Over 200 Michigan Dispensaries Receive Cease-and-Desist Letters

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]T[/dropcap]wo-hundred and ten medical cannabis dispensaries including 159 Detroit-based businesses have received cease-and-desist letters from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA), the department announced March 29. The businesses received the letters because they didn’t apply for a state license before a Feb. 15 deadline or they didn’t receive local approval.

Michigan, like other states including California, is currently going through the painful process of licensing businesses under its fairly new regulatory system, which was implemented in 2016. Keep in mind, similar cease-and-desist orders were handed out last October, but the industry ultimately prevailed. Authorities also hand-delivered eight letters to businesses in Lansing, seven in Flint, five in Gaylord, three each in Ann Arbor and Battle Creek, and other areas.

David Harns, spokesman for LARA told the Detroit Free Press that the information had been obtained through publicly available information on apps like Weedmaps. “After the news of the first round of letters hit, we found a lot more had voluntarily closed before we got there,” Harns said. “We haven’t checked back to see if they’re all still operating, but we’ve had a number of businesses contact us to dispute that they’re operating illegally.”

Harns added that while 210 dispensaries have been ordered to cease operations, 215 are still in operation under LARA’s temporary emergency rules which were released last December. Some licenses may have been denied over minor mistakes such as incomplete applications, and could possibly be fixed.

Initial licenses to grow, process, sell, transport or test marijuana will be issued by June 15. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Licensing Board is scheduled to meet April 19 to discuss the topic of more license applications.

Some 277,000 patients are registered to grow or purchase medical cannabis, plus 43,000 registered caregivers. One thing to consider is how 210 bona fide licensed companies are supposed to cover 277,000 patients in one of America’s largest medical cannabis markets.