A cannabis group turned Tuesday to the Michigan Court of Appeals in an effort to block a wholesale marijuana tax from taking effect January 1, arguing the Legislature violated the state constitution earlier this year by suddenly changing the rules on the industry and sidestepping the intent of voters who approved a 2018 initiative.
Michigan Cannabis Industry Association spokesperson Rose Tantraphol said it is critical for courts to settle this question before the new year.
“The stakes are incredibly high,” she told Michigan Public Radio. “Cannabis businesses operate on thin margins. If this goes into effect on New Year’s Day, businesses will close. Our neighbors who work in the cannabis industry will lose their jobs.”
The challenge filed by the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association argues the Legislature failed to adopt the bill with the three-fourths House and Senate supermajorities required by the Michigan Constitution to alter a voter-approved initiative. The challenge also argues the Legislature unconstitutionally played a shell game to use a different bill to effectively amend the voter-approved initiative.
In the first ruling in the case earlier this month, a Michigan Court of Claims judge sided mostly with the state and declined to issue an order blocking the tax from taking effect.
A spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget, which will administer the tax, declined to comment on active litigation. But the state has argued in court that the cannabis tax is part of a road-funding plan and it does not touch the language in the recreational marijuana initiative adopted by voters in 2018.
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