As Michigan marijuana tax jumps to 40%, critics worry it’ll fuel black market

LANSING, MI - Black market operators are cheering the Michigan Legislature’s vote to more than double marijuana taxes, opponents say.

About 3 a.m. Friday, Oct. 3, the Michigan Senate in a contentious 19-17 vote passed a new 24% wholesale tax on marijuana, that insiders say will decimate business and eventually be passed along to customers. Four Republicans and 15 Democrats supported the bill.

The legislation returned to the House where it quickly passed in the early morning hours, 264-19.

“What we just did is we just adopted California’s high-tax approach that drives people back in the black market,” said Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, who voted against the bill and advocated for the ballot initiative that legalized recreational marijuana in 2018. It doesn’t bring cannabis “into a legal