MICHIGAN—Cannabis is a pretty big deal in Michigan—and there’s never a shortage of newsworthy headlines from the industry as the state inches closer to becoming the nation’s weed capital.
Here are 10 things you need to know this week:
MATURING MARKET: After a rocky year with some Michigan-based cannabis companies going bankrupt, new surveys show that most of the brands on the market are now here to stay—with the vast majority saying they have no active plans to sell their businesses.
SHADY BEHAVIOR: A Michigan company was reportedly caught paying people to enter license lotteries meant to boost opportunities in disadvantaged communities, but the contracts forced applicants to relinquish all control—and profits—once they got the license.
NICE COPS: Although weed is illegal in Wisconsin, cops there have mostly avoided arresting people who travel to Michigan to buy their stash. Still, anyone caught with weed in Wisconsin can get a ticket, and cops there are also known to confiscate any weed they find.
BEST OF THE BEST: About a week after our official guide to Michigan’s best cannabis brands was published, another magazine assembled a similar guide of its own. Who did it better?
COUGH UP: Four mid-Michigan pot shops in Mt. Morris, Vassar, Bay City and Chesaning were reportedly ordered to pay a total of $60,000 in fines for falling out of compliance with state reporting requirements.
DOG ATTACK: A Michigan woman was reportedly mauled by her pet Rottweiler in a vicious, hour-long tussle after she fed the canine a THC-laced gummy, which is poisonous for dogs.
SHAM UNIONS: So-called “company unions,” or sham labor groups that are intended to thwart legitimate labor organizing that might benefit workers to instead help the company’s interests, are reportedly cropping up across the country, but not in Michigan.
BEHIND BARS: Two lobbyists—Brian Pierce and Vincent Brown—were sentenced to federal prison for conspiring to provide $42,000 in bribes to former Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson during his time as the head of the state’s marijuana licensing from 2017 to 2019.
GROWTH SPURT: Puff Cannabis is reportedly moving its corporate headquarters from Madison Heights to a newly renovated, 20,000-square-foot building on Naughton Drive in Troy. Officials said it will be the largest cannabis company headquarters in the country.
LAW AND ORDER: A 15-year-old from Clinton Township was charged (as an adult) with multiple felony charges tied to the armed robbery of three dispensary delivery drivers.
READ MORE: 6 family-owned dispensaries in Michigan and the stories behind them
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