9 Michigan cannabis brands to watch

Since adult-use hit Michigan two years ago, Michiganders have been consuming cannabis at record rates. Although there are still no adult-use dispensaries in Detroit, the Michigan cannabis market is nevertheless the nation’s fourth largest and home to many exciting homegrown brands. Hailing from all corners of the Michigan mitten, here’s our pick for nine brands that go the extra mile to set themselves apart from the pack. 

Detroit Edibles

Detroit Edibles offers just about every type of infused sweet treat you can imagine: chocolates, gummies, fudge, as well as classic baked goods like rice crispy treats and OG pot brownies. They even have THC-infused honey and peanut butter to liven up your toast. Though the company stands out for their wide product range, they don’t choose quantity over quality; Detroit Edibles stacks the deck by handpicking the local ingredients.

Glacier Cannabis

Glacier Cannabis specializes in small-batch cannabis with themed strains like Cold Snap, Ice, Blast Chiller, Frosty Michigan, and Wintergreen OG. Grown on a picturesque farm with state-of-the-art grow rooms, their craft bud is potent enough to give you visions of the Northern Lights from the comfort of your couch. A small company of “hardworking Midwesterners,” the Glacier Cannabis team assures customers that they care more about quality than “making a quick buck.” Their name pays tribute to the nutrient-dense glacial waters and mineral-enhanced soil that nurture their award-winning flower, and they grow with both medicinal and adult-use in mind. 

Calyxeum 

Michigan consumers in the market for socially conscious, organically grown flower, need look no further than Calyxeum of Detroit. This Black-owned brand is the brainchild of LaToyia Rucker and Rebecca Colett, whose perfectionist tendencies are visible in their top-notch proprietary strains, with tantalizing names such as Candy Gelato and Lemon Sexdriver and colors that even match the orange and purple hues of the brand’s signature packaging. Recently, Rucker and Colett diversified their assets to include hash oil, vape oil, CBD, and dab. As if their choice products weren’t incentive enough to shop Calyxeum, they also show their hometown major love by running a social equity incubator and other Detroit revitalization efforts like planting community gardens and rebuilding homes. 

Claw Cannabis 

Ain’t no law when you’re vaping on the CLAW! However, as their motto “be healthy, be happy” suggests, these pens are liable to convince even the rowdiest among us to give peace a chance. This wellness-centered vape company offers a clean high through filler-free cartridges made from high-quality flower. CLAW divides their strains into three categories: Enjoy, Relax, and Uplift, using terpenes as an indicator of experience. To guarantee that the terps get the love they deserve, CLAW uses their social media accounts to educate customers on the terpene combos sure to set you on the path to peace of mind. 

Little Saints

Those who were at MJ Unpacked in Las Vegas will remember Little Saints founder Megan Klein for walking around the exhibition floor looking like a green goddess and answering to the name of “Terpene Queen.” As her canna-flower crown goes to show, when Klein talks about building a business on a foundation of plant magic, she means business. Her vision for Little Saints emerged when one hangover too many left Klein wanting a mood-lifting beverage that left her feeling fresh the next day. The result is an elegant line of mocktails that utilizes the “divine trio” of nano-emulsified CBD, Reishi mushrooms, and botanical terpenes guaranteed to give you a sparkly feeling that won’t cost you the next day. 

Mother of Green

Mother of Green is a lifestyle cannabis beauty brand whose founder, Detroit native Sydney Bowden, has a passion for holistic cannabis wellness and a mission “to not only destigmatize, but normalize healthy cannabis use among women, one puff at a time.” Though the brand is known for hosting 420 brunches with blunts and bubbly, Mother of Green focuses on topicals that help you celebrate the skin you’re in. Their signature cannabis “Body Budder” is the show stopper, with such titillating names as “Unicorn Tits,” “First Base,” and “Sex on a Peach,” but they also offer a line of roll-on oils and a variety of flavorful lip balms. 

BLK Sapote 

BLK Sapote is a brand as singular as the tropical persimmon which inspired the name. Founded by childhood best friends Courtnie Pierce and Ashley Parks, this Black women-owned cannabis brand offers a no-smoke experience like no other. With a wide selection of infused restorative herb blends and tinctures, the brand created a series of tea suites—Ritual, Enhancement, and Solace—to tailor the experience of cannabis healing according to individual needs. If you say “cannabis is not your thing,” they explain on the website, “we challenge you to reframe your apprehension, to be to the beautiful possibilities this flower can bring.” 

Funky Extracts 

While some brands try to elevate cannabis through elegance, others are proud to offer the ickiest of the sticky. Funky Extracts founder Jujuan “Funk” Coleman loves funky weed so much that his brand logo features a smelly sock. Operating through the Michigan cannabis processing facility, Pincanna Farm, Coleman’s handcrafted cannabis gummies utilize full-spectrum oil over distillate. As a result, the dank shines through the candy with a distinct cannabis taste, indicating a long-lasting high for Funky Extracts’ medical customers. His efforts to preserve the cannabinoids in their natural state bring out a more complex, terpene-rich flavor and experience that make these gummies as appealing to connoisseurs as they are to cannabis newbies. “When you speak of cannabis,” Coleman says, “’funk’ is good.”

Neighborhood Essentials

Neighborhood Essentials founder Tre Hobbs knows that the power of the plant is strong enough to heal more than just individuals, and he’s out to prove it with the high-quality cannabis he is cultivated for his drug war-weary Detroit community. With luxuriously heavy-hitting strains like Black Jefe, Pink Buffs, and Diamond and Pearls, Hobbs is getting his hand-cultivated flower to the people who need it. “When people smoke my flower, they get the energy I put into it,” he says, with the authority that comes from expertise. After apprenticing in all things cannabis with OG legacy growers from California, Hobbs has a depth of knowledge about the plant that sets him apart from many Michigan cannabis entrepreneurs who are newcomers to cultivation. For now, his strains are available in dispensaries and through the MI delivery company Eaze (whose board recently welcomed Hobbs as a member), though he intends to one day open a dispensary so he can have somewhere to truly offer his neighborhood all of their essential needs.