Detroit Medical Cannabis Update

Detroit Medical Cannabis Update

The past week has actually been an active one in the City of Detroit when it involves Medical Marijuana Facilities Licensing Act issues. The City application due date for presently running centers was February 15. The Wayne County Circuit Court's Chief Judge, Robert Colombo, Jr. released a judgment regarding the voter initiatives and dispensary zoning requirements. Ultimately, the City provided a postponement on applications and authorizations for new medical marijuana provisioning centers within the City of Detroit.

Detroit MMFLA Deadline Comes and Goes: If you were a medical marijuana provisioning center owner and you were on the City's approved operating list, you were required to submit your application to the State of Michigan Bureau of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs by February 15, 2018. That application additionally had to be submitted with the City of detroit for municipal attestation of operating approval by that date as well. If you did not get your application in by February 15, 2018, whether or not you were on the accepted list, and despite whether you have actually been running with City authorization, your license with the City will not be renewed. Nor will your existing municipal license to operate be renewed. In other words, if you really did not get your application in by February 15, 2018, you're out of luck after the expiration of your existing license, at least, within the limits of the City of Detroit, for at a minimum of 6 months, until the moratorium is passed. Even then, there's no warranty that you will have the ability to apply, or be approved, once the moratorium is over. All the more reason to inquire about the guidelines and also rules with a medical marijuana licensing attorney who comprehends the complexities of this ever-changing as well as complex area of regulation.

Moratorium on New Dispensaries:

Detroit has placed a six month moratorium on applications for Medical Marijuana dispensary licenses since February 15. The City has actually mentioned that it will certainly not release any kind of new provisioning center licenses during that 6 month period. Even more significantly, for provisioning centers that were operating under a municipal license or under a legal arrangement with the City that they would certainly not shut your center down, if you did not send your State Application for a dispensary license, and also submit your application to the City of Detroit for an attestation by close of business on February 15, 2018, you will not be accepted to operate, and your currently issued and valid license to operate in the City, will certainly not be restored. Services that did not get their applications in by the deadline will certainly have to wait until at least after the moratorium is over before they can try to re-apply. There has been a lot of discussion that the City may not release anymore licenses after that moratorium is passed, which it would certainly be within its rights to do. Because of this, if you didn't get your application in before the target date, you ought to speak with a medical marijuana licensing attorney to discuss your options moving forward.

Circuit Court Strikes Down Zoning Initiative:

The final news pertains to the voter initiatives that were passed in November which transformed the zoning requirements for provisioning centers. Voters authorized a reduction in the zoning restrictions regarding medical marijuana dispensaries. The ordinance required that a dispensary needed to be at least 1000 feet away from a church or school. The initiatives proposed to decrease the zoning requirements to make sure that dispensaries only needed to be less than 500 feet away from a church or school. The City of Detroit challenged the legality of the voter initiatives and submitted a suit in the Wayne County Circuit Court. On Friday, Wayne County Circuit Court Chief Judge Robert Colombo, Jr. established that under the Home Rule statute, which governs how cities like Detroit are run and governed in the State of Michigan, zoning restrictions and requirements might not be transformed by voter initiative. Consequently, the initiatives were overruled and the original zoning limits are once again in place. While a number of citizen teams are vowing an appeal, it will be a long time before the Court of Appeals and, ultimately, the Michigan Supreme Court can consider in on the concern. The zoning regulation, if it continues to be unmodified, will likely also impact new kinds of Medical Cannabis Facilities approved for licensing under the MMFLA.

How Does This Influence My Application?: If you are a dispensary operating lawfully in Detroit right now, as well as you submitted your application to the State as well as the City by February 15, 2018, after that, these modifications will have little to no impact on you. Anybody operating a facility in Detroit that did not apply by the due date, or who is running unlawfully and also is not on the Detroit approved facilities' listing, the choice might be devastating. You may not have the ability to run your facility after completion of the year, or sooner, relying on the nature of your center. If you are not on the authorized list, you will certainly not be able to obtain city authorization to run, which is a condition precedent to obtaining your State license. Therefore, you will not be able to get an operating license from the State, and your unregulated facility is likely to come to be a target of State regulators. If you were running legitimately, yet did not get your application in to the City or the State by February 15, 2018, you will certainly not be municipally approved to continue running past your existing licensing date. There is likewise no assurance that you will certainly have the ability to send an application after the present 6 month moratorium, nor exists any type of reason to believe that the City will certainly approve any more applications for provisioning centers. If your wish is to continue supplying people with medicine, you need to talk with a knowledgeable medical cannabis licensing lawyer to aid you develop a plan on exactly how you can attempt to continue in the sector.

If you wish to go over acquiring a license under the Michigan Medical Marijuana Facilities Licensing Act,

be it a provisioning centers, processing facility, grow operation, testing laboratory or secured transporter,

call Fowler & Williams, PLC today for an appointment.