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City funds University of Michigan study of cannabis social-equity program amid tax concerns
Summary
Council approved a Homegrown-funded research contract with the University of Michigan to evaluate Detroit's cannabis social-equity programming, while members pressed staff about the newly enacted local cannabis tax and the potential effect on social-equity licensees.
Detroit City Council on March 3 approved contracts to study the city’s cannabis social-equity work and to support legal representation for residents at risk of losing housing.
The University of Michigan contract—funded through the Homegrown program and totaling about $170,343—will run roughly a year and include a policy analysis, qualitative interviews with social-equity stakeholders and a stakeholder forum to craft recommendations. Council members asked how study findings will capture demographics of licensees and whether the scope will address recently enacted local taxes affecting retailers.
"The timeline that we've laid out is a year in which the first third would be a policy analysis, the next third would be qualitative interviews... then present a finalized report," said Dr. Catherine Hendy of the University of Michigan's School of Public Health.
City staff and the Office of Cannabis Affairs told council the research scope includes an audit of the Good Neighbor Plan and an analysis of who benefited from community investments associated with licensing. Project managers said they will collect demographic details from participating social-equity licensees and interview stakeholders to fill gaps where application records are incomplete.
Several council members expressed urgent concern about the impact of the new local cannabis wholesale and retail taxes on small and social-equity licensees. Pro Tem Young and others said the city should consider ways to support licensees if the tax burden forces businesses to close; staff noted state-level litigation over the tax is ongoing and that programming to assist licensees can be financed from local revenues if available.
Council approved the research contract and related funding amendments with waiver requests attached, and staff said they will provide detailed interim reports and demographic breakdowns of the study’s interview participants.
What happens next: the University of Michigan-led study will proceed on the timeline presented; council members requested detailed breakdowns of who benefited from Good Neighbor Plan donations and asked administration to explore near-term support for licensees if litigation does not immediately resolve tax issues.
