One-Hitters

WEED

Doghouse Farms has Detroit’s first license for a recreational cannabis grow facility.

One-Hitters

SHUTTERSTOCK

Detroit’s first recreational marijuana license awarded to a brand from Oregon

Detroit has nally awarded

its first recreational cannabis license. But what’s giving us major side-eye energy is that the license went to Doghouse Farms, a brand originally from Oregon, with a grow facility in Detroit.

After a two-year clusterfuck of trying to allow recreational weed in the city and a lawsuit over giving lifelong Detroiters first dibs, the first adult-use license goes to a business that isn’t even originally from Detroit. Isn’t this what we were trying to avoid in the first place— brands coming in from outof-state and capitalizing on weed sales before longtime Detroiters?

Doghouse Farms’ Detroit facility is just a grow operation, which the city’s current regulations allow an unlimited number. However, only 100 adult-use recreational marijuana retailer licenses are available in the city.

The Doghouse Farms brand was formed in Oregon in 2005 and now has operations in Michigan, Florida, and Washington state. The brand opened its Detroit facility shortly after weed became legal in Michigan back in 2019, spending roughly $4 million to open up shop, Crain’s Detroit Business reports. They’ve been running as a strictly medical operation for the past 15 months.

“A (recreation license) is the only reason we came to Detroit,” Eric Slutzky, CEO of Doghouse Farms in Michigan, told Crain’s. “The city taking this long really cut the knees out of the local market, but we had faith the city would do the right thing.”

Detroit communities that were ravaged by the war on drugs and thought they might finally be able to benefit from recreational marijuana regulations had faith the city would do the right thing too. Guess they’ll just have to keep waiting.

Slutzky told Crain’s that Doghouse Farms was able to get its license so quickly because they had everything already prepared to file.

“I had a file ready to go as soon as the city went live,” he said. “I’ve spent the last year following very closely with what the City Council was going to do.”

Doghouse now has two Class C adultuse recreational grow licenses, allowing them to grow 4,000 plants at a time, and three Class C medical marijuana licenses to grow 4,500 plants for medicinal use at its 25,000 square-foot Detroit operation, according to Crain’s.

Doghouse Farms’ Detroit location does have some ties to the city, as COO Nir Saar is a former principal in the Detroit Public Schools Community District and Slutzky is the former corporate vice president of real estate for Farmington Hills-based insurance brokerage H.W. Kaufman Group.

Still, we were hoping that Detroit’s first recreational marijuana license would go to a business that was more homegrown. With the city facing a pending lawsuit over a provision that prevents medical facilities from getting a recreational license until 2027, the future is uncertain.

Will Detroit ever get it together? How long will Detroit business owners have to wait before they can participate in recreational marijuana sales? Find out in the next episode of “who even knows at this rate?”

By Randiah Camille Green

Camp Cannabis music fest announces initial lineup

A music festival that bills itself as the first licensed cannabis event in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has announced its initial lineup.

The “Camp Cannabis” music festival, sponsored by The Fire Station Cannabis Co., announced a first round of artists, including national acts like The Floozies, Asher Roth, Afroman, Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers, and comedian Nimesh Patel, among others.

The event is planned for Oct. 7-9 in Marquette’s Tourist Park.

“We’re so excited to share this lineup,” The Fire Station co-owners Logan Stauber and Stosh Wasik said in a joint statement. “It’s our hope that everyone in the community will appreciate the wide variety of genres and the level of talent that we’re bringing in for our inaugural festival.”

More artists will be announced in the coming weeks, The Fire Station says, adding that artists will also be able to compete for a spot to perform at a Digs City Beach Battle of the Bands event during the summer.

Tickets to Camp Cannabis can be purchased at thefirestation.com/ camp-cannabis, with early bird ticket pricing expiring on Sunday, June 5.

—Lee DeVito