MICHIGAN EYED AS BELLWETHER FOR LEGAL POT IN MIDWEST

DETROIT — Michigan is aiming to build a potentially lucrative industry from the ground up with passage of a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana.

It could do more by serving as a model for the rest of the Midwest — and possibly beyond.

Michigan is the first Midwestern state to legalize recreational marijuana, with voters Tuesday passing a ballot measure that will allow people 21 or older to buy and use the drug. Including Michigan, 10 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana; North Dakota voters decided this week that recreational pot wasn’t for them.

At least one other state, Missouri, passed medical marijuana initiatives, joining Michigan and about 30 others. Supporters of a Utah medical marijuana initiative that was on Tuesday’s ballot had declared victory, but the race was still too close to call Wednesday afternoon.

“Michigan is going to be a bit of a bellwether,” said Douglas Mains, a Michigan attorney with Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP who, as a former policy and legal adviser for state House Republicans, helped draft the first bills to amend Michigan’s medical marijuana law passed a decade ago.

Mains said Michigan’s progress in building its marijuana sector will be closely watched, particularly by neighbors. He cited Ohio, which allows marijuana for medical uses but rejected a 2015 legalization measure, and Illinois, where the governorelect supports legalizing pot.

“Those states are going to look to Michigan, see what problems it encounters and revenue it generates,” Mains said. “It would not surprise me if either or both has this on the ballot in 2020.”