The Michigan Cannabis Industry Association, representing hundreds of Michigan cannabis companies, will make oral arguments this month to try and stop the Michigan Treasury from assessing a 24 percent wholesale tax on cannabis sales. The MiCIA is asking for a preliminary injunction. The tax is scheduled to be collected Jan. 1, 2026.
Oral arguments have been scheduled for the motion for preliminary injunction on Tuesday, November 25th at 11AM at the Michigan Court of Appeals in Detroit.
Details were sent Nov. 6 in an email from Executive Director Robin Schneider to the MICIA Membership:
“Last week, our filing with the Court requested a preliminary injunction,” Schneider wrote. “We asked the Court to stop the tax from taking effect in the first place, because of the manner in which the legislature passed the tax and the damage it will do to our businesses, as we outlined over more than 60 pages in our filing. If the injunction is granted, the tax would be placed on hold while the Court hears the case.”
Just hours after Governor Whitmer signed the budget bills into law on Oct. 8, which included the wholesale tax on cannabis, MiCIA attorneys at Dykema and Honigman filed the lawsuit asking the court to strike down the wholesale tax.
“In addition to the damage this tax could cause our industry, the suit makes the case that lawmakers passed an unconstitutional law,” Schneider said last month.
In today’s email to membership, Schneider summarized the arguments that will be made before the Court of Appeals:
The 24 percent wholesale tax on cannabis passed by the Michigan Legislature and signed into law by Governor Whitmer is unconstitutional in multiple respects. It alleges state legislators acted unconstitutionally in the passage of this tax. Notably, Article 2 Section 9 of the Michigan Constitution requires a three-quarters vote, rather than a simple majority vote, to amend any law enacted by citizen initiative, as was the Michigan Regulation and Taxation of Marihuana Act, which passed on the 2018 election ballot.
The lawsuit also details how the last-minute, late-night process occurred in violation of a range of other constitutional provisions. As a result, MiCIA is asking the Court to strike the tax in its entirety.
Read more at www.micia.org
