The Great Lakes State has the second-largest medical marijuana patient base in the country, trailing only gigantic California. A shift in Michigan's medical marijuana market is no small event.
Major legal weed markets have opened up on the West Coast — California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Alaska — and New England, with Maine, Massachusetts and Washington D.C. But the Midwest remains largely untapped.
Michigan's new licensing and seed-to-sale tracking system for medical marijuana opened for applications in December, and observers expect to see a ballot question on recreational marijuana in Michigan in November.
If recreational marijuana were legalized in Michigan, the regulated market “will likely serve as a catalyst for other states in the Midwest to rethink existing laws and follow suit with full legalization,” Matt Karnes, founder and managing partner at GreenWave Advisors, told Benzinga.
Top photo courtesy of Adobe Stock
