LANSING, MI — Only 62 cents of every $100 spent on marijuana in Michigan in the past year went toward medical marijuana.
Since the first recreational stores opened in 2019, total marijuana sales have boomed. They’re currently on pace to surpass $3.3 billion this year. But that has come at the expense of a once-thriving medical marijuana market that’s now on life support.
The medical customer base – 81,273 registered patients as of November – continues to dwindle as certifications lapse and aren’t renewed.
By comparison, the state had 276,253 registered medical marijuana patients five years ago.
Among the nearly 850 marijuana shops operating across the state by Dec. 1, less than a quarter were licensed to sell medical pot, and when they do, the medical products receive scarce shelf space. MLive identified just a dozen shops selling medical product only.
But the state still maintains different laws and tax structures to regulate medical marijuana and spends millions of dollars a year to do so.
Legislators and cannabis business leaders have wanted to combine the medical and adult-use markets for years, but proposed legislation that would have done so is likely dead as a result of political infighting in the waning days of the lame-duck session.
House bills 5884 and 5885 had sought to eliminate the medical market and merge certain aspects with the recreational regulatory structure by 2026.
The proposed laws would have allowed medically registered patients to buy recreational products while still receiving the perks of being a medical patient, meaning they wouldn’t be subject to the 10% recreational excise tax.
Furthermore, current laws barring sales to customers under 21 wouldn’t apply to medical marijuana patients, who can buy the drug as young as 18.
The bills call for existing medical marijuana licenses to be automatically converted to adult-use in March 2026. However, municipalities that don’t want recreational businesses have the option to pass ordinances banning the changeover within their borders.
The proposed laws received bipartisan support — they were sponsored by state Rep. Jimmie Wilson Jr., D-Ypsilanti, and state Rep. Graham Filler, R-St. Johns — as well as backing from the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association, the largest cannabis trade organization in the state.
Any changes to the marijuana law require a super-majority, 3/4 vote of the Legislature, since the laws were created through a citizen ballot initiative.
“The issue our members are having is they have to file two applications each year, one for med and one for rec, and they also have to pay double license fees for that,” said Robin Schneider, director of the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association. “And then there are regulatory duplications that they have to adhere to because, because the programs are separate, and so it’s very costly and expensive for them to be running two parallel programs within their facility.”
Until December 2021, marijuana businesses were required to also have a medical marijuana license. Since that rule has expired, a minority of business are opting to retain dual licenses.
The Cannabis Regulatory Agency spent $9 million — nearly $755,000 per month — for wages, benefits and other costs to regulate the medical market over the last 12 months, including processing renewals, new licenses, inspections and enforcement. The agency spent $20.4 million regulating recreational marijuana over the same period.
Schneider called proposed legislation to merge the markets “long overdue.”
Supporters of a merger say the changes would give medical patients more options for marijuana, while reducing administrative and business costs needed to sustain the evaporating medical market.
George Brikho, who operates the Jazz Cannabis Club recreational marijuana store in Detroit and previously led the now-defunct Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said most medical customers have already been pushed aside by corporate profit seeking.
“It’s pretty much all mass-produced product,” Brikho said. “It’s not focused on medical. Certain marijuana is good for certain illnesses or health problems, and the market has veered away from that.
“It’s hard to find strain-specific marijuana for patients, and medical marijuana patients are giving up their cards.”
There has been little opposition to the proposed bills.
The Michigan Sheriff’s Association opposed a previous version that would have stripped some funding to law enforcement. Matt Saxton, the organization’s director, said the latest versions no longer do that and the Sheriff’s Association is now “neutral” on the proposal.
What politicians and business leaders are now seeking is “just a clean merge,” Filler said, “just to have one act in the state of Michigan to cut down on the bureaucracy and … allow this to be an industry you want to invest in in the state of Michigan because we’re regulated and we have rules and laws that make sense.”
The number of medical marijuana customers in Michigan has dwindled from 276,000 five years ago to 81,000 as of November. Read More
