MICHIGAN—Michigan’s cannabis industry is under pressure, and this week it showed.
One dispensary lost its license, another company shut down five stores, and the state’s record-low weed prices are starting to look less like a bargain and more like a warning.
Here’s what you might’ve missed:
RECALL ROULETTE: Zaza in Mt. Morris Township is closing for good after surrendering its dispensary license to state regulators. One complaint, filed by an employee, alleges the owner sold pounds of weed straight out of the vault without using the state’s online tracking system. Another complaint alleged the store kept selling products to customers after they were recalled. The company didn’t contest the complaints, agreed to close, and can never get its license back.
LOVE LOST: Higher Love is closing down five of its nine Upper Peninsula dispensaries and blaming the state’s new 24% wholesale tax for its inability to churn a profit. In a recent statement, company officials pointed to oversupply and price compression—which tracks with the record-low $58 ounces that were reportedly selling at Michigan dispensaries in June.
BORDER RUN: Three men are facing drug trafficking charges in Illinois after state police there stopped their car on I-55 and reportedly found about $30,000 worth of cannabis products. One of the men reportedly told police he bought the weed in New Buffalo.
SMOKE SIGNALS: More Americans are smoking weed than cigarettes now. A new federal survey shows about 44 million people consumed marijuana regularly in 2025, compared to only about 36 million people who said they regularly smoked cigarettes during the same year.
ZALYMPIX: The so-called “Grammys of Michigan weed” are back. The fifth annual Zalympix competition put 400 judging kits on dispensary shelves last week, and if history is any guide, they’re already sold out. Now, we await the results. Winners will be announced Sept. 19.
ICYMI: If you missed last week’s newsletter, I toured IndiGrow in Muskegon—the only licensed microbusiness in town, and one of the only grow operations in Michigan that’s still dedicated to growing the same classic landrace strains that your dad probably smoked in the ‘70s.
READ MORE: Michigan dispensary trips are being logged by a nationwide camera network
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