Yahoo – Calvin Johnson, and his old Detroit Lions teammate Rob Sims, are trying to get in the Michigan marijuana business. Their application for prequalification for a marijuana dispensary, grow operation and marijuana processing facility was denied however, in part because of an old traffic ticket Johnson said he forgot about…

According to Gray’s story, Johnson and Sims were denied prequalification status by the Michigan Medical Licensing Board because of some old, minor issues.

In Johnson’s case, it was an outstanding “failure to maintain lane” ticket from July 2014 in Atlanta. A spokesman for Johnson said he was unaware of the ticket and as soon as he heard about it, he flew to Georgia to take care of it…Still, they were denied.

“One is nine years old and one is four years old and there are warrants out,” board member and retired Michigan State Police officer Donald Bailey told Gray. “They’re minor, maybe even meaningless, but the problem is their response. We’re entering this highly regulated market. And if this is their response, that’s a problem for me.”

What a bunch of horse shit this is huh?

Whether you’re pro-weed or anti-weed, one thing you cannot deny is the absolutely absurd amount of money that it will generate. Not only for the business owners, but for the states that welcome these shops due to the crazy high taxes slapped onto every sale. I don’t know what it is in Michigan, but in Massachusetts it’s 17%. We still have the pearl clutching though, even as politicians plan on how to spend all that new money they’re suddenly flush with.

“Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said he hoped the the tax revenue from marijuana in Massachusetts would be worth the “human toll.”

Give me a break, Marty. Just look at the green Massachusetts has already raked in.

“Customers bought more than $4.8 million in marijuana in the first 12 days at the first two shops that opened for adult-use sales.”

And that’s with just two stores open. Insane.

Back to Calvin Johnson’s case though, this has been a problem for a lot of people trying to get into the business and it’s hard to ignore the hypocrisy of it all. The number of well off entrepreneurs with some money that are going to make even more money selling a product that tons of people got locked up for using and are are now unable to sell said product (because of those arrests) now that it’s actually legal is wild.

Now I’m not going to shed any tears for Calvin Johnson seeing as the guy made over $100 Million in his football career, but it does make you think about who will be getting shafted trying to get into the gold rush that will be recreational marijuana.