Fellow Michigander,

Michigan’s weed scene moves fast. New brands pop up, prices bounce around, and every week there’s a new “must-try” product or controversy making the rounds online. 

This edition is a little mix of it all: a crash course in stoner etiquette, a dispensary that actually lives up to the hype, weed so strong that it might ruin your evening plans, a chance to win a comically oversized joint, and a quiet smoke break along a frozen Lake Michigan shoreline.

Pack a bowl and dig in. 

Nobody hands Michiganders a field guide when they start smoking weed. But if you spend enough time in the scene, you’ll notice the same unspoken rules popping up everywhere.

From proper dispensary behavior to group sesh norms, there’s a quiet code that separates seasoned smokers from rookies. This week, we finally wrote it down.

Give it a read—and let me know what I missed.

BREAK-IN BLITZ: Dispensaries are beefing up security after a spike in smash-and-grabs across the state, mostly in southeast Michigan. Some stores are reportedly adding panic buttons and new locked entry systems. Police warn these crimes tend to come in waves.

PRISM PROBE: Michigan regulators are reportedly accusing Walled Lake-based Prism Triangle—one of the state’s largest weed testing labs—of fudging the numbers so the products it tested would pass state-mandated pesticide screening. Prism denies any wrongdoing. 

MICHIGAN HISTORY: Ever heard of Michigan’s weird little weed loophole of 1972? The ‘Gander recently took a look back at that one time in Michigan when a court ruling briefly wiped all state marijuana penalties off the books—making cannabis effectively legal in Michigan for 22 days. It’s a fun story and a reminder that Michigan’s cannabis culture didn’t start in 2018.

CANNABIS CANDIDATE: Ex-state lawmaker and frequent Hash Bash speaker Yousef Rabhi is reportedly jumping into Ann Arbor’s mayoral race. He’s challenging longtime Mayor Christopher Taylor, setting up a high-profile primary in one of Michigan’s most cannabis-friendly cities.

BORDER BUSTS: Crossing into Wisconsin with Michigan weed? Tread lightly. Reports from the Upper Peninsula border say the Wisconsin State Patrol has been cracking down on cannabis possession, with drivers getting stopped for minor infractions and then searched.

TOO MUCH WEED: New Buffalo Township residents are pushing back on a dispensary boom that’s turning their beach town into a border-state weed hub. With 29 shops open and more on the way—nearly one for every 70 residents—locals say the extra tax cash isn’t worth the traffic headaches, litter, and “weed destination” reputation for which they’ve become known.

Michigan stoners on Reddit don’t always agree on much. 

But one name keeps popping up: Information Entropy.

For this week’s MichiGanja in Review, I took a trip to the company’s original dispensary in Ann Arbor to see if the hype was real. Spoiler: It is. From dialed-in flower to some of the best pre-rolls I’ve had in a minute, this spot is building a reputation for a reason.

Premier Cannabis Farms—already one of my go-to Michigan brands—just dropped something for the heavy hitters. They’ve teamed up with Nice Tips Rolling Co. to release “Worm Holes.”

They’re thick, hand-rolled joints packed with 1.25 grams of top-shelf flower and a quarter-gram of hash rosin, all finished with a wood tip. At $30 a pop, these aren’t your daily driver. But I can honestly say this is the most potent dispensary joint I’ve ever bought. After you finish, you’re going to immediately consider taking a 20-minute shower just to collect your thoughts.

Newer smokers: Take a few puffs and park it. Veterans: If you’re trying to visit another dimension, the “worm hole” name isn’t just a marketing gimmick; this is your ticket.

Ready to put your football expertise to the test?

Several Michigan dispensaries—LIV Cannabis, Xplore Cannabis, Pure Lapeer Cannabis, and Cannavista Wellness—are turning this weekend’s Super Bowl into a shot at free weed.

Here’s how it works: swing by any location before kickoff on Sunday and pick your winner. If your prediction hits, you’ll be entered for a shot at $60 in store credit for your loyalty account. 

And there’s a bonus play: For every $60 you spend through Friday, you’ll also get entered to win the “Super Cone LX”—a footlong, half-ounce joint that’s way more spectacle than practicality.

Will it burn evenly? Probably not. Will it turn heads at your watch party? Absolutely. And if you’re already planning a pre-game dispensary run, you might as well make it interesting.

Northern Michigan in the winter has a way of forcing you to slow down. The downstate crowds disappear, the noise fades, and the Great Lakes turn into massive sheets of silence.

That’s where I was last weekend—somewhere north of Harbor Springs, standing along a frozen stretch of Lake Michigan with friends and a pre-roll of Motorbreath from A1ZA.

A1ZA leans hard into the small-batch, human-touch approach, and it shows. Their joints are hand-rolled, their batches are limited, and in a sea of mass-produced pre-rolls, this one felt intentional. It didn’t hurt that Motorbreath (Chemdog x SFV OG Kush) is one of my all-time favorite strains, with fuel, earth, a little citrus, and a potency OG Kush lovers will appreciate.

It’s the kind of smoke that settles you into your body and makes it easy to just exist—which was perfect, because when Lake Michigan freezes over and the wind chills out, it feels almost meditative. I’ve smoked in a lot of pretty places, but this coastline in winter will be hard to top.

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Stay safe out there ‘Ganders. Recreational cannabis is only for use by individuals 21 years of age or older. Keep out of reach of children. It is illegal to drive a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana. Contact the National Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222.