One-hitters

WEED

House of Dank’s Fort Street location is one of the first adult-use dispensaries in Detroit.

RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

You can nally buy legal weed in Detroit

By Lee DeVito

AT LONG LAST, licensed dispensaries are allow ed to sell adult-use cannabis in D etroit. he city’s first dispensaries to sell cannabis for recreational use opened for business last W ednesday to anyone age 21 or older, no medical marijuana card necessary.

H ouse of D ank (3394 S. Fort St.), D aC ut (12668 G ratiot A ve.), and C loud C annabis (16001 Mack A ve.) are among Detroit’s first dispensaries to o er adult-use sales. T hey w ere previously licensed to sell to medical marijuana cardholders only and recei ed final approval for adult-use sales from the state of Michigan late afternoon last Tuesday, the Detroit Free Press reports.

W hile Michigan voters approved cannabis for adult use in 2018, it took D etroit years to opt-in to the program. T hat’s because C ity C ouncil member James Tate w anted to create a cannabis ordinance w ith an emphasis on social equity, or helping people from communities like D etroit that have been harmed the most by the racist w ar on drugs.

But the ordinance had to be rew ritten as the city faced several law suits arguing that it w as unfair to give licensing preference to longtime D etroiters. Eventually, the city came up w ith an ordinance that o ers two trac s or licenses, so “equity” and “non-equity” applicants aren’t competing w ith each other.

“T his has been a very, very, very challenging time to get to this point,” Tate said at a new s conference last month announcing the new licenses. “Every step of the w ay, there w as criticism, people said ‘you’re doing it w rong, you are trying to make something perfect that can’t be per ect hy are you fighting? W hy is this important? Just move on ’ oday is why we fight ”

Michigan voters approved cannabis for medical use in 2008. But the number of medical marijuana cards issued, w hich cost money and time to obtain, has been declining for years, as customers ha e oc ed to adult use dispensaries in other municipalities to get their fi

“W hy w ould you go to a medical marijuana dispensary w hen you can go to H amtramck or anyw here else and w alk in w ithout a card?” A dolph Mongo, a spokesman for the advocacy group C itizens for Better Social Equity, previously told Metro T imes. “You are going to have people going out of business after investing hundreds of thousands of dollars. A ll of those buildings are going to go empty. It’s unreal.”

T he city approved an initial w ave of 33 adult-use licenses, w ith a total of 160 available. A pplications for a second round of licenses could open up later this month.

W e w ill be updating our cannabis directory on metrotimes.com/w eed w ith all the latest dispensaries in D etroit to o er adult use sales

SHUTTERSTOCK

Young children keep eating cannabis edibles by mistake, study finds

A GROWING NUMBER of children in the U.S. have accidentally consumed cannabis-infused edibles in recent years, according to a new study.

T he report, published last Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics, analyzed data from the N ational Poison D ata System. It found a staggering 1,375% increase in reported cases of children under the age of 6 accidentally eating cannabisin used products o er the past fi e years, from 2017 to 2021.

N early all of the 7,043 incidents, or 97% , occurred at home, and in 22.7% of cases children w ere admitted to a hospital.

C annabis-infused edibles “are particularly appealing to toddlers because they resemble common treats such as candies, chocolates, cookies, or other baked goods,” the authors w rote. A nd this can be dangerous, because a small amount of edibles can contain a large amount of T H C , the substance in cannabis that gets you high, especially for a young child.

“If a child opens a pack of (cannabisinfused) gummy bears, they’re not likely to stop at one. K ids enjoy candy,” said D r. Marit Tw eet, one of the study’s co-authors, according to the BBC . “T hey may consume the w hole package.”

Fortunately, it’s almost impossible to overdose on cannabis. A ccording to the study, the most common reported effect w as central nervous system (C N S) depression, w hich includes drow siness and lethargy and other e ects include ata ia loss o control o mo ement agitation, and confusion.

In about 36% of the cases, the children w ere treated and released, and less than 2% developed more severe e ects

N o deaths w ere reported by the study.

A grow ing number of states have legalized cannabis in recent years. T he study found an increase in incidents during the C O V ID -19 pandemic, w ith Tw eet telling the BBC she theorized that the lockdow ns could have led to increased opportunities or e posure

Some states have restrictions on how cannabis edibles can be packaged in order to make them less appealing to children. In Michigan, the packaging for cannabis-infused products cannot include images or cartoons or fruit, and the w ords “candy” or “candies” cannot be used. T hey also cannot mimic the packaging of commercially sold candy, and must be clearly marked as containing T H C .

“W e need to remain vigilant in protecting children from accidentally ingesting marijuana products,” Michigan’s former Marijuana R egulatory gency e ecuti e director ndrew Brisbo said in a statement ahead of a crackdow n on cannabis packaging in 2022. “W hen the products leave the stores, it is important that the packaging is not attractive to minors. O bviously, nothing w e can do is as impactful as the w atchful eyes of adults, but w e w ant parents in Michigan to know that w e are doing everything in our pow er to prevent children from unknow ingly consuming marijuana products.”

In Michigan, there have also been reports of an increasing number of children accidentally consuming cannabis-infused edibles. Last year, two fi th grade students were rushed to the hospital after consuming cannabisinfused gummies at a Livonia school. perts ad ise parents to eep cannabis-infused edibles in a hardto-reach spot or locked up, aw ay from other food.

If a child accidentally consumed a cannabis-infused edible, the MR A urges parents to call the poison control hotline at 800-222-1222.

—Lee DeVito