program, I don't think anything was done with bad intentions; the underlying intentions are similar all over the country — make sure the money goes back to the community," said Albarrán, who represents several cannabis companies in Grand Rapids. "The problem really comes in when it's as robust as Grand Rapids put together. We see this often, a really good idea with an implementation of that good idea becoming a problem."


Albarrán said the equity program compliance requires a lot of expensive effort that usually requires companies to hire outside counsel and increased expenses without even knowing exactly what the city wants.


"There's a lot of info we need to provide, which for larger companies is very tough to do," Albarrán said. "We're not even sure what information we need to provide to the city to prove employees are below the poverty line or whether they've had a drug conviction. That's difficult, and I'm not sure the city has a robust enough guidance in terms of what they need to prove these things. We try to meet them as best as possible, but it usually ends up with a lot of back and forth with the city. It's just onerous and requires a lot of communication. There is no other industry that has to operate under this type of scrutiny."


Cities, including Detroit, do impose community benefits agreements on companies expanding, but those are usually linked to tax breaks, not fines imposed for noncompliance.


Adkins said the back-and-forth communication is a benefit to the companies as the negotiations often lead to reduced fines and less punitive measures.


Albarrán agrees but said the administrative burden outweighs the benefit often.


"All this interplay makes it very difficult for these businesses doing what they do best," he said."


Williams said the failure of the plan is in its lack of contingencies. The social equity agreements are tied to the land, not the company. So if a marijuana company looks to sell its business, those equity rules would transfer to the new ownership, at least 25% of which must live in Grand Rapids.


Even though medical marijuana is less profitable under current market conditions, Fluresh must maintain its medical licenses as it is allowed to grow under the medical licenses and transfer some of that product to the recreational market.


Fluresh has yet to receive the $60,000 bill from the city. It is only required to pay the fine for three years unless it comes under compliance sooner. The city's recreational marijuana fines would be paid in perpetuity unless something else is negotiated.


"I can't think of any other business that has these types of restrictions," Williams said. "People are going to end up suing. The rules were changed in the middle of the game. We had no idea what the compliance punishment would be until years later. There is no sane businessperson who would sign up for this. The way this has been rolled out is very disappointing."


Adkins, however, believes the city is just in its enforcement and that its nonprofit fund program will be a model for others.


"There are going to be organizations that don't support this or believe in this," Adkins said. "We believe, in the city of Grand Rapids, this is the right thing to do, so this is why we took this action."
 

‘Possibly’ contaminated marijuana vape cartridges recalled from 76 Michigan pot shops


This story was updated at 2:15 p.m. on July 21 to include new information from the Cannabis Regulatory Agency


The Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency on Friday, July 21, recalled an unidentified number of vaping cartridges sold at more than 75 marijuana shops across the state.

The cartridges, retailed under the Flight brand name and including the Grease Monkey, Space Ether and Bubblegum flavors, may contain banned chemicals used as insecticides or fungicides, according to the CRA. The potentially hazardous chemicals include: bifenthrin, myclobutanil, bifenazate, paclobutrazol, pemethrin.

The CRA hasn’t revealed how the contamination occurred, or how the cartridges were cleared for sale, since all marijuana is required to undergo safety lab tests before making being sold. The CRA said it won’t comment on open investigations but did confirm 13,080 of the recalled vaping cartridges made it to consumers. Another 2,212 remained on shelves in 59 stores at the time of the recall. CRA spokesman David Harns said

The vaping cartridges were produced by Sky Labs, a Mount Morris marijuana processing business recently penalized by the CRA following an investigation that identified more than 30 rules violations.

Earlier this month, the CRA fined Sky Labs $100,000 and the business also agreed to give up its medical processing license, although it retains a license to manufacture recreational products.

The CRA said customers who purchased the recalled vaping cartridges should return them to the marijuana retailer for disposal. Shops that sold the recalled cartridges must post the recall notice for 30 days.

Anyone who experiences negative health reactions to the recalled vaping cartridges is asked to contact the CRA via email, CRA-Enforcement@michigan.gov, or by phone, 517-284-8599.

