Nov. 13: Michigan regulators order Elite Wellness Mount Morris to close and permanently bar operator Chad Wurtzel from the licensed marijuana industry

Michigan's Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) has permanently barred Chad Wurtzel from working in any capacity at a licensed marijuana business in the state and ordered HCM Provisioning Inc., which does business as Elite Wellness Mount Morris, to cease operations, the agency announced Oct. 28. The consent order was signed Oct. 14, 2026, and takes effect Nov. 13, 2026, according to the CRA.

The order resolves the company's challenge to the CRA's decision not to renew adult-use retailer license AU-R-000103 for the shop at 9423 N. Dort Highway in Mount Morris. Once the order takes effect, the company's request for a contested case hearing will be withdrawn, the business must stop operating, and the CRA will change the license record to "closed pending Metrc," the agency said. Metrc is the statewide monitoring system licensees use to record marijuana inventory and transactions, according to CRA filings.

What the order bars

Under the agreement, HCM Provisioning and Wurtzel are permanently prohibited from seeking any new Michigan marijuana business license, exercising managerial control over a licensed marijuana business, or acquiring any new ownership interest in one, according to the CRA's release. They are also permanently prohibited from working for a licensed marijuana business as an employee, an independent contractor, or a service provider through another party.

That makes the order broader than a single license closure. It covers ownership, management and day-to-day work across the state's regulated medical and adult-use markets.

How the case started

The CRA received HCM Provisioning's application to renew the Mount Morris retail license on Nov. 6, 2025, a month before the license was set to expire on Dec. 6, 2025, according to the agency's notice of nonrenewal. On Dec. 5, 2025, the CRA's Licensing Division denied the renewal.

The notice gave two reasons. First, it said the license's applicants had "a history of regulatory noncompliance in this state" and were therefore ineligible under the state's licensing rules. Second, it said the licensee failed to comply with the rules and the application requirements. The notice cited Michigan's adult-use law, which says a license is renewed when a marijuana establishment "in good standing" files a complete application and fee, and an agency rule that bars renewal unless every person required to meet licensing standards is found "eligible, qualified, and suitable."

According to the notice, Wurtzel held 5% of HCM Provisioning and the titles of president, secretary, treasurer and sole director. The notice also said the company's 85% shareholder, another listed applicant, died in December 2024, and that no ownership change had been approved as of the date of the letter.

The notice told the company it could request a contested case hearing within 21 days, and that in such a hearing the agency would have the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that there were sufficient grounds to refuse renewal. HCM Provisioning requested a hearing, the CRA said. The consent order ends that challenge.

The regulatory history cited

The CRA's Oct. 28 release said the notice cited a history of noncompliance involving the license's applicants through four businesses: HCM Provisioning, NH Ventures, NH Ventures 2 and Sky Labs. The history included failures to submit required annual financial statements, inventory tracking violations, and violations involving product testing, labeling, ingredients and surveillance, the agency said. Prior enforcement resulted in fines, corrective requirements, and the surrender of Sky Labs' medical marijuana processor license.

The December 2025 notice lists the individual cases. Among them, according to the notice:

• HCM Provisioning agreed to $10,000 fines in 2023 over late or missing annual financial statements for its medical provisioning center license and for the Mount Morris adult-use license. For one of those orders, the notice says, the company never paid the fine and never filed the statement, and its medical license was suspended on Feb. 7, 2024, for failing to comply with the order.
• Sky Labs agreed to a $20,000 fine in March 2021 in cases involving testing for vitamin E acetate, which the notice describes as banned for inhalation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and product tracking.
• In June 2023, Sky Labs agreed to surrender its medical processor license after complaints that included edibles made with melatonin, edibles in shapes and packaging that appealed to minors, and missing surveillance footage.
• Also in June 2023, Sky Labs agreed to a $100,000 fine on its adult-use processor license in cases that included improper tracking and labeling and failing to properly notify the agency of an adverse reaction involving a minor child and edibles that Sky Labs had