Another 51 dispensaries in Detroit, Michigan are set to be shuttered in the coming weeks as city officials continue cracking down on shops they say are operating illegally, the Detroit Free Press reports. City officials want to limit the number of dispensaries in the city to 50 and have, so far, shut down 167 since Mar. 1, 2016 – when the city’s medical cannabis ordinances took effect.
Only five dispensaries have been licensed and are allowed to legally operate under the city regime.
According to Detroit corporation counsel Melvin Butch Hollowell, the city has chosen to enforce the ordinances with administrative actions and court orders instead of using law enforcement resources and personnel.
“We take the report from the team and then we attach that to a complaint that’s filed in Wayne County Circuit Court,” Hollowell said in the report. “We ask the court for order of closure and padlocking. … We haven’t lost one of those cases yet.”
If officials are successful in their next round of closures, 218 total dispensaries will have been shut down by the city since the new rules took effect. The rules require businesses to obtain the proper licensing, prohibits them from operating within a 1,000-foot radius of places considered drug-free zones under city law, and requires them to close by 8 p.m.