It was on Friday that Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order to abolish the board that approves or denies applications for licenses for medical marijuana businesses in the state.

Under the executive order, the board will be abolished effective April 30th and the Marijuana Regulatory Agency will take over licensing, handling licenses for both the medical and the recreational markets.

“This executive order will eliminate inefficiencies that have made it difficult to meet the needs of Michigan’s medical marijuana patients,” Whitmer said.

“The volunteer board took on a monumental lift to get this program going, but in the short time frame the program has been running, we have not seen the expected volume of licensees entering the market,” she said. “With this executive order, the licensing process will be more efficient and allow more applicants into the space.”

Denise Pollicella, a Brighton attorney has remarked, “It’s a good move if it works,” she said. “I hope we’re not replacing one inefficient bureaucratic process with another.”

“To avoid licensing delays and to better coordinate varying sources of authority for the enforcement of state law, the administration of state laws relating to marijuana can more effectively and efficiently be administered by a dedicated state agency,” the Governor said in her executive order.