Has Michigan hit its weed ceiling?
Michigan recently hit a high water mark: More marijuana sold than California, according to MJBizDaily, a cannabis business news outlet.
California has long been the legal weed king and has nearly four times Michigan’s population.
Yet Michigan has three times more sales per person than California, the runner-up, and Michigan is selling eight million more units of marijuana products a month than California, according to state agency and Headset private data analyzed by MJBizDaily this summer.
The sunshine state remains, however, the largest market in dollar terms at around $350 million a month, compared to Michigan’s $287 million, in part because of Michigan’s relatively low prices.
But those in the weed-growing business wonder if Michigan is becoming a dumping ground for cheap marijuana that may not be up to snuff.
“We created one of the biggest markets,” said David Murray, CEO of Redbud Roots, a cultivator, producer and dispensary based in Buchanan, near the Indiana border. “We need to take an honest look and do what’s good for the industry.”
Along with several other marijuana industry business owners and workers, Murray came to a Wednesday meeting in Lansing of the Cannabis Regulatory Agency, where he asked for more and quicker enforcement from the state agency’s regulators.
Murray said better enforcement would keep the quality higher and increase safety for customers.
Murray said it is increasingly hard to be competitive with low prices, which he suspects are driven in large part by producers who aren’t following regulations.
To read more, click on Lansing State Journal