MRA Updates Approved Ingredients List for Growers
Pseudomonas chlororaphis strain AFS009 is the new addition, an active ingredient in manufacturing-use pesticides petitioned to the EPA for use by AFS009 Plant Protection, Inc. in 2017. Pseudomonas chlororaphis is described as a bacterium that protects crop roots from fungi that attack them.
This new list supersedes the bulletin released on December 4 of 2020, is extensive, and is organized by the intended target of the substance, bactericide, fungicide, herbicide, insecticide, miticide, and rodenticide. To see the full list visit: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mra/Marihuana_Operations_-_Agency_Approved_Active_Ingredients_for_Growers_691058_7.pdf
MRA Makes Up Rules for Immature Plant Sales
Michigan- The MRA has announced rules for the sale of immature plants in an August 3rd advisory bulletin.
Administrative rule 1 of the Marijuana Sampling and Testing Rule Set defines immature plant as “a nonflowering marijuana plant that is no taller than 8 inches from the growing or cultivating medium and no wider than 8 inches produced from a cutting, clipping, tissue culture, or seeding that is in a growing or cultivating medium or in a growing or cultivating container.”
The advisory bulletin then references Rule 6, which states “a cultivator who has obtained good agricultural collection processes certification may sell immature plants to a marijuana sales location under the allowances published by the agency” which it then goes on to describe as no more than three plants can be sold to a customer “per transaction.”
The cultivator must first obtain GACP-GMP certification, then submit a plan to the MRA describing in detail every step of their process including how the cultivator will ensure plants have been pre-ordered, how they will be packaged for transfer, the method of transportation, and their refund and return policies.
Equally, sales locations will be required to have procedures in place for how they will pre-order immature plants (accounting for all immature plants with pre-order sales), as well as a copy of the cultivator attesting to the use of only approved active ingredients for growers. Immature plants must also be sealed in a package before leaving the sales location, and sellers will be required to inform buyers that the immature plants were not safety compliance tested.
This MRA advisory bulletin can be read in full here: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mra/Marihuana_Sale_or_Transfer_-_Immature_Plant_Sales_731798_7.pdf
Unemployment Benefits and Marijuana Testing
According to MI Live, “An HVAC employee, while off duty, crashed a company car, a maintenance man injured himself on the job and a warehouse worker was hospitalized due to an on-the-job accident. All tested positive for marijuana, although it’s not clear how long before their accidents they ingested it. All claim to have been sober at the time of their incidents.”
Each of the employers of the claimants tried to use the marijuana positive testing to deny each of the employees’ unemployment benefits.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel stated about the cases, ““The people spoke loud and clear when they voted in 2018 to legalize marijuana once and for all,” Nessel said. “Nobody over 21 can be penalized or denied any right or privilege solely for legally using marijuana, and employers cannot control their employees’ private lives by calling the legal use of marijuana outside of work hours ‘misconduct’.”
There has yet been a conclusive decision on the cases. The article about the cases can be read at: https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2021/08/private-marijuana-use-shouldnt-disqualify-michigan-residents-from-unemployment-benefits-ag-argues.html.
Petoskey Still Debating, Needs Signatures
As of the middle of August, the city is working on getting recreational marijuana on the ballot. The city needs 91 more signatures for the petition drive to get the ordinance placed on the ballot.
William Perkins wrote for the News-Review, “That 2020 vote came about initially as part of an oppositional campaign to the medical marijuana ordinance council members had passed months prior. That ballot question was defeated, but voters were more mixed on a second initiative which essentially sought to strip city council of its power to opt-in to recreational marijuana facilities, and place that power solely into the hands of future voters, if such a move were ever to be considered.” https://www.petoskeynews.com/story/news/2021/08/05/petoskey-marijuana-petition-still-pending/5482523001/
