After years of waiting, The City of Detroit is now accepting applications for adult-use Cannabis business licenses for retailers, micro-businesses, and consumption lounges.
The City of Detroit announced it would start accepting license applications from the 1st of August 2022 for limited marijuana businesses.
The city stated the applications would be available online for adult-use marijuana retailers, micro-businesses, and marijuana consumption lounges.
The City of Detroit further stated it plans to award 100 retailer licenses in three phases, 30 micro-business licenses, and 30 consumption lounge licenses.
The news came after the city council voted to open phase one of limited licensing for adult-use marijuana retailers, micro-businesses, and designated consumption lounges.
President Pro Tem James Tate, who sponsored the adult-use marijuana ordinance, said he wanted to thank his colleagues for allowing this next critical step in the licensing process despite the frivolous lawsuits and ongoing attempts to get Detroit’s ordinance tossed.
Frivolous Lawsuits Delay Detroit By Three Years
The Detroit City Council cast an anonymous vote to approve the opening of applications for limited adult-use licensing.
The results of the voters approved the first phase of adult-use licensing, and the City of Detroit’s Office of Marijuana Ventures and Entrepreneurship will start accepting applications for the licenses from the 1st of September 2022 till the 1st of October 2022.
Those looking to have a license will need to apply for a permit and certification through the Marijuana Regulatory Agency and then apply to the City of Detroit. The applications will be processed in four 30-day phases.
Upon hearing the results of the vote, Council President Pro Tem Jame Tate told CBS News Detroit, “Getting to this point, where we can now process applications has been an arduous process which started in 2020 when the first ordinance was unanimously approved by Detroit City Council.”
“Now that the lawsuits and the failed ballot initiatives have been overturned, Detroiters will have an opportunity to compete for adult-use licenses in The City of Detroit, which welcomes all to participate in the multimillion-dollar cannabis industry.”
Michigan’s recreational marijuana market was launched on the 1st of December 2019. However, Detroit’s City Council banned the recreational sale of marijuana while it attempted to develop marijuana program rules and social equity programs.
The Detroit City Council announced the new rules in October 2020 with aspirations of accepting applications in January 2021 and issuing adult-use permits in the summer of 2021.
However, the initial application process was only opened on the 1st of April 2021 and was met with resistance as a federal judge closed the process a few days later. The application process was completed due to the federal judge issuing a restraining order after an aspiring applicant challenged the constitutionality of the City of Detroit’s program.
The program was then brought to a complete halt when it was suspended in June 2021 by a federal judge.
The City Council introduced a new plan eight months after the program’s suspension. After an additional delay with the voting on the proposal, the proposal was finally approved in April.
The City of Detroit then issued a recreational grower’s license in May, but the licensing was halted once again by additional lawsuits.
On the 31st of August 2022, local news announced a judge had dismissed the additional lawsuits and opened the way for licensing to resume.
“Although the city’s 2022 marijuana ordinance is a complicated scheme, it is unambiguous and provides a fair licensing process, which comports with the mandates of the (Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act),” Wayne County Circuit Judge Leslie Kim Smith said in an opinion on the House of Dank v. city of Detroit lawsuit.
“Enjoyed that first hit? Come chill with us every week at the Friday Sesh for a freshly packed bowl of the week’s best cannabis news!”
