In 2016 legislation passed in Michigan that permitted medical marijuana businesses on a larger scale than what had previously been permissible. Suddenly, medical marijuana wasn’t a person-to-person business relying on caregivers to distribute medical marijuana.
Until now medical marijuana related-businesses have functioned in a “gray” area. In most cases, the businesses had permission to run from municipalities, but the state of Michigan wasn’t allowing it. It’s much like a local version of states that allow marijuana while it remains illegal on a Federal level. Thus dispensaries were allowed to operate in some municipalities while not in others.
“Folks who were operating before this law, were operating with local authorization, not state authorization,” said David Harns, a spokesperson for Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). “We made allowances so we wouldn’t cause an impediment to their licensure as long as they had approval at the local level to operate.”
However, according to the new Emergency Rules, if a business isn’t licensed by by the state by June 15th, they shouldn’t be open. Existing marijuana businesses were obligated to apply earlier this year, but none have been granted a license due to the extensive background checks and financial paperwork the supervisory bodies have to complete for each business. It’s set up an unusual deadline for businesses that were working with local authorization from municipalities that now have to ask,
‘What’s next?’
“LARA has realized the process is arduous,” said Harns, when asked whether businesses are at risk of raids if they pass the June 15th deadline. “It’s long. We’re not referring people to law enforcement — as long as they’ve turned in their application to the state, as long as they have a pending application at the state level and they’re making a good faith effort we’re not doing
those things.”
Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean the businesses previously operating with local authority are without risk — the board that will eventually issue licenses will be permitted to consider whether a dispensary continued to operate beyond the June 15th deadline if they haven’t been licensed by that date.
“So, running after June 15th would be considered a business risk because the licensing board can take that into consideration,” said Harns.
As of the end of April, 459 businesses had applied for pre-qualification through LARA. The number of businesses applying grows when you consider those applying as growers, processors, and more — to date, 12 businesses have been pre-qualified the first part of a two-step process for licensing.
In light of the new risks, how is the industry surviving? At the Michigan Organic Solutions in Flint business isn’t just surviving, but thriving. With local approval Michigan Organic Solutions has been operating for eight years and has served more than 17,000 customers.
A co-owner of the business (whom asked to remain anonymous), declined to talk about their license application because of the questions that loom, but said the state of the marijuana movement happening inside the state of Michigan is in constant flux.
Of course, there are still questions about how LARA’s June 15th deadline effects businesses like Michigan Organic Solutions and others that have been providing relief to the hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents for nearly a decade.
There are even long-term questions about what happens if recreational marijuana is voted into law — just last month the Board of State Canvassers’ ruled a measure would go to the legislature. They could enact it or let it proceed to a statewide vote.
For now we can only hope that the businesses who have been supporting their communities, at their own risk, will be allowed to continue to do so after June 15th. The 459 businesses who applied complied with the states requirements, it doesn’t make much sense to punish them, or the plethora of patients who depend upon them when it’s the state that can’t meet its own deadline.