The following marijuana shops sold the possibly contaminated products:
  • 263 Cannabis in River Rouge
  • Bud and Mary’s Cannabis in Portage
  • Crafted Leaf in Middleville
  • DACUT in Detroit
  • Depot Provisionary Center in Leslie
  • Elite Cannabis in Bay City
  • Elite Wellness in Jackson
  • Elite Wellness in Mount Morris
  • Flora in East Lansing
  • Great Lakes Exotics Cannabis Company in East Tawas
  • Great Lakes Provision Center in Big Rapids
  • Green Genie 3 in Detroit
  • Green Genie in Detroit
  • Green Pharm in Detroit
  • Green Trend in Saline
  • Green Vitality in Ypsilanti
  • Greencare Provisioning in River Rouge
  • HOD in Monroe
  • Herbology in River Rouge
  • Heritage Provisioning in East Tawas
  • High Society in Big Rapids
  • Holistic Health in Wayne
  • Homegrown Cannabis in Lansing
  • House of Dank in Lapeer
  • House of Dank in Saginaw
  • House of Dank 2 in Detroit
  • House of Dank in Center Line
  • House of Dank in Grand Rapids
  • House of Dank Michigan in Detroit
  • House of Dank in Traverse City
  • House of Dank in Ypsilanti
  • JARS Cannabis in Jackson
  • JARS Cannabis in Saginaw, Flint, Mount Clemens, Mount Pleasant, Oxford, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Owosso, Battle Creek, Centerline, Muskegon, Fennville, Lansing, River Rouge
  • KAI in Adrian and Muskegon
  • King of Budz in Monroe Township and Detroit
  • Lucky Buds in Crystal
  • Lucky’s Cannabis in Muskegon
  • Michiganja in Cedar Springs and White Cloud
  • Neighborhood Provisions in Alpena
  • Olswell Cannabis in Adrian and Grand Rapids
  • OZ Cannabis in Ypsilanti
  • Premiere Provisions in Big Rapids
  • Proper Leaf Cannabis in Memphis
  • Prosper Cannabis in Constantine and Wayland
  • Rush Cannabis in Saline
  • Ruch Cannaco in Hazel Park
  • SecureCann III in Flint
  • Sticky Ypsi in Ypsilanti
  • The Barn in Burton
  • The Flower Bowl in Inkster
  • The Flower Pot in Michigan Center
  • The Herbalist in Detroit
  • The House of Mary Jane in Detroit
  • The Refinery in Detroit
  • Top Tree Provisioning in Oscoda
  • URB in Monroe and Vassar
  • Waky Willy Cannabis in Bay City
 

Medical Marijuana pioneered legal weed in Michigan and now it's withering away


The reality is there are fewer dispensaries selling medical marijuana in Michigan as demand for adult-use recreational marijuana dominates.


Michigan's medical marijuana industry is wilting.


The portion of the cannabis business that stood up legal weed in the state is now at its lowest point since its inception in 2008, according to data from the Cannabis Regulatory Agency. Sales crept to just $6.14 million in July, down nearly 71% from a year ago and down 86% from July 2022 when sales reached nearly $43 million. The cost of an ounce of medical marijuana is down 52% over the last 12 months to $102.03, but consumer pricing is only part of the cost conundrum.


Much of the medical marijuana drawdown is linked to industry costs associated with maintaining a medical and recreational license and the costs associated with marketing and selling both. Plus there are fewer and fewer markets that are medical marijuana only, such as Waterford Township and Pontiac, both of which are merging toward the adult-use market. Detroit was the last major city that maintained the distinction and prohibited recreational marijuana, but sales finally began earlier this year after legal squabbles.


The reality is there are fewer dispensaries selling medical marijuana as demand for adult-use recreational marijuana dominates — recreational sales totaled $270.6 million in July, compared to $188.8 million a year ago. And with those prices near historic lows, it's simply easier and cheaper for all consumers, recreational or medical, to purchase marijuana on the recreational side of the business.


"For us, it's expensive to maintain both licenses and follow both sets of rules," said Ankur Rungta, CEO of Ann Arbor-based C3 Industries, a vertically-integrated company with a grow operation in Webberville and 13 High Profile Cannabis Shop locations across the state. "It's a tighter market right now and managing costs is critical. As the market shrinks, it just makes less and less sense (to sell medical marijuana)."


Ankur Rungta, CEO of Ann Arbor-based C3 Industries, a vertically-integrated company with a grow operation in Webberville and 13 High Profile Cannabis Shop locations across the state says medical marijuana doesn't make sense anymore. “It’s a tighter market right now and managing costs is critical. As the market shrinks, it just makes less and less sense (to sell medical marijuana).”


Puffing prescription​


Michigan voters approved medical marijuana sales in 2008, a full decade before voting to allow recreational sales. But the legal framework to allow medical sales wasn't established until 2016, after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the 2008 law didn't allow for dispensaries. The long delays led to the state not issuing the first batch of retail licenses until August of 2018.


