The city of Detroit is expected to soon start processing recreational marijuana license applications.
A City Council vote this week approved a revised ordinance after delays and challenges.
The ordinance will go into effect on April 20, when the processing of applications for unlimited licenses can begin. This includes for growing or processing cannabis, although it will take longer (up to 100 days) to set up the program to process limited licenses, which include retail and consumption lounges, among others.
Council President Mary Sheffield, President Pro Tem James Tate, and members Angela Whitfield Calloway, Latisha Johnson, Gabriela Santiago-Romero, Fred Durhal III and Coleman Young II voted to approve the new ordinance. Council member Mary Waters voted no.
“This is a long-term industry,” said Tate. “The city of Detroit is not going to close up in two weeks, two days or two months. We’re going to continue to move forward and persevere. We’re going to continue to address and elevate the issues of equity in the city of Detroit, not just in cannabis, but across the board. But this is our opportunity to start in that direction.”
Tate introduced a revised ordinance in February after the original ordinance was challenged in court. A federal judge in June called the process for obtaining a recreational marijuana license in Detroit “likely unconstitutional,” forcing the city to go back to the drawing board or wait for a trial date for an appeal in the fall.
The revised ordinance sets aside half of the limited licenses for so-called “equity applicants,” which includes longtime Detroiters and for those people who live in communities where marijuana-related convictions are greater than the state average.
In the prior ordinance, at least half of all license types would have been awarded to so-called Detroit Legacy applicants, and those applications were processed first.
“Many of us have seen across this country legislation that goes full tilt and does everything everybody wants it to do and has problems,” Tate also said. “You can’t unwind it when those problems erupt.”
