After battling rapidly declining cannabis prices and increased competition, the face of Michigan's 3-year-old recreational cannabis industry is starting to change as some companies shutter their operations and other big companies enter receivership.
The news of the mid-Michigan-based cannabis company Green Peak Industries, which operated under the brand name Skymint and went into receivership earlier this month, is the most notable and public example to date of a well-known company struggling.
It's not just big companies that are going through tough times. Four other cannabis companies in Michigan also are in receivership, according to Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency data obtained by the Detroit Free Press. Receivership is a process in which a receiver steps in and runs a company so that creditors can recover the money they're owed. Marijuana companies cannot declare bankruptcy because that is a federal process, and cannabis is still illegal under federal law.
Meanwhile, companies headquartered in other states that expanded to Michigan, like Terrapin — a Colorado-based cannabis company with operations around the country, including a cultivation facility in Grand Rapids — shut down its Michigan operations. Others, like the Boston-based cannabis delivery service Lantern, which expanded to Michigan and offered customers a platform to order recreational cannabis for delivery like they would food through a system such as Grubhub or DoorDash, shut down its service in several cities, including Detroit, earlier this year.
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