When Michigan voters legalized recreational marijuana, we sent a clear message: we wanted freedom, fairness, and a break from the decades of criminalization that devastated too many lives. But now, state regulators are quietly steering us back toward the same failed mindset—this time by pressuring legal marijuana stores to report their own customers to police.

The Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) recently issued a memo reminding dispensaries that they must report any “criminal activity”—including customers who might possess more than twice the legal amount of marijuana. But here’s the catch: under current rules, stores are allowed to sell those amounts in split transactions. That means people could face police reports and consequences for something the store legally sold them.

This is more than confusing—it’s dangerous. It puts cannabis workers in the impossible position of having to guess who might be “breaking the law” in a gray area the state refuses to clearly define. It turns small business employees into de facto law enforcement agents. And it sends a message to customers who are trying to follow the rules: you might get reported anyway.

Worse still, vague reporting policies like this don’t impact everyone equally. We’ve seen what happens when marijuana enforcement is left to interpretation—it’s disproportionately used against people of color and those in border or low-income communities. Michigan can’t claim to support cannabis reform while quietly reintroducing surveillance and criminalization through the back door.

Tell the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency: rescind this harmful policy immediately. We need clear, fair rules that protect customers and workers—not vague threats that invite overreach, racial profiling, and mistrust.

Cannabis legalization was supposed to be a step forward. Let's make sure it stays that way.