Legal Pot in Michigan – EPISDOE 420 Dude!

In this milestone episode — number 420, naturally — Mike takes a look at the rise of legal marijuana in Michigan. From the early days of medical cards to today’s booming recreational market, Mike walks through how the laws changed, what it looks like around northern Michigan, and how communities have adapted (or resisted) the cannabis wave. Along the way, he shares observations, local quirks, and a bit of “Up North” perspective. Topics Covered • How Michigan Got Here A quick history of medical marijuana legalization (2008) Proposal 1 and the shift to recreational use in 2018 What changed on day one — and what didn’t • Northern Michigan’s Cannabis Scene How Traverse City, Acme, Kingsley, and neighboring towns handled the rollout Local dispensaries, differences between tourist areas vs. rural areas The slow-but-steady licensing process in TC • Common Questions People Still Ask “Can I grow my own?” “Can you smoke in public?” “What about driving?” “What’s the tax structure like?” • Tourism & Culture How legal marijuana has changed the vibe for summer visitors The mix of craft breweries, wineries, and now… dispensaries The interesting combo of retirees, tourists, and locals navigating it all • Mike’s Take Observations as someone who has watched Michigan go from dry counties to legal weed How Michigan tends to “normalize” things once the novelty wears off Why episode 420 was the perfect moment to talk about it

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever the
case may be. This is episode four twenty.
I think it's time for my dove world.

(00:37):
There it is.
Yeah. So, dude, it's four twenty. Well, actually,
what I'm gonna talk about is the
fact that Michigan, it's legal for
recreational
cannabis usage,
and
there is a lot
of pot shops here in Traverse City.

(01:00):
You know, four twenty, in case you didn't
know, is,
it's kind of a slang
term of,
you know, for cannabis
consumption,
around the time 04:20PM.
It also refers to cannabis oriented
celebrations that take place annually on 04/24/2020,

(01:23):
US
date form.
So,
anyway, yeah, there's, there's a lot of pot
shops around Traverse City.
Within
pretty easy walking distance,
there's
two of them
from me.
One is,
on Parsons Road,
called Green Farms, spelled P H A R

(01:45):
M.
And then there's another one at the Toms
East Bay Plaza
area.
That building
first was a Mexican restaurant,
and then it was a funeral home,
believe it or not.
And then it's now been at least three

(02:06):
different pot shops.
Currently, it's a Loom.
Loom is a,
Michigan
chain of
of pot shops
or
what do they call them? Dispensaries
or or whatever.
And,
yeah, that's,
it's one of those things around here. But

(02:27):
if you drive down,
Front Street slash Munson Avenue,
and I can think of at least three
or four,
other than the two that I mentioned.
And
on,
Parsons Road, if you go straight
across Garfield, there's two more just directly on
the other side

(02:48):
of, Garfield
on I think it's Hannah Avenue. I don't
remember. I don't I don't know street names
that well.
But, anyway and, you know, I I have
partaken,
but, not recently.
Used to a little bit. In fact, the
first time I walked into a pot shop

(03:09):
was with my 78
year old dad,
and he was having trouble sleeping.
And so we, were coming back from
Grand Haven.
Dad and I went down there to pick
up a bunch of tools from a a
friend of mine that, was cleaning out his
garage and

(03:30):
wanted to get rid of some
tool chests and
a compressor and a few other things. And
we were coming back, and we're driving through,
Honor, Michigan,
a little town,
west of here.
And, there was a loom shop there. So,
yeah, first time I walked into a legal
pot shop was with my dad,

(03:52):
which I thought was kind of funny.
But,
anyway and then he,
he used,
he he liked what was called pot dots.
They were,
little,
like, M and M's almost,
lace. So they were one gram per

(04:13):
M and M. So he, you know, popped
four or five of them, six of them,
and, he could sleep good.
And this is before he got,
diagnosed with, lung cancer.
So that might have been
part of why he didn't,
sleep well. But,
anyway so, yeah, he,

(04:35):
he enjoyed a little bit of edibles.
And,
I never forget one time he
he goes, hey. You know? I I got
this. And, you know, he had, like, a
a pack of,
10
pre rolls. And he says, yeah. I tried
smoking one of them. I just cough and
cough and cough and cough.

