With the simple release of an Advisory Bulletin, Michigan’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) has assured that Michigan will be the first Midwest state to allow adult-use sales, commencing December 1, 2019!
As we have previously reported, Michigan’s Emergency Rules for Adult-Use Marijuana provide for companies that hold equivalent medical marijuana business licenses to transfer medical marijuana and medical marijuana products to their equivalent adult-use licenses. In other words, a dual-licensed grower can transfer inventory from medical to adult-use—and so can a provisioning center/retailer (in non-Michigan parlance, a dispensary).
Michigan’s rules that allow for this product transfer require the State to announce a start date, end date, and other requirements for such transfers. In late October, the Executive Director of the MRA announced that the State would be making decisions about these protocols in January, and that MRA did not expect to immediately allow transfers. This raised the prospect that adult-use licensees who receive their license later this month would have to wait for plants to be planted, harvested, processed, and sold to retailers as “adult-use” marijuana before adult-use sales could commence.
The MRA’s November 13 Advisory Bulleting will allow for product transfers to commence on December 1, 2019. Dispensaries and other licensees will be limited to transferring 50% of their product that has passed testing. For dispensaries, the transfers are limited to 50% of each product type (i.e., flower, concentrate, etc.) that has been in inventory for a minimum of 30 days. While this will likely continue to limit the availability of flower, products for which there is more abundant supply (particularly cartridges) should be available for sale immediately.
And that madness begins!
As always, check back with Dykema’s Cannabis Law Blog for further updates.