I’ve spent a lot of time in this newsletter telling you where to drive to find good weed. 

This week, I want to talk about who’s watching you make the trip.

There are license plate cameras all over Michigan—on highways, at intersections, in shopping plazas, and in at least one dispensary parking lot. They’re logging every car that passes, and almost no one in our state government has decided what happens to the data they collect.

Keep scrolling for the full story. Plus, a Genesee County dispensary is closing for good after allegedly breaking state rules, five Upper Peninsula stores are going dark, Americans now smoke more weed than cigarettes, and I have more free stuff ready to be given away. 

Roll one up and read on.

There’s a camera attached to a pole somewhere between you and your dispensary, and you’ve probably driven past it 100 times without noticing it. It photographed your license plate anyway—along with the time, the place, and the direction you were headed—and dropped all of it into a database that more than 180 police agencies can search through whenever they want. 

Last year, Wisconsin deputies pulled a man’s travel history out of that network, called Michigan a “known source state for marijuana,” and used the trip itself to justify searching his car.

And if you think that’s the alarming part of this story, wait until you read about what one Michigan city required a dispensary to install in its own parking lot.

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 reportedly 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.

Last week, I asked for your favorite old-school strain.

Thai Stick took it with a clear majority. Acapulco Gold and Maui Wowie finished in a two-way tie for second place. Panama Red, Afghan Kush, and Durban Poison split whatever was left.

Thai Stick is also the one my dad still brings up. But I don’t think the flower itself was dramatically better than anything else coming into this country in the 1970s. What folks seem to remember more is the presentation: buds tied to a stick with string instead of buds in a bag.

Maybe stoners have always been suckers for good packaging. Some things never change.

This week, in response to our featured story, I’m changing gears entirely.

Would a Flock camera in the parking lot change where you shop for weed?

Cast your vote. I’ll have the results next week. 

There is nothing in this industry I like less than sticking my nose into a deli-style jar that 40 other people have already sniffed. So, when Franklin Fields started packing half-ounces into their own mylar jars this summer, I was sold before I even checked the price.

They were $75 each. The deli version was cheaper. What the extra money got me was a humidity pack, a container that nobody else has breathed into, and—as far as I can tell—the first pick of the harvest. These seemed to be the biggest, prettiest buds on the shelf.

Mylar jars are all the rage right now, mostly as an excuse to charge more for weed. This is the first time Franklin Fields has packaged anything this way. It’s an old trick by now. But the market has been stale for a while, and I’ll take somebody trying something over nobody trying anything.

The weed holds up, too.

Orange Candy is my all-time favorite wake-and-bake strain, the one I reach for when I still want to get something done. You may remember this strain as Orange Zkittlez, which is what it was called before the industry’s apparent reckoning with trademark law. First Class Funk is GMO crossed with Jet Fuel Gelato. Leafly will tell you it’s a limonene-dominant strain with a spicy, gassy nose, but all I got was garlic and skunk and goop. And I mean that as a compliment.

One real complaint: I picked out about a dozen seeds. Not ideal, not the end of the world. All told, it was good weed in a clean jar at a fair price, and I’ll probably be back for more.

I don’t do enough for the Upper Peninsula in this newsletter, and I know it. 

So this week belongs to the Yoopers.

The Fire Station has 10 stores scattered across the Upper Peninsula, and the one in Hannahville is giving away tickets to see the country band Midland at the UP State Fair. 

Two winners will each get two reserved seats to the show, plus two tickets for the fair itself. To enter, just stop by the dispensary anytime before Aug. 16, fill out a slip, and walk out.

The catch for most of you reading this is probably geography. All entries must be filled out in person. Then again, I asked a few weeks ago how far you’d be willing to drive for good weed and most of you said “across the state” without blinking. This is your chance to prove it.

I’m not going to reveal the location of this week’s smoke spot.

Just know that I spent an afternoon walking around the downtown of a 167-year-old Michigan city, waving around a joint in front of a mural that you might recognize. And the first person who correctly identifies this location will get some free MichiGanja Report swag mailed to them.

The joint was Chocolatte from Seed Junky—a newer strain from a brand that shows up in this newsletter often, mostly because it’s reliable and you can find it at dozens of dispensaries. 

As usual, Seed Junky keeps the genetics to itself. So, I went in blind. 

As the name implies, it’s a dessert strain. Subtle cocoa and coffee notes up front, something shortbread-y sitting underneath, and a little nutmeg on the way out. The high was almost entirely in my head. It was a bright, chatty buzz that makes you notice things you’ve driven past 100 times. Maybe that’s how I ended up spending several minutes admiring this wall.

Email me at kyle@couriernewsroom.com with your best guess. If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, then you’ve already been to this town with me before. Consider that your only clue. 

Stay safe out there ‘Ganders. Remember that recreational cannabis is only legal in Michigan for ages 21 and up—and it’s NEVER OK to get high and drive.