(04:58):
You know, the old saying,
if you don't cough, you don't get off.
But, anyway, he gave me those, and they're
still in the in the stash.
But I haven't really partaken in a long
time. It's
just not something I'm super interested in, but
it is kinda crazy that
there is as many

(05:19):
of those shops around
as there are. And, you know, when you
go into one of those, you know, they
gotta get your
driver's license, your ID, and you get registered,
and then they
escort you into the shop. And they have
an expert that knows way too much about
all the stuff they have, which is pretty

(05:40):
crazy. They also can't take
credit cards or debit cards.
They can only take cash. Of course, they
have an ATM in the lobby, so you
can get cash if you didn't bring cash.
But, I find that an interesting rule. Another
thing that was interesting,
and, you know, I'm not a smoker anymore
of, of tobacco products, but

(06:03):
there you're not allowed to smoke tobacco products
anywhere on the property.
That's because
you can also not consume
the product sold there on the property,
and they are pretty strict about that.
And around here, they've also got a couple
of big grow operations.

(06:25):
They're great big,
what do you call those?
Greenhouses,
I guess. And,
yeah. It's,
it's quite the industry. I, you know, I
the funny thing is I do notice that
the prices on all of that has gone
way down, and
I understand that,
a lot of those,

(06:46):
shops are not making
as much money as you would think they
would. I know Loom is doing okay because
they're statewide and
especially
around the border areas. Imagine that
because,
I believe Indiana and Ohio do not have
recreational.
I do believe they have medical, but not

(07:07):
recreational
cannabis
as legal. So, yeah, a lot of those
along the borders
of Indiana, Ohio.
I don't know about Wisconsin
or
or that. And I know it's it's legal
in Ontario,
Canada.
So
but I don't know what the,

(07:28):
the deal is crossing the border. I I
imagine you could cross north,
you know, cross into Canada
with some cannabis on you, but, coming back,
it's still federally illegal. And, of course, the
border patrol are federal
employees, so
probably
not coming back from

(07:49):
Ontario.
But, yeah, I just thought it was an
interesting little topic to talk about. I
don't know where you're at, whether,
cannabis is legal or what the status is.
Do remember, going out to Denver one time
for a conference
in
the hotel we were staying in.

(08:12):
The fire alarm went off. We were all
sitting in the hotel bar.
The fire alarm went off, so everybody had
to leave. So we went out to the
little,
sitting area outside the hotel in the parking
lot, whatever, kind of the smoke hole where,
you know, tobacco smokers would go and
somebody broke out a joint and passed it

(08:34):
around and, you know, that was pretty normal
there in Colorado.
So, anyway,
I I'm neither for or against it. You
know, more power to you if you wanna
partake.
Personally,
it doesn't do much for me, so, I
don't
partake usually,
but,

(08:54):
I just thought it was interesting.
And since this is episode four twenty, I
figured it was a good subject. So,
anyway, I'll be back tomorrow.
Tomorrow, what do I have on my list
of things to talk about?
Well, it says here snow, but, yeah, you
guys are probably tired of hearing about snow,

(09:14):
so maybe I'll, think of something else. Tomorrow,
I'm
going out and removing leaves at my mom's
house
and then
taking the
mower off of the tractor,
mower deck off, and putting the snowblower deck
or snowblower attachment on the tractor.
And I'm gonna load the tractor onto the

(09:36):
trailer and haul it over to the tractor
doctor, get that
tuned up and serviced for winter.
So, yeah, maybe snow is a good topic.
I I don't know. We'll see.
Coming up on my list of things,
is I'm gonna talk about the radio business,

(09:56):
both here and, you know, kind of around
the country that I know of.
And also gonna be talking about heating with
wood. I don't know if any of you
guys have done that.
And then I got a couple of rants.
And
so, hey, we're,
we're plugging along. We're almost a halfway,

(10:17):
through
a NAPOD promo,
national podcast posting month. If you wanna
subscribe to the mega feed or if you're
listening to this on the mega feed, thank
you. But if you wanna subscribe to the
mega feed, it's over at napodpomo.0rg.
And,
Yeah. That'd be cool.
And, thanks to, Jennifer for putting this together

(10:40):
for the last eighteen years.
I'll catch you tomorrow.