Menominee judge halts new store openings pending mediation as Puff files more lawsuits

Posted Monday, January 19, 2026 6:00 am

Puff Cannabis’ attorney discusses ongoing lawsuits

MENOMINEE, MICH. – Green said she suspects the marijuana ballot and legal maneuvers by Defending Menominee, an organization based Lansing, were designed to preserve a competitor’s market penetration by preventing more competitors Attorney Kevin. Blair, who represents several organizations, including Lume Cannabis Co., Defending Menominee and another cannabis organization, has said his role representing Defending Menominee is separate from Lume.

Defending Menominee is an intervenor in the Puff case and contributes financially to the city’s legal defense fund, Green said, citing comments from Botbyl.

“I served subpoenas on the people from Lansing who were behind the ballot initiative in order to try to confirm that it was Lume paying for all of it, and all of the entities and individuals that I subpoenaed records from have filed motions to quash the subpoenas in order to avoid having to turn over documents, which is suspicious to me,” Green told a reporter.

Barglind said she would hear the motions to quash in March but recommended they be resolved through mediation before then. Green said she would want to preserve her right to sue.

For years, various marijuana companies have supported the City of Menominee by providing assistance with litigation and, in some cases, contributing financially to its legal defense fund. Green said this shouldn’t be allowed as it leads to favoritism.

Blair also defended the results of the election. “Hundreds of Menominee voters signed a petition to put this on the ballot, and thousands of Menominee residents voted to impose a cap of nine stores,” Blair said about the marijuana ballot results.

Menominee resident Beth Peanosky is among those who agree with Green that Defending Menominee had an agenda in petitioning for the marijuana-limit ballot.

“Defending Menominee is a political organization that started this ballot initiative to limit the number of dispensaries. Many people learned this organization was run by Lume Cannabis,” a marijuana company with a store at 2812 10th Street, she said.

“They thought it was a voter initiative, but it wasn’t. That made many voters feel they weren’t participating in a true democratic vote process but instead a battle between cannabis companies that want to limit their competition,” she said. Stores given licenses should be allowed to open, she said.

By Ann Meyer
Contributing Writer

MENOMINEE, MICH. – Marijuana lawsuits are adding up in Menominee, where Puff Cannabis hasn’t been allowed to open its newly built location.

Despite Puff’s concerns that a competitor has deliberately interfered with its efforts to open a new store in Menominee, it may have to participate in facilitated mediation or wait months for the court to decide whether it can open after 41st Circuit Court Judge Mary Barglind said at a Jan. 8 hearing the injunction she issued last fall halting all new marijuana-store licenses will stand for the time being.

With more than one marijuana company seeking to open a store and marijuana ballot results indicating voters prefer a cap of nine stores, Barglind ordered facilitated mediation within 45 days to decide which company should be allowed to open the ninth store as Highwire Farms and Puff both said the city has awarded them licenses for new stores. Barglind also scheduled a status conference for May 4.

“I am going to send to mediation both the Plemel and the Puff cases,” Barglind said, referring to two separate lawsuits.

Puff’s parent Per II also has filed a separate suit, Barglind said. Attorney Jennifer Green who represents Puff said she intends to start another case, possibly involving antitrust issues. Barglind gave her seven days to file this complaint.

Green has raised issues with how the marijuana ballot came to be, suggesting it didn’t meet a city ordinance’s requirements. She also said the nine-store cap shouldn’t be applied retroactively, as Puff had essentially completed its store build-out before voters went to the polls.

“We want the city to allow us to immediately open and to compensate us for the loss of revenue from July to the present, which is millions of dollars,” Green said.

Barglind excused Council Member Bill Plemel from participating in the Plemel vs. City of Menominee case that led her to invalidate August election results and order a redo ballot in November.

Michael Celello, an attorney for the City of Menominee, asked how the mediator was going to address the ballot results supporting a limit of nine marijuana retail licenses.

Green said Puff received notification via email over a year ago that the city had approved its marijuana retail license and proceeded with its build-out.

“We were ready to open in July,” she said, but the city failed to provide a certificate of occupancy.

“We took a blighted building and created something that wasn’t an eyesore,” Green said. Puff invested about $1 million on building construction, she said, and it also purchased two daycares within 1,000 feet of its location to avoid operating near them.

The company has a five-year lease for $500,000 on the location at 2305 10th St., a short distance from Lume’s location at 2812 10th St. and closer to the Wisconsin border. They had even hired workers.

“We moved four employees from the lower peninsula to Menominee and entered into leases to pay for their housing; and we paid the $5,000 application fee for our license,” Green said.

“We have lost $3 million to $4 million every month that we have not been able to open, and that is five months of that right now, so the damages we have are significant,” she told a reporter in December.

Puff would have opened before the August election but the city delayed the opening, Green said.

“Our final inspection by the city was supposed to occur on July 17, 2025. Our contractor drove eight hours to be there in person. The city building inspector did not show up. Our guy found the building inspector sitting at his desk. The inspector told our contractor that his ‘higher ups’ told him not to inspect our building,” Green said.

“The inspection was rescheduled for the following week, but the city wrongly refused to issue us a final certificate of occupancy to allow us to open.”

The city didn’t respond to a reporter’s requests for confirmation or comment.

Highwire Farms attorney Nicholas Joseph Tatro said Highwire received a recreational-use marijuana retail license in 2023, but it also is waiting for the city’s OK to proceed with a store.

Barglind granted Highwire Farms’ request to intervene in the lawsuits. She also allowed Defending Menominee, Highwire and JGB Holdings to intervene in the Puff lawsuit, raising new concerns for Puff about conflicts of interest, as the city has accepted contributions from Puff’s competitors for its legal needs, which Barglind didn’t discuss at length.

Green said she suspects a competitor “is funding an unethical campaign to keep Puff from opening.” In December, she asked Menominee Mayor Casey Hoffman to call for an investigation.

The city’s charter prohibits potential conflicts that create an appearance of impropriety, Green said. Yet the city accepts financial contributions from marijuana companies. “Those companies are going to be given favorable treatment to our detriment,” Green told a reporter.

In her Dec. 4 letter to Hoffman, which was provided to a reporter, Green detailed how Puff had received approval of a license for a marijuana retail store in an email from City Manager Brett Botbyl a year earlier on Dec. 16, 2024, two weeks after Puff submitted its application.

According to Green, the email from the city stated, “I have reviewed the MJ Application packet and everything appears to be in order. At this time, [Puff] would be approved for a license and can proceed.”

Botbyl did not respond to a reporter’s repeated requests for comment. City Attorney Michael Celello and Mayor Hoffman also didn’t respond.