The medical industry was largely supported by caregivers, those growing marijuana at home and distributing that product to dispensaries — the state began phasing out caregiver sales to dispensaries in 2020 as recreational marijuana came online and commercial grow operations were churning out product. Caregivers can still supply registered medical marijuana patients, but cannot sell excess product to dispensaries.


The state requires a medical marijuana card for "patients," who used the product to treat mostly chronic conditions, requiring patients to get a medical marijuana card issued by medical doctors and doctors of osteopathy. One difference there is patients can be as young as 18, where recreational cannabis is only available to those 21 and older.


David Schulman, a former vascular and thoracic surgeon at Henry Ford Health and other metro Detroit health systems, started Huntington Woods-based Greenpath Holistic Medicine in 2017 to review and approve patients seeking medical cards.


"I was done with surgery and done with teaching, and I was done with organized medicine," Schulman said. "But I wanted a source of income, though that wasn't the major factor. It was more curiosity about marijuana and it was something I could do with my license without having to be involved in traditional medicine."


Schulman said he doesn't issue cards for common complaints like insomnia and anxiety but saw great improvements in patients with migraines and other chronic conditions.


"I would say I started as a skeptic, thinking my patients would be young college students looking to sell weed to their friends," Schulman said. "But I discovered a large cohort of patients who found marijuana is superior to the crap drugs other doctors were putting them on."


The state had more than 251,000 registered marijuana card holders in July 2021, making Michigan the largest medical marijuana market of the time, according to data from the CRA. Of those card holders, nearly 61% of the cards were issued for chronic pain and more than 22% for arthritis.


But plummeting recreational prices started cutting into those sales. Recreational wholesale prices had almost reached parity with medical marijuana by July 2021 and continued to crash, reaching as low as $80.16 an ounce by January of this year.


The result was fewer and fewer people maintaining their medical marijuana cards. As of July 31 this year, state data shows Michigan has shed more than 100,000 medical card holders, dropping to 141,005.


"There used to be some meaningful advantages for a medical card for consumers – lower taxes and higher purchasing limits," Rungta said. "But those advantages are less important as overall prices come down."


Medical marijuana carries a 3% excise tax, compared to a 10% excise tax for recreational marijuana, and users are able to purchase larger doses of medical marijuana than recreational.


That translated to an ounce of recreational marijuana — an amount that would produce roughly 60 marijuana cigarettes or joints —costing $3 more than an ounce of medical marijuana in July 2023 prices. The CRA limits recreational THC concentrates in edibles at 10 milligrams per dose, compared to 50 milligrams per dose in medical as well as differing doses for tinctures and oils.


For many, renewing a two-year medical marijuana card, which costs between $100 and $200 for the medical appointment, isn't worth the trouble, Rungta said.


C3 Industries has shed all but one of its medical marijuana growing licenses and almost all of its medical marijuana sales licenses.


"We have the largest addressable recreational market in the country as far as sales per capita," Rungta said. "It's not from medical marijuana consumers going to rec. It's just exploding. That has to do with the low cost of product."


While the medical market in the state continues to decline, the adult-use recreational market is reaching new heights, selling more than $270 million in July alone. The state's total marijuana market is expected to eclipse $3 billion this year, behind only California, which has 30 million more people.


Kevin Mechigian, owner of Tree House CBD in Walled Lake and Express Med Card, said despite declines in medical marijuana card holders business in Michigan is holding steady.


There are still good reasons to maintain a medical marijuana market, and Schulman said it has nothing to do with money.


"What if they encounter the law or have a job with drug testing?," Schulman asked. "Cannabis still isn't like other medicine because of the stigma. If they keep a medical card, they are less likely to face drug testing from their employer, and for those that picked up for DUIs and are found to have marijuana in their system, they get hit with that whether they were high or not. People are still threatened because of marijuana use."


Kevin Mechigian, owner of Tree House CBD in Walled Lake and Express Med Card, said despite declines in card holders business is holding steady.


"For the average consumer, a medical card doesn't make sense anymore," Mechigian said. "But if you use cannabis daily or even monthly, it gets competitive."


A card at Express Med Card costs $110, he said.


But he isn't high on the market. Mechigian expects medical marijuana to all but phase out of the state in the next five years.


"Maybe it doesn't go away, but it will continue to change," Mechigian said.


Rungta said the medical market in Michigan or elsewhere won't survive until medical marijuana becomes more legitimate as medicine, not just as a recreational drug with a medical backdoor.


