Michigan marijuana processor surrenders permit, owners barred from industry

A Michigan cannabis processor agreed to surrender its permit and cease operations following accusations of “widespread regulatory violations” including missing records and inaccurate product labeling.

As agreed to in consent orders signed with the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency, Flavor Galaxy, located in Hazel Park, will lose its license, according to The Detroit Metro Times.

The business’s owners, Hanna and Jaklin Shina, are also barred from participating in the state’s legal industry in the future, whether as an owner or an employee, the newspaper reported.

According to the Times, the punitive action follows two formal complaints in which the CRA alleged “serious violations” at Flavor Galaxy.

These include:

• Infusing prerolls with botanical terpenes not obtained from cannabis and not approved for human inhalation by the federal Food and Drug Administration
• Failing to conduct mandatory safety tests on finished product
• Possessing large amounts of product, including vaporizer cartridges as well as flower and pre-rolls, that was not entered into the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system
• Missing product that couldn’t be accounted for
• Selling product with inaccurate potency labeling

Regulators first started looking into Flavor Galaxy in February 2024 after discovering the business was marketing prerolls that were advertised as infused with distillate.

That’s despite not reporting having tested any distillate in track-and-trace records, according to CRA’s complaint.

Regulators launched a second investigation into the business last summer after receiving an anonymous complaint, according to the CRA.

Cannabis operators and observers say that inversion, in which a licensed cannabis business inserts product grown illegally into the legal supply chain, is a known and growing problem nationwide.