The cratering price of marijuana flower
Lindsay Feehan, who spoke in person and identified herself as one of the owners of Lansing-based Emerald Transport, said the fact that the average retail price for an ounce of recreational marijuana flower has dropped to $65.21 is a bad thing for everyone in the industry, including transporters.
Fines that threaten profitablity
A caller who identified himself as Eric Colandrea and an attorney for LaHaze Cannabis Co., a grower and processor in Cheboygan, said fines resulting from enforcement actions taken by the CRA are based on rules that are poorly written and are "arbitrary."
"When you layer on the various licensing fees that we pay annually in the high $75,000 range, adding on an extra $9,000 in fines for something that really could have been a warning or could have been a $500 fine, it hurts," Colandrea said. "Right now, there's millions of dollars invested in our facility and given the pricing that we're getting for the product, we're not making money. We're losing money. So if we don't have some actions by the agency that make sense when it comes to fines, you're just going to drive these businesses like us out ... and blow up a lot of investments and put a lot of people out of work."
Illicit products still an issue
A caller who identified as David Bye with the Michigan for Safe Cannabis Coalition said conversion oil (oil that's synthetically converted into THC, which is the psychoactive component of the marijuana plant), unregulated hemp-derived products and illegal cannabis "still undermine the integrity of our regulated market" in which companies are required to follow state rules.
"Despite clear violations, a significant number of license holders caught with large quantities of illegal products still retain their licenses and are still doing business today," Bye said. "Obviously, we know that's very unsettling, and we're looking for ways to resolve that."
The CRA has said that it intends to make clear in a new rule set proposed by the CRA in 2023 that CBD to THC conversion is prohibited in Michigan.
What Whitmer's proposed tax on marijuana could do
A few industry stakeholders brought up Whitmer’s plan to raise $470 million per year for roads by imposing a 32% wholesale tax on marijuana, which they said would result in business closures because consumers wouldn't be willing to pay higher prices for cannabis products and would turn to the illicit market.
Matt Imig, who spoke in person representing Lansing-based M&M Agriculture, described the proposed tax as dropping "a bombshell" on the industry.
"What are people going to do," Imig asked at the meeting. "Where is it going to go? Are we starting to look at what the possible loopholes are for people? ... Maybe small growers are going to get stuck and then you could just kiss the small businesses goodbye. Maybe that's the goal: to just have 10 or 15 huge players and the rest of the small mom-and-pop shops just go away."
by Farmer's Advance
