If you’re 19 or 20, you can sell or serve alcohol in Michigan, and you can work at a medical marijuana facility. Apply to work at a recreational marijuana dispensary, though, and you’ll get told to come back when you’re 21. Some Michigan lawmakers and industry groups are hoping to change that.
House Bill 4322, sponsored by Westland Democrat Kevin Coleman, would allow those over age 19 but under 21 — who are not allowed to consume recreational marijuana legally until they turn 21 — to work in Michigan’s multi-billion dollar recreational cannabis industry. Currently, recreational marijuana jobs are limited to people aged 21 and up.
On Tuesday, the House Regulatory Reform Committee unanimously voted to move the bill to the House floor.
“This bill isn’t about young folks consuming cannabis or changing their behavior around cannabis,” Coleman said at a recent House Regulatory Reform Committee hearing.
The change would allow “young folks to get in and learn the industry firsthand and to have an opportunity to become entrepreneurs themselves in a growing industry,” he continued.
A previous version of the bill introduced last session would have lowered the age even further to 18 — but Coleman told lawmakers during an April committee hearing that the change was made to prevent 18-year-olds, who are still in high school, from entering marijuana facilities.
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