MICHIGAN COURT STOPS shuttering OF 98 MARIJUANA Facilities

According to the Detroit News, a Michigan Court of Claims judge has issued an injunction to stop the shut down of 98 medical marijuana facilities that were ordered to close yesterday in an advisory bulletin. Michigan issued an advisory bulletin ordering temporary medical marijuana facilities to cease operations by Saturday if the facility did not have a municipal authorization for temporary operations, the facility applied after February 18, 2018, or the facility filed an initial application prior to February 15, 2018, but that did not submit the facility license application for operational approval before June 1, 2018. Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) indicated that the failure to cease operations would impede the applicant’s ability to obtain a medical marijuana license, and the matter would be referred to law enforcement.

Montro LLC filed the suit to stop the state from moving forward claiming that municipal delays prevented the entity from filing the application by the deadlines cited by LARA. The lack of deadlines for municipalities to decide whether to opt out of the medical marijuana regulation and to establish a local ordinance has created uncertainty and obstacles to the timely filing of applications to establish a medical marijuana facility. State marijuana statutes and implementing regulations should require action within a given timeframe to ensure a fair and equitable process, especially when the state limits the number of available licenses.