Skymint, a Michigan-based cannabis retailer, has opened its newest location in Hazel Park, brightening a forlorn stretch of John R with a gleaming, state-of-the-art weed store that frankly wouldn’t look out of place at Somerset Collection or any other upscale mall.

We speak with Summer Ransom-Cleveland, the company’s president of retail, all about contemporary marijuana retail marketing, and with Joe Neller, chief government affairs officer and co-founder of Green Peak Innovations, Skymint’s vertically integrated parent company, about the company’s business model and efforts to promote social justice.

Staying with the getting-high-in-the-burbs theme, Royal Oak’s City Commission has approved an ordinance permitting adult-use recreational marijuana in the city. So while the city of Detroit continues to drag its feet on allowing recreational weed businesses, at least a few suburbs aren’t content to wait. (Ferndale now has three dispensaries operating, including two licensed for adult-use recreational.)

Lastly, downtown Royal Oak LGBTQ mainstay Pronto! has been sold. The buyer is its next-door neighbor, Five15, a novelty store best know for hosting Drag Queen Bingo.

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