Detroit regulators received 90 applications for the 60 recreational marijuana business licenses available in the city’s first phase of licensing.
The licenses are for retailers, microbusinesses and consumption lounges in Michigan’s most-populous city, the Detroit Free Press reported.
After many delays, the city will issue a total of 160 licenses in three phases.
Of the 60 licenses to be awarded in the first phase, 40 will be for retail businesses, 10 for microbusinesses and 10 for consumption lounge licenses.
The application window closed Oct. 1.
Of the 90 application submissions, 40 came from equity applicants, including 28 who qualified for Detroit Legacy status, Kim James, director of Detroit’s office of marijuana ventures and entrepreneurship, told the Free Press.
Detroit regulations mandate that half the limited licenses be awarded to “equity applicants,” according to the newspaper.
Equity applicants include people who live in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs and those who are legitimate Detroit legacy applicants.
Meanwhile, Detroit’s City Council appointed attorney Rob Huth of the Clinton Township-based law firm Kirk, Huth, Lange & Badalament to decide which applicants will be awarded licenses.
Huth, who served in a similar role for the city of Pontiac, must still be approved by Mayor Mike Duggan.
