Photo Caption: Image of alleged black market marijuana products presented by Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency Director Brian Hanna during an April 23, 2025 state Senate Regulatory Affairs Committee hearing.Courtesy of the CRA
Michigan’s wide-open marijuana market wants to shut its doors. Amid plummeting prices, skimpy profit margins and heavy black market competition, the state’s largest cannabis lobbying organization this week called on lawmakers to stop issuing new marijuana licenses.
“It’s because people are continuing to bring in illicit product — conversion oil and other products — into the regulated market,” said Michigan Cannabis Industry Association Director Robin Schneider. “You really have to start to look at: if we can’t get this under control, why are we continuing to issue more licenses?”
While Schneider said her 400-plus-business trade organization supports a halt on new licenses, that contradicts language in the 2018 law Schneider and other marijuana pioneers helped write.
The existing law decentralizes licensing so that local municipalities control if and how many marijuana businesses operate within their borders. The number of available licenses is limitless.
With the local government’s blessing, if an applicant meets other state requirements, the Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) issues the license — regardless of market saturation or economic considerations.
This has led to situations in which one community may host dozens of retail shops, while a neighboring municipality bans marijuana commerce entirely.
According to Schneider, the original intent of the law’s free-market language worked; now it’s time to reevaluate.
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