Cannabis giant TerrAscend to exit Michigan market, closing 20 stores and cutting 230 jobs

OG Article  By Adrienne Roberts Detroit Free Press News Watch Today's LIVE Episode on YouTube, X, and Rumble

July 09, 2025

More than 230 employees of the publicly traded cannabis company TerrAscend Corp. in Michigan will lose their jobs as the company, which owns brands such as Gage Cannabis and Cookies, pulls out of the Michigan market, according to a WARN Act notice filed with the state. 

The Toronto-based company said in a news release that it will sell or divest all of its Michigan assets, including four cultivation and processing facilities, 20 retail stores and real estate, an exit that is expected to be completed in the second half of the year. In metro Detroit, Gage dispensaries in Detroit and Ferndale will close, along with a Cookies dispensary in Detroit and cultivation facilities in Warren and Harrison Township.

In the news release, Jason Wild, executive chairman of TerrAscend, acknowledged the challenges Michigan's cannabis market faces, such as an oversupply of marijuana in the market, causing prices to fall and making it difficult for companies to make a profit.

"Michigan is an extremely difficult market and we have come to the realization that our resources can be better utilized in our other markets," he said. 

The company joins other multistate operators who have either reduced or eliminated their operations in Michigan. PharmaCann, for example, closed its cultivation facility in Warren early this year, resulting in about 200 employees losing their jobs.

When TerrAscend entered the Michigan market in 2022 with the $545 million acquisition of Gage Growth Corp., the state's market was rapidly expanding. In recent years, Michigan's recreational marijuana market has overtaken California as the largest cannabis market in the United States, according to some metrics that track sales by volume.

An upcoming June monthly report from Michigan's Cannabis Regulatory Agency will likely show that the total dollar amount of recreational marijuana sales dropped slightly in the first half of 2025 compared with the first half of last year, which would mark the first time the industry has shown signs of contraction since sales of recreational marijuana started in December 2019.

Michigan's cannabis industry has sold $1.3 billion in recreational products through May this year, a 2.6% decline compared with the same period last year, according to a Detroit Free Press analysis of the CRA's monthly sales reports.

TerrAscend will continue to operate dispensaries and cultivation and processing facilities across five states — New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and California — and in Toronto. Its Michigan exit will reduce its overall workforce by about 21%, according to the company.