cannabis

A new report claims the number of people working in Michigan’s marijuana industry doubled over the past year.

It’s difficult to put a firm number on Michigan pot employment since no government agency or industry group is tracking it.

But Seattle-based cannabis industry website Leafly is out with its fifth annual national jobs estimate. The report estimates nationally 321,000 people are working in the industry in states where medical, adult-use or both are legal.

As of Wednesday, caregiver products have been phased out of Michigan’s regulated retail marijuana market.

When Michigan voters approved medical marijuana in 2008, provisions were made for individuals to serve as “caregivers,” people who could grow cannabis for patients who could not grow it themselves.

Michigan’s recreational marijuana industry has reached another milestone.

Nearly seven full months into 2020, Michigan’s adult-use cannabis industry has sold more than $200 million in recreational marijuana products.

Michigan’s recreational marijuana industry last week surpassed $100 million in total sales since the retail industry became legal last December.    

Recently, state regulators expanded a program to help people with marijuana convictions get a foothold in Michigan’s legal cannabis industry.

Michigan’s recreational marijuana industry is maintaining, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and economic slowdown.

Customers are still showing up at Michigan’s recreational marijuana retail outlets.

Adult-use sales spiked to $5.7 million the week before the governor issued the stay-home order.

State regulators have recalled their first marijuana products containing a problematic additive.

The Marijuana Regulatory Agency put emergency rules into place banning Vitamin E acetate in cannabis vaping products.  

Vitamin E acetate has been linked to a deadly vaping-related lung damage outbreak. State and federal health officials have traced about half of more than 2,300 cases of severe lung damage to vaping marijuana products containing Vitamin E acetate.  More than 50 people have died, including two people in Michigan. 

Michigan’s recreational marijuana market is set to open next year.

Marijuana products in Michigan may soon carry a warning label.

Legislation approved by the state House Judiciary Committee Tuesday would slap labels on marijuana products warning against use by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. 

“When you are pregnant, marijuana use is not…the best thing you can be doing. And I believe everyone agrees with that,” says Rep. Graham Filler (R-DeWitt), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

State marijuana regulators hope to get emergency rules in place for Michigan’s recreational marijuana market this month.

Recreational marijuana use has been legal in Michigan since the passage of last year’s state ballot question. But recreational sales are still in limbo, as the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency works on the rules.  

Director Andrew Brisbo hopes to start taking applications for recreational cannabis businesses this fall.

This Tuesday, the way Michigan regulates the marijuana industry will undergo a change.

On March 1st, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) signed executive order 2019-7. The order created the Marijuana Regulatory Agency, within the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). The agency will officially replace the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board this week.

2019 is expected to be a busy year for businesses looking to invest in Michigan’s yet to-be-regulated recreational marijuana industry.

Michigan voters approved recreational marijuana in November. Michigan is now one of nearly a dozen states that allow possession of cannabis for recreational purposes. 

U.S. border officials are reminding Michiganders it is still illegal to transport marijuana across the border, despite recreational cannabis being legal now in Canada.

Wednesday morning, Canada became the second and largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace.  Uruguay was the first country to legalize recreational marijuana. 

Sales started just after midnight local time in Newfoundland, Canada's easternmost province.

The Michigan Board of Canvassers approved a petition Thursday to place an initiative on the state’s November ballot that would legalize marijuana possession and consumption for all adults 21 years and older.

The board ruled that the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol collected 277,370 valid signatures, more than the 252,523 signatures needed to make the ballot.

Medical marijuana growers in Lansing may soon have to register with city, if they use an “excessive” amount of electricity.

Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero is proposing an ordinance to require people who continuously use 5000 kilowatts of electricity to register with the city.   

“We have seen a number of cases where the growing equipment used to cultivate medical marijuana overloads the electrical circuits in the home,” says Bernero. “This, of course, creates a fire hazard.”