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Hopeful marijuana business owners camping outside Riverview City Hall

By and Jack Nissen
Published  January 6, 2023 6:48am EST
Marijuana
FOX 2 Detroit

People lining up days in advance for Riverview marijuana business licenses

Several tents are set up outside City Hall in Riverview for the few prospective business owners who want to own one of the city's first marijuana business licenses.

RIVERVIEW, Mich. (FOX 2) - There are stories of parents waiting nearly six hours to get their kids tickets to Taylor Swift for her upcoming tour. That's nothing compared to the troopers outside the Riverview City Hall. 

Several prospective business owners have been camping outside the government building in hopes of securing one of the city's first licenses to run a marijuana store in the community. At least five tents had been propped up outside the building, with some people getting days in advance.

The tiny tent city is reminiscent of excited concert goers and movie theater fans ready for a big premier. 

But make no mistake, there's money to be made in the legal weed market and the campers outside city hall don't want to miss their shot. 

Riverview recently amended its city code following a 4-3 vote approving the removal of a prohibition on marijuana businesses. In its place is a new ordinance that allows for the sale of recreational pot. The close vote was representative of the community as a whole, which offered mixed opinions on allowing legal cannabis being sold in their city.

Despite being a young industry in Michigan whose residents only legalized the recreational sale of marijuana in 2018, the state has become a booming market for weed. It's considered a top-3 market for cannabis jobs, coming only behind Colorado which legalized weed first in the U.S., and California, which has a massive population difference. 

Many of the dispensaries that have set up shop in Michigan have needed to weather but public health restrictions from the pandemic as well as major price fluctuations due to a saturation of available shops. 

The tiny tent city is reminiscent of excited concert goers and movie theater fans ready for a big premier. But make no mistake, there's money to be made in the legal weed market and the campers outside city hall don't want to miss their shot. 

After several months of court filings and application reviewing, Detroit has seen some of its first dispensaries open up this winter. It cleared the final legal hurdle on Dec. 22. 

Those waiting in line for the Riverview licenses will get their first opportunity at submitting an application for a license when city hall opens Friday.