Michigan is enacting a massive statewide crackdown to eliminate unlicensed marijuana dispensaries
Michigan is preparing a massive crackdown on illegally operating medical marijuana dispensaries. All the businesses that failed to complete their license applications before the deadline, 98 dispensaries, will receive cease and desist letters. They risk being banned from obtaining a license if they continue operating.
Michigan regulators are allowing another group of unlicensed dispensaries to remain open until December 15. These 108 businesses will be allowed to continue to operate under the state’s emergency medical marijuana laws while they wait for the Medical Marijuana Licensing Board to issue their licenses.
To remain in operation, the businesses must have submitted their license applications ahead of the February 15 deadline, received approval from their local communities, and completed their applications before the second deadline of June 15.
However, even the dispensaries that have been granted initial approval to continue operating are not safe from being shut down. Dispensary owners must be prepared to fork up $48,000 for a regulatory assessment within 10 days of receiving approval for their license – an addition to the state’s emergency rules.
So far, only 10 out of 37 dispensaries that have been approved for licenses have paid the regulatory assessment fee. According to the state, the assessment and fee are intended to separate the business owners who take the dispensary licensing seriously from those who would continue to operate in a legal gray area.
Business owners say the new regulations make the state’s legal marijuana market far more expensive than they had anticipated. Other costs include city fees, product testing, six percent sales tax and a three percent gross receipts tax.