"For medical to really drive a comeback, there would need to be differentiation. It's the same product, essentially, on both sides (medical and recreational) of the business. We're just not there yet," Rungta said. "It has to come through R&D. A product that's something closer to medicine and more data-driven evidence to support it."
 
Yes, children...you too can have a career in bribery and corruption. Just become a politician.


Former Speaker received 'commercial sex' as bribes for Medical Marijuana licenses


Former Michigan House Speaker Accused of Accepting Bribes, Including Commercial Sex, During Tenure as Cannabis Licensing Board Chair.


In addition to cash payments and private jet travel, former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson received "thousands of dollars worth of commercial sex" with a sex worker as bribes during his time as chair of the now-defunct Michigan Medical Marihuana Licensing Board, according to a federal court filing published Thursday.


Johnson and three other individuals have been charged and pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in the bribery scheme. The first individual to plead guilty, John Dalaly, received a 28-month federal prison sentence Thursday during a hearing in Grand Rapids. During the hearing, his attorney Raymond Cassar said Dalaly had no involvement with the sex worker being provided to Johnson.


According to a sentencing memo filed by federal prosecutors in Johnson's case, "Johnson demanded and received at least $110,200 in bribes while he was MMLB Chair, including cash payments, a $20,000 'loan' with no repayment terms or demand, flights on private aircraft, and thousands of dollars’ worth of commercial sex with a woman in the adult entertainment industry."


"In return, Johnson provided an unfair advantage to bribe payers in the form of his favorable vote on license applications, his help and support throughout the licensing process, and confidential inside information pertaining to the Board’s work and other applicants."


In the memo, prosecutors write that Johnson should face at least 71 months in prison and pay a fine of $110,200, equal to the amount of bribes. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.


At one point during Dalaly's sentencing, Cassar told U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering that Dalaly was not involved with providing a sex worker for Johnson. Beckering appeared to be aware of the sex worker's involvement. Following the hearing, Cassar told reporters that he wanted to "make it clear that Mr. Dalaly had nothing to do with having a sex worker involved with Mr. Johnson."


"There were some rumblings that Mr. Johnson not only accepted payments (for) bribes, but there are some rumblings and there's some indication from the government, that there was also a sex worker involved," Cassar said. "And my position today, and I made it clear, was that Mr. Dalaly was not involved in that whatsoever, and the court accepted that and the government also."


According to the sentencing memo filed Thursday, Johnson, Dalaly and lobbyists Brian Pierce and Vincent Brown, who have also pleaded guilty in the bribery scheme, had a system to mask the bribes. Johnson carried two cell phones to throw off investigators, prosecutors wrote, and was also referred to as "Batman," by a bat emoji, or as "our friend" when discussing bribe payments.


In one exchange detailed by prosecutors, Brown told Pierce "That’s why happy batman is a great batman," something prosecutors wrote was an indication of the influence the former speaker held over the lobbyists.


"The manner in which the payments were moved through LLCs and disguised demonstrate that everyone, including Johnson, knew that what they were doing was unlawful," prosecutors wrote. "Finally, Johnson’s repeated use of a prostitute who was paid to have sex with him on multiple occasions by businessmen seeking his help and licenses from the state is abhorrent behavior. In their totality, Johnson’s criminal acts and his attempt to evade law enforcement are utterly disgraceful and worthy of punishment well above the low-end of the advisory guideline range for a bribery offense."


The memo also states Pierce paid at least $2,000 to the woman who had sex with Johnson. Exchanging money for sexual acts, or prostitution, is illegal in Michigan, according to the Criminal Defense Law Center of West Michigan. Pierce has not been charged with any prostitution-related offenses. As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to bring additional charges stemming from the bribery conspiracy, as long as Pierce disclosed them to investigators.


Johnson pleaded guilty in April and agreed to cooperate fully with federal investigators as part of his plea agreement. His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 28 in front of Beckering.


Dalaly has said as part of the scheme, he provided $4,000 in monthly payments to Johnson's wife Janice under the guise of "consulting fees." Janice Johnson has not been charged in the case, as part of her husband's plea agreement.


U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten previously said the investigation into the corruption scheme remained open and additional charges are possible.


Johnson, a Republican from LeRoy, was House speaker in 2001-04. He came under scrutiny from the Free Press in 2017 when former Gov. Rick Snyder named Johnson, who was a registered lobbyist from 2005 until 2016, to the Michigan Medical Marihuana Licensing Board.


Gov. Gretchen Whitmer dismantled the board via executive order in 2019, shortly after Michigan voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2018.
 

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