A northern Michigan circuit court judge is weighing whether to compel marijuana companies, city officials, and the organizers behind a local ballot initiative to hand over communications and financial records that could reveal who is really pulling the strings in Menominee's increasingly tangled cannabis licensing fight. Judge Mary B. Barglind, presiding over Menominee Circuit Court, has taken the matter under advisement following a March 5 hearing and will issue written rulings at a later date. The stakes are high: her decisions will shape not just one lawsuit, but a cluster of cases that have already frozen all marijuana licensing in the city.
Who Is Suing Whom, and Why It Got This Complicated
Puff Cannabis, a marijuana business seeking to open in Menominee, filed suit against the city alleging collusion between existing licensed marijuana operators and city officials - an arrangement designed, Puff Cannabis claims, to stall or block new competitors from entering the market. That allegation is not peripheral to the case. It is the case.
At the center of the suspicion is Lume, described as Michigan's largest marijuana retailer and one of five companies that signed a settlement agreement with Menominee officials in 2023. That agreement was, on its face, a tidy resolution: six businesses received license guarantees, and in exchange those businesses agreed to cover marijuana-related litigation costs the city might face going forward. Here's the catch - Puff Cannabis attorney Jennifer Green argues that arrangement created an obvious conflict of interest, because the same businesses now paying the city's legal bills are the ones who stand to benefit if Puff Cannabis loses.
City Manager Brett Botbyl previously told reporters he couldn't provide a breakdown of which businesses paid what amounts. He didn't respond to a request for comment for this story. That opacity is precisely what the subpoenas are designed to break open.
At least three other marijuana businesses have since filed their own lawsuits against Menominee, also claiming they were given approval to open and now face an arbitrary reversal. The broader implication here isn't lost on anyone watching: if private companies can fund public litigation in ways that directly shape licensing outcomes, the line between regulatory decision-making and commercial self-interest dissolves.
The Ballot Initiative Nobody Can Fully Explain
Early in 2025, a group called Defending Menominee launched a citizen ballot initiative to cap the number of marijuana shops in the city at nine. The initiative passed overwhelmingly in November. There are currently eight active licenses in Menominee; a ninth was previously committed to Highwire Farms under the 2023 settlement, though that license has not yet been issued. A cap of nine, then, would effectively freeze out every new applicant - including Puff Cannabis.
The question of who actually organized and funded Defending Menominee has proven difficult to answer through public records alone. Campaign finance filings show that a Lansing-area consulting firm called Grassroots Midwest paid for petition collection and related services. Grassroots Midwest describes itself as a strategic consulting firm focused on policy change for clients - but if it was acting on behalf of another party in Menominee, that party's identity does not appear in any campaign finance records reviewed publicly.
Defending Menominee's statement of organization lists an address matching the Nova Law Firm in Lansing. Nova Law attorney Jack Rucker confirmed his firm handles financial filings for the committee and said he was "not at liberty" to disclose who the client is. The committee's current treasurer, Jade Smith - herself the target of a Puff Cannabis subpoena - put it more plainly when reached by phone: "Nova Law owns Defending Menominee ... I just run the books." That answer raises as many questions as it settles.
Lume and attorney Kevin Blair, who has represented Lume in multiple Menominee lawsuits and is also representing the ballot committee and its contractors, have not responded to repeated requests for comment. The silence is notable. Puff Cannabis representatives, Menominee's mayor, and at least one city council member have publicly stated they believe Lume or other incumbent licensees orchestrated the ballot push to limit competition. Green told the court her client is "fairly confident" a link exists.
What the Judge Must Now Untangle
Opposing attorneys asked Judge Barglind to block the subpoenas entirely, characterizing them as irrelevant, overly broad, and a "fishing expedition." That framing is standard in discovery disputes - and sometimes accurate. But in a case where the central allegation is that private financial relationships corrupted a public regulatory process, communications and payment records are not tangential. They are the evidence.
Menominee Councilman Michael DeDamos, for one, wants the records released. "I think if we get more information out, it will clear the city and provide a lot more light on the situation," he said. Barglind is also reviewing motions to dismiss the lawsuits outright. She issued an injunction in August blocking the city from issuing any marijuana licenses in the interim, a freeze that remains in place. The parties are expected back in court for another motion hearing on April 24.
What makes this case worth watching beyond Menominee itself is what it illuminates about a broader structural problem in cannabis regulation. Michigan, like most states that legalized marijuana through a phased framework, built local licensing authority into the system - giving cities significant discretion over who operates within their borders. That discretion is valuable. It is also, in markets where licenses represent substantial economic value, vulnerable to capture by incumbent operators who have every incentive to shape the rules in their favor after they've secured their own position. The Menominee situation may be unusually visible, but the underlying dynamic is not unique to one small city on the Upper Peninsula border.
