Michigan’s top cannabis regulator resigns

The official who oversees Michigan’s cannabis regulatory division and helped shape the state’s burgeoning recreational cannabis market is leaving his post.

Andrew Brisbo, who has served as executive director of the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency since 2019, will step down to take up a new position in the state’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer confirmed the move to the Free Press.

“We are proud of the incredible team at the Cannabis Regulatory Agency that has made Michigan one of the leading cannabis markets in the country,” Bobby Leddy, a spokesman for the governor, told the newspaper in a statement.

Brisbo has led the agency since its inception. In 2019, as the state prepared to launch the recreational cannabis market, Whitmer consolidated state cannabis regulation under a single entity: the Cannabis Regulatory Agency.

Brisbo was appointed to head the new agency, having previously served as director of the Bureau of Marijuana Regulation, which was replaced by the CRA.

“Andrew will be instrumental in finding and achieving solutions as we develop new marijuana regulations in Michigan,” Whitmer said in a statement at the time, as quoted by the Detroit Free Press. “He brings a wealth of expert knowledge on this topic that will be critical to this implementation process while keeping Michigan residents safe.”

Michigan voters legalized medicinal cannabis in 2008; Ten years later, they did the same for recreational marijuana use.

As the Free Press reported in 2019, Whitmer created the unique regulatory agency “to better coordinate the medical marijuana market … with adult recreational use,” which launched in early 2020.

The agency was renamed the Cannabis Regulatory Agency from the Marijuana Regulatory Agency in February, and is tasked with “regulating the future processing, distribution, and sale of hemp and marijuana.”

“The consolidation of multiple government roles into the newly designated cannabis regulator will help us continue to grow our economy and create jobs,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said in a statement at the time. “And, quite frankly, legal cannabis entrepreneurship, cultivation and use is helping us put Michiganders first by channeling the big windfall in tax revenue from this new industry to encourage bigger, bolder investments in local… schools, roads and first responders.”

Whitmer’s office said the restructuring brought about by the governor’s executive order would “allow for more effective, efficient administration and enforcement of Michigan’s laws governing cannabis in all its forms.”

Whatever the agency was called, Brisbo was in charge, and Michigan’s recreational cannabis industry was a resounding success.

“Under Brisbo’s leadership, Michigan’s recreational cannabis industry expanded rapidly,” the Free Press reported Tuesday.

A report last year found that Michigan has created more jobs in its cannabis industry than any other state that has legalized cannabis. Leafly’s report found that the state’s regulated cannabis market had 18,000 jobs at the time.

The Free Press reported this week that Leddy, Whitmer’s spokesman, said Michigan’s adult-use cannabis industry has resulted in “the creation of more than 20,000 cannabis industry jobs and the generation of $500 million in tax revenue.” .

“In Michigan there are now more cannabis workers than police officers,” Leafly said in its report last year. “In a state known for its auto industry, the number of cannabis workers is now roughly equal to the number of auto repair mechanics.”

However, the Free Press noted that the fledgling industry has been experiencing “growing pains” in recent months. Although “sales and cannabis deals have continued to rise in the state,” the Free Press reported, “the price of marijuana flower has fallen, cutting into profits for many companies, with some laying off employees or closing their operations altogether.”