Michigan Scraps Plan to Let Caregivers Supply Adult-Use Market

Michigan’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency has abruptly stopped the transferring of caregiver-grown flower to the state’s adult-use market. The April 8 announcement came less than a month after the agency said it would allow such transfers until October 1.

“Effective April 8, 2020, the MRA will not permit caregiver-produced or derived product to enter the adult-use market. Any equivalent license transfer request submitted to the MRA that includes caregiver-produced or derived products will be denied.” – MRA Advisory Bulletin, April 8, 2020

The sudden new rules apply to both caregiver cultivators and processors.

According to a Detroit Free Press report, those growers accounted for about 60 percent of both medical and recreational cannabis sold in the state. Medical cannabis dispensaries may still obtain products from licensed caregivers.

The MRA action comes after one large-scale licensed caregiver transferred more than 5,000 pounds of cannabis to the adult-use market within the last month, according to the Free Press. Under the state’s medical cannabis law, caregivers can only grow up to 72 plants total for as many as six registered patients.

David Harns, MRA spokesman, told the Free Press that allowing caregiver-derived products “was meant to supplement the medical market” and that the recreational market is “moving toward a self-sustaining eco-system.”

Adult-use dispensaries may sell caregiver-grown products they have remaining on the shelf, but the state will not authorize any new transfers. The MRA bulletin also notes that adult-use dispensaries may not transfer products or plants to medical cannabis establishments.