Michigan operator Cherry Industries surrendered its cultivation license and agreed to not apply for a new one, under a September consent order with the Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA), following allegations from the state that the company failed to properly track product.
A routine inspection from the CRA uncovered untracked cannabis and more flower than the operator’s license allows almost two years ago, according to a complaint filed by the state in April 2024.
A CRA inspector noticed on Nov. 15, 2023, that Cherry Industries had filed tracking information in Metrc for 4,090 plants, when their license allowed a maximum of 4,000 plants.
In a subsequent inspection, state officials found 50 immature plants, a mother plant and various forms of cured flower that were all untagged, including pre-rolls, trim and bags of buds.
The state also found that Cherry Industries could not account for about 4,276 pounds of cannabis that had been entered into Metrc.
Aside from the unaccounted product, the company repeatedly combined products that passed lab testing with product that had failed contaminant testing, the CRA alleged. The failed products tested positive for Bifenthrin, a banned insecticide.
The CRA demanded the company submit 30 days of surveillance footage. After receiving an extension of over a month, Cherry Industries handed over footage with numerous insufficiencies, according to the CRA, including two days with no footage, and multiple days with gaps in the video.
“These findings collectively demonstrate significant failures in regulatory compliance, product tracking, safety standards, and operational transparency,” said the unsigned press release from CRA announcing the licensing action.
Cherry Industries held two class C cultivation licenses, each of which allow for 2,000 plants. Michigan allows growers to stack up to six licenses at a single grow site.
The phone number on Cherry Industries’ license is no longer in service. They did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Associated dispensary fined
Clint Cerny is the sole owner of Cherry Industries and one of three owners of Field Health & Wellness, which operates a dispensary as Cherry Brands. Earlier this year, Cherry Brands was fined $6,000 in July for improper use of Metrc.
The dispensary allegedly entered a false sale of eight pounds of flowers for zero dollars in one transaction. The dispensary operator claimed this was done to correct an inventory error.
The CRA said in the consent order it was able to confirm that no actual sale took place, but it fined the company for improperly entering a fake transaction.
An employee of the Cherry Brands dispensary declined to comment beyond confirming that Cerny was co-owner.
Cherry Industries’ license had to be surrendered by Oct. 10, ten days after the order’s Sept. 30 effective date.
“The license shall not be renewed, reinstated, reissued, or reactivated, limited or otherwise, at any future date,” said the agreement, though it made no mention of additional licenses that Cerny is named on.
Michigan cannabis market struggles
In the last couple of years, growers in Michigan have struggled with a saturated market and flower prices that are among the lowest in the country. The average price for an ounce of flower was $81.59, according to the CRA’s monthly report for September 2025.
More recently, state authorities have been contending with numerous instances of cultivators coming under legal scrutiny for potential illegal activity.
The CRA shut down two testing labs in August over allegedly failing to properly document tests for microbials and pesticides. One of those labs, Viridis North, had until Sept. 29 to shut down. After the closures were announced, the owners of the company, who are no longer allow allowed to participate in the Michigan cannabis industry, said they planned to sell the lab to new owners in order to keep it open. The lab remained closed as of Oct. 15.
In January, the state shut down a grow site in Albion, Mich. after a raid from law enforcement found over 10,000 cannabis plants, when the property was only licensed for a total of 6,000.
