First Recreational Pot Business License in Michigan
November/11/2019
According to the Detroit News, Michigan is expected to issue the first recreational pot business license by November 30.
After opening the application portal on November 1, the state through Marijuana Regulatory Agency received 58 applications for pre-qualification and 43 applications for operating licenses, The Detroit News reported.
According to The Detroit News, forty-one applications for pre-qualification has been approved. The MRA is expected to award the first license by November 30.
Compared to the medical cannabis licensing process which was started in December 2017 and issued its first pre-qualification approval in April of 2018, the process of licensing recreational marijuana is moving at a faster pace, since the opening and approval of the pre-qualification applications are done within the same month, reported the news outlet.
According to MRA spokesperson, David Harns, the faster pace in recreational pot licensing is because the MRA removed the licensing board that supervised the licensing medical marijuana. This eliminated the staffers who packed an application and investigation materials and then waited for the board to decide after reviewing them.
The laws regulating recreational marijuana are not as complicated as those of medical marijuana, added Harns.
According to The Detroit News, the state of New York has not placed a limit on the number of recreational marijuana business licenses to be issued. However, the local communities are allowed to limit the location or number of pot business within the cities. The news outlet further reported that about 1, 400 municipalities have decided not to participate in the sale of recreational marijuana.
