Detroit’s first Black-owned, ‘legacy’ marijuana retailer opens

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The first Black-owned marijuana retailer with a social equity retail license opened Saturday in Detroit, four years after the Michigan city approved recreational cannabis sales.

Nuggets Dispensary is the city’s first adult-use store owned by a “Detroit legacy applicant,” meaning it’s owned by a longtime resident, the Detroit News reported.

Low-income Detroit residents, people with previous marijuana-related convictions or those whose parents had MJ convictions before 2018 can also qualify for the license.

“There’s many chapters that are dedicated to the pain and the trauma that we’re still … trying to get over,” City Council President Pro Tem James Tate told the Detroit News at the store opening.

“Families were ripped apart for $5 to $10 bags of weed.

“We’re still trying to get over that trauma today for that same plant that many people today are making a pretty good living off of.”

According to MJBizDaily research, fewer than 20 of the nation’s 10,000 or so medical marijuana dispensaries and adult-use stores are Black-owned.

Adult-use sales began in Michigan in December 2019, but Detroit launched recreational marijuana sales only two months ago.