Michigan News - April 2021

 

Detroit Overwhelmed by Legacy Applicants

Detroit - Friday, March 26th, was the final day for ‘Detroit Legacy’ qualifiers to submit paperwork to the Civil Rights, Inclusion & Opportunity department, which has become overwhelmed, according to officials.   

Close to six hundred applicants had applied at the time of this writing, with two more days before the cut-off.  The response was “far more than we expected”, stated Erica Hill, the departments director, to the Detroit News mid March.

At this rate, and with a cap of 75 licenses, Detroit will have to deny at least 526 ‘Legacy’ applicants in order to approve any non-legacy licensing.

Traverse City Sued Over Recreational Licensing

Traverse City - It looked like the city was on a fast track toward recreational marijuana, but then officials decided to cap the license limit to four.  Twelve local medical shops are suing in an effort to change the laws.  The lawsuit is still pending, and a judge has banned sales until it is settled. 

“It seems like people are under the impression that medical-use facilities were just gonna be able to transfer over to recreational.  I don’t remember having that conversation.”, stated Mayor Jim Carruthers.

Michael DiLaura of House of Dank disagrees with the decision, and believes the market should determine numbers, “Most municipalities don’t decide that, based on population, they only need three coffee spots.”  His answer to the City wanting safe sales is simply to let them operate.  “We’ve been here a year, there’s been no trouble, nothing has changed.  Traverse City is still this world-class town that people want to visit and live in.  Cannabis hasn’t altered that.”

The City currently has a merit system to determine the four recreational license holders.  Social welfare projects funded by pot businesses, such as building housing, are scored and tallied to determine who gets licensing, leaving the courts to also decide what constitutes as ‘merit’.  That will be a difficult task according to the executive director of the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Matt Abel, “What you might perceive as something that’s beneficial, someone else might perceive differently.”

Traverse City did not receive any money from the State this year for recreational marijuana sales.

Power Struggle for Michigan Weed Supply

Michigan - As supply over paces demand the fight for control of that supply of weed and what it will cost rages on in Michigan. Here are the major players: 

Team Blue is mostly led by the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association (MiCiA). Its core members came primarily from MACC, the Michigan Association of Compassion Centers. Robin Schnider is the bridge that has helped several owners of the original compassion clubs transition into the licensed market.  They are the oldest folks in the Michigan business cannabis space. They have been very supportive and connected to the Executive branch in Michigan, specifically for Governor Whitmer and AG Dana Nessel. With social equity benefactor Ryan Bassor in connection with the Gage group which has recently gone public and is valued at $350 million, and seeks to be listed in Canada as well, team blue appeals to social equity players in the big cities. They are in direct competition with team red, and profess to care about  bringing small business owners into the cannabis business space, and to care about cannabis culture. Spokesperson of team blue, Rick Thompson, reports in his blog, the Compassion Chronicles, that its team red that is trying to sell out team green. 

Team Red is mostly led by the Michigan Cannabis Manufacturers Association (MCMA). Its core members came primarily from the business world and venture capitalists that seek to limit the amount of players in the market. Their lobbyist, Steve Linder, entered the cannabis space at the same time as the state MMFLA which established the marijuana facilities licenses act. He has a strong connection to the Michigan Municipal League and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. Heavily leveraged, its members are the most well funded players in the industry and are backed by huge money, some of which is coming from Canada. They despise team blue and team green, seeking to highly restrict new businesses from entering the market by lobbying for restrictions in state and local governments. Team red does’t give a fuck about street cred, and is targeting team blue with big money schemes to destroy any competition.

Team Green has no leadership structure. Medical marijuana caregivers and home growers are starting to pay attention to how both team blue and team red are throwing them under the bus, by lobbying municipalities to restrict cultivation through the Michigan Municipal League. These folks grow and sell weed, mostly on the black market, and are really good at it. Consumers are split between the legal and black market. They will buy from the team that best represents them, like fans of a sports team. Activists are also joining teams, and some are double agents, like Rick Thompson, who is pretending to be on team green. The Democrat Party in Michigan will take money and votes from anywhere, and are pretending to be on all teams, when in all actuality they are aligned with team blue. Virtual Hash bash is team blue. The real Hash Bash is team green.