Michigan okayed recreational sale of marijuana. Here is a list of places where you can buy it. You may notice, it's rather Ann Arbor-heavy. This is perhaps not surprising for the town that has hosted the Hash Bash for nearly half a century. It is the place that for years and years had a $5 fine for possession of pot since the early '70s, only raising it to $25 in the '90s, presumably for the sake of covering the administrative costs of writing tickets more than deterrence. So yes, Ann Arbor has half a dozen or so pot shops -- more than double any other Michigan city.
Upon legalization, many cities rushed to pass laws forbidding pot shops. Others left the door open and just shot down any application. This has triggered two reactions; a silly one: cities that allow weed shops complaining about cities that deny weed shops still getting a share of the revenue, and a natural one: people driving hours to get to their nearest shop then finding enormous lines. There is one near my gym, which may be the closest one to Detroit, that has had lines outside around the block in the dead of a Michigan winter. (Note -- shortly after I wrote this two more opened up closed to Detroit and the lines have dwindled.) Folks love their weed. Another reaction is copious complaints about how this legal weed is waaaay overpriced. For the moment, supply-and-demand may force some people back to the behoodied folks on Eight Mile.
More interesting is the fact that it is still a federal crime. So even though the State of Michigan is OK with it, any involvement with it is technically an opportunity for the Feds to get you. As a result, it is for the moment an entirely cash business. And I don't just mean the customers have to hit the ATM before a visit. I mean the dispensaries, which take in tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars a week, in cash, can't even put it in the bank. I honestly don't know to what extent this reaches. Do they have to pay their rent in cash? Do the employees get paid in cash? How do they secure all that cash from theft?
Note: the reason cash businesses are a problem is because of 9/11, which begat the Patriot Act, which made it no longer acceptable to do business transactions without verifying first that the party you are doing business with is on the up-and-up. So a bank can longer set up an account with a business without first verifying they are legal, or a payroll service can't take on a client without a background check. Personally, I think the downstream effects of the Patriot Act have yet to be fully realized or appreciated.
It's a bizarre situation. Metaphorical mattresses must be stuffed with currency at this point and something somewhere is going to have to give. Unfortunately, it's probably going to have to be through a "test case" where the Feds arrest some poor schmuck and he gets to be the sacrificial lamb while the lawyers sort everything out. Who imagined recreation could be so complicated? The behoodied guy on Eight Mile is looking better.
Addendum: Now we have the first attempt at making hallucinogens legal in Ann Arbor. Reach for that star.
