Detroit awards first recreational marijuana retail licenses

Adrienne Roberts, Detroit Free Press
·3 min read

Chronic City, Gage 313 and West Coast Meds were among the 33 businesses that received a retail recreational marijuana license from the city of Detroit on Thursday, marking the end of a yearslong effort by the city to award these coveted licenses.

Sixty licenses were available in the first round but only 33 applicants met the qualifications for a recreational dispensary, the city said. Several also applied for a license to open a microbusiness or consumption lounge but none of those licenses were awarded in the first round.

"We make sure we do the right thing," said Detroit City Council President Pro Tempore James Tate, who spearheaded the ordinance, at a press conference Thursday morning. 'I've always said — and I've been told — if you do the right thing, everything will work out. It may not happen exactly when you want it to or not always how you want it to, but eventually, it'll work out."

The city cleared a major hurdle Wednesday when a federal judge denied a request in a lawsuit against Detroit's ordinance that would have halted the city's licensing process.

Mark Snipes of West Coast Meds, a medical marijuana dispensary in Detroit, was awarded a license on Thursday, December 22, 2022 to sell recreational marijuana.
Mark Snipes of West Coast Meds, a medical marijuana dispensary in Detroit, was awarded a license on Thursday, December 22, 2022 to sell recreational marijuana.

Businesses that received a license include:

Equity licenses

  • House of Zen

  • LIV Cannabis

  • Motor City Kush

  • Liberty Cannabis

  • High Profile

  • Chronic City

  • Plan B

  • DaCut

  • Blue Wave

  • The Remedy

  • Cloud Cannabis

  • Gage 313

  • Detroit Herbal Ctr

  • Nuggets

  • Livernois Provision

  • Inhale

  • TJM Enterprises

  • The Herbalist

  • Ivy League

  • SJTC Enterprises

Non-equity licenses

  • Luxury Loud

  • THC Detroit

  • Det Natural

  • Jars Cannabis

  • House of Dank

  • SMOK

  • Oz Cannabis

  • MPP Services

  • West Coast Meds

  • Cookies

  • Southwest Meds

  • Leaf and Bud

  • Playa Kind

"The recreational marijuana industry has tremendous potential to generate wealth in income for our city, as well as personal and generational wealth for those who participate," said Detroit Deputy Mayor Todd Bettison.

The ordinance sets aside half of all the limited licenses for "equity applicants." Equity applicants include people who live in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition and enforcement and those with certified Detroit Legacy status currently living in Detroit or another disproportionately impacted community.

Detroit started awarding the unlimited licenses — such as for growing or processing cannabis — in April.

In all, the city received 90 applications for the 60 limited recreational marijuana licenses available in the first round.

The second application round could open up as soon as the end of January, pending City Council approval, said Anthony Zander, director of the city's department of civil rights, inclusion and opportunity. The city will award up to 30 retail licenses, 20 microbusiness licenses and 20 consumption lounge licenses.

Kim James, director of Detroit's office of marijuana ventures and entrepreneurship, said the scored application results are available to view on HomegrownDetroit.org. In January, the office will be open to personal meetings with every applicant to discuss their score, she said. The office will also be holding Zoom informational sessions before the next round of applications opens up.

Detroit had to go back to the drawing board and revise its first ordinance after U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman called it "likely unconstitutional" in June 2021. In February, Tate unveiled the revised ordinance, which he said stayed "true to the spirit" of the original but had some significant changes.

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Detroit faced multiple legal challenges over its revised ordinance. After two lawsuits challenging it in Wayne County Circuit Court were dismissed in August, the city began taking applications for the limited licenses on Sept 1.

Still, even after Judge Friedman's decision to not halt the licensing process, Tate said the city needs to be prepared for more lawsuits.

"By no means is the so-called battle over," he said. "We've already been told that we're going to get sued again. We know that's the nature of this game."

Contact Adrienne Roberts: amroberts@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit awards first recreational pot retail licenses