A Column By John Sinclair
Hi everybody, and thanks for joining me as I begin my 11th year as the Michigan Marijuana Report’s monthly columnist, accompanying the richly rewarding reports of fellow columnist Tim Beck in these pages every month.
Leading off my column for this month, I have to note that Tim Beck has commented that the recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman blocking the City of Detroit from processing licenses in recreational cannabis “is very compelling.” There is no chance Detroit will prevail in this one. The ‘poison pill’ Detroit politicians inserted into their proposed law means they must go back to the drawing board. This could mean months of more infighting and squabbling. Very sad situation.”
Annalise Frank quotes Judge Friedman in Crain’s Detroit Business that he had issued a preliminary injunction “because the city ordinance governing the process for obtaining a recreational marijuana retail license gives an unfair, irrational, and likely unconstitutional advantage to long-term Detroit residents over all other applicants.”
According to Ms. Frank, Friedman wrote that the ordinance’s “favoritism ... embodies precisely the sort of economic protectionism that the Supreme Court has long prohibited,”adding that the “defendant [City of Detroit] has failed to show that its stated goal of assisting those who have been harmed by the War on Drugs is advanced by reserving fifty percent or more of the recreational marijuana licenses for those who have lived in Detroit for at least ten years.”
Ms. Frank points out that “A lot of the talk over Detroit’s adult-use cannabis ordinance revolves around dispensaries because of a 75-license cap on licenses. But the rules actually cover licensing for 10 different sectors of the cannabis business, including:
- Medical marijuana provisioning centers
- Adult-use retailer establishments
- Growers
- Processors
- Safety compliance facilities
- Marijuana event organizers
- Temporary marijuana events
- Microbusinesses
- Designated consumption lounges, and
- Secure transporters
Under the city’s proposed ordinance that was rejected by Judge Friedman, people who have suffered marijuana-related convictions or live within low incomes would get first priority in the license review process for opening a cannabis business. Applications began April 1—a date we know better as April Fool’s Day—but a week later a legal challenge halted that process, leaving the adult-use cannabis business in Detroit “frozen in limbo.”
Ms. Frank adds that “Despite its large medical cannabis industry, Detroit originally opted out of recreational pot when it got greenlit by Michigan voters in 2018. Legal sales for nonmedical use started Dec. 1, 2019, with the industry reporting $341 million in sales in fiscal 2020, according to the state.”
Between 2008, when medical marijuana was legalized, and November 2018, when recreational use was overwhelmingly okayed by voters, there were 283 cannabis dispensaries that opened in the city of Detroit, but the City Council shut them all down. The proposed Detroit law would allow no more than 75 retail licenses in the city, and at least half of those must go to Legacy Detroiter applicants. They also get priority in a tiered application review process, pay less in fees to get started and get land discounts.
As of last October only 46 medical dispensaries have been allowed to become operational in Detroit, but only four were owned and operated by Detroit residents.
The legal problem with the proposed Detroit ordinance began with a March 2nd lawsuit by Detroit resident Crystal Lowe, who argued that the preference rules, dubbed the ‘Legacy Detroiter’ program, are unconstitutional and ‘unfairly favor’ a specific group of residents, discriminating against nonresidents and those who live in the city but don’t fit the checklist.
According to Ms. Frank, Crystal Lowe wants to open a cannabis shop in Detroit and argues that her past and residency make her a prime candidate for a regulatory framework that’s seeking equity. However, despite Lowe living in Detroit 11 of the last 30 years and her experience with marijuana—her mom was convicted in 2007 for a marijuana-related crime, and she’s been working in the cannabis industry—she doesn’t qualify for the legacy program. Thus, the lawsuit argues, she has little to no chance of getting a license.
The City’s response to Judge Friedman’s ruling, stated by Kim James, chief administrative corporation counsel for the city, is that “We will review the decision and develop a revised plan to address the judge’s concerns, [but] the City of Detroit will not issue any adult use marijuana licenses unless there is legal assurance that Detroiters will receive a fair share of those licenses.”
Local activists have observed that “obviously there are great concerns about this ordinance and whether it’s constitutional,” said Jeffrey Schroder, co-leader of Bloomfield Hills-based law firm Plunkett Cooney PC’s cannabis industry group. Right now, Detroiters seeking nonmedical cannabis must leave the city for nearby communities with numerous adult-use shops, like Ferndale and Hazel Park, or—as we have done for the past 80 years of the War on Drugs—buy our marijuana from our friends and neighbors who continue to serve the needs of our smokers despite the idiocy and mindless repression evinced by the city authorities.
“The Detroit facilities are hamstrung right now,” Schroder said. “They’ve invested a lot of money, [but] now the city’s saying you cannot get an adult-use license ... unless you follow this process.”
Ms. Frank also cites Rebecca Colett, founder of the Detroit Cannabis Project and CEO of wholesale cannabis brand Calyxeum, who has been helping cannabis entrepreneurs create businesses under Detroit’s legacy rules.
Ms. Colett, who is a Legacy Detroiter and helped lobby to get City Council to pass the legislation starting the program, insists that “The ordinance, as it was designed, I think really promotes diversity and provides opportunities for people who are not multimillionaires to enter into the legal cannabis industry.”
The Detroit Cannabis Project has trained a cohort of 35 certified Legacy Detroiters starting in early April and continues despite the halted application process mandated by the courts. While the city cannot take any applications now, nearly 400 Legacy Detroiters have pre-qualified to apply.
“So many people are interested in investing in Detroit,” Colett said, and she maintains that regardless of when, adult sales will become legal in Detroit. She wants the businesses her incubator helps to be ready. ”Nobody knows the day or the hour, but we know it will come,” she said.
Good luck to the messed up City of Detroit, its dysfunctional City Council and self-blindfolded legal establishment. Millions of dollars are waiting to leap into the coffers of Detroiters who will sell weed to the people, but the City continues to try to hold back the flood of cash and dam up the river of marijuana waiting to refresh the city’s hundreds of thousands of smokers.
DOPEBRIEFS: Commerce giant Amazon said it will stop drug testing many workers for marijuana and will also actively lobby Congress to pass a federal legalization bill. The move to treat cannabis “the same as alcohol use” from one of the U.S.’s largest employers is likely to have a large impact.
The California Senate approved a bill to legalize possession of psychedelics like psilocybin, LSD and MDMA. It now heads to the Assembly.
SenayBoztas reports in DutchNews.nl that Amsterdam has launched its first 2021 campaign to encourage tourists to return – the right kind of tourists, that is. This is a campaign to ‘stimulate desired behavior’—in other words, to make it clear that Amsterdam is no longer a destination for no-strings-attached partying. The message of increasing policing and on-the-spot fines for unwanted behavior has been welcomed by city councillors.
Talk about sticking your head way up in your ass! Good luck, Amsterdammers! Free The Weed!
—Detroit
June 25, 2021
© 2021 John Sinclair. All Rights Reserved.
