Two potential roadblocks for the city of Detroit to start processing applications for the limited recreational marijuana licenses were removed Tuesday when a judge dismissed lawsuits that challenged the ordinance.
Two lawsuits were filed in recent months from cannabis companies with medical marijuana dispensaries in Detroit. One lawsuit asked the court to allow existing medical dispensaries to also receive recreational licenses. The other asked the court to stop Detroit from moving forward with its ordinance.
“Although the city’s 2022 marijuana ordinance is a complicated scheme, it is unambiguous and provides a fair licensing process, which comports with the mandates of the (Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act),” Wayne County Circuit Judge Leslie Kim Smith said in an opinion in the House of Dank v. city of Detroit lawsuit.
John Roach, a spokesperson for the city of Detroit, said “the law department is reviewing the recent rulings and we will know more about the licensing process and application timeline in the next couple of days.”
The city originally planned to begin accepting the first round of applications for retail, consumption lounge and microbusiness cannabis licenses on Aug. 1 but Smith granted a request for a temporary restraining order at the request of the plaintiff in the second lawsuit, JARS Cannabis — a marijuana company that has two medical dispensaries in Detroit, among other medical and recreational dispensaries across Michigan.
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