LANSING – The state legalized personal use of marijuana in hopes that it would decrease the amount of illegal use and distribution.
However, problems with the black market have increased with the ease of getting access to and purchasing cannabis.
Matthew Saxton, the executive director of the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association, said police are seeing a lot more illegal black-market marijuana growth around the state.
Calhoun County Sheriff Steve Hinkley said with short staff and few detectives, police agencies are unable to keep up at the pace that illegal grow operations are popping up.
The issue is that laws allowing home growers and commercial marijuana sales didn’t provide extra funding so police could catch private growers who sell on the black market.
Illegal farms also undermine licensed dispensaries, harming legitimate businesses in the community, Hinkley said.
The main struggle law enforcement agencies face is locating such operations in the first place. Many are found through word of mouth, like neighbors smelling plants when they walk past a house in their neighborhood or seeing unusual activity at a recently purchased home, Hinkley said.
Hinkley said officers also look for unusually high electricity use or updated electrical services in homes or other buildings, like barns, that normally would not require that much power.
“These aren’t short-term investigations. We have to have probable cause. We have to have a search warrant,” said Hinkley. “Officers are frequently pulled away to respond to other calls, so such cases are often not treated as a top priority.”
Cannabis dispensaries are huge business on Michigan’s borders.
Bridge Michigan reported that dispensaries near Michigan’s border with Indiana use signs to attract out-of-state customers, causing Indiana lawmakers to pass a law prohibiting marijuana billboards in the state.
Many residents are concerned that new dispensaries are popping up every month in towns on the border, according to Bridge Michigan. On the Michigan-Ohio border alone there are 45 legal dispensaries.
Manley & Manley, a criminal defense law firm in Flint, says on its website, “The state has yet to pass regulations for selling recreational marijuana. That means that while you are allowed to grow, possess, use and give away marijuana for recreational purposes, you can face criminal charges with significant penalties for selling it.”
The state’s website says no law requires Michigan residents who grow marijuana at home to declare how much they grow but they are permitted to have only 12 plants on one property.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill that imposed a 24% excise tax on marijuana transactions beginning Jan. 1. That’s in addition to a 10% excise tax and 6% tax on all marijuana sales, which critics say could drive consumers to untaxed markets.
The new tax is being challenged in court.
Questions about this story? Contact Capital News Service editor Eric Freedman at freedma5@msu.edu
