Detroit, Not Again: Another Lawsuit Threatens Motown's Long-Awaited Cannabis Ordinance

Less than a month after a lawsuit challenged Detroit's revised recreational marijuana ordinance, another lawsuit against the city was filed Friday, arguing that the measure violates state law.

JARS Cannabis, which has two medical marijuana dispensaries in Detroit and several MMJ and adult-use shops across the state, is asking the court to stop the City of Detroit from moving forward with its ordinance, which was passed in April.

As the second lawsuit challenging Detroit's second attempt at a recreational cannabis ordinance, this new one clearly signals another setback for the city as the legal cannabis market booms in the rest of Michigan.

What’s This Lawsuit All About?
JARS Cannabis argues that Detroit's ordinance violates state law in several ways, reported the Detroit Free Press. For starters, JARS says Detroit's scoring system for selecting which applicants receive limited licenses fails to provide a competitive application process, but rather awards points that are unrelated to the applicant's ability to operate in compliance with state law.

JARS used the example of the so-called "Good Neighbor Plan," which implies hiring Detroit residents and donating to a Detroit charitable organization.

The lawsuit also refers to a line in state law that says: "A municipality may adopt other ordinances that are not unreasonably impracticable and do not conflict with this act or with any rule promulgated pursuant to this act."

JARS calls that "unreasonably impracticable" because the scoring method deters them and others from applying, prohibits the issuance of more than one recreational license to any direct or indirect owner and effectively bans the co-location of medical and recreational cannabis facilities.

"It is abundantly clear that Detroit’s second ordinance serves as the kiss of death for existing medical-marijuana facilities operating within the city of Detroit," the lawsuit says.

Scott Roberts, whose law firm Scott Roberts Law is representing JARS, put it this way: "We believe the city council's latest attempt at an ordinance clearly violates state law, which hurts not just Detroit dispensary owners and investors, but also the employees that rely on these businesses to provide for their families."

The first lawsuit was filed in May by the House of Dank, which several medical marijuana businesses joined. They argued that existing medical dispensaries in Detroit should receive recreational sales licenses.

In keeping with the current ordinance, medical marijuana facilities are not being offered recreational licenses until 2027 at which time, the plaintiffs argue, they will all be “strangled to death and go out of business long before they are even eligible to apply for (recreational) retailer licenses in 2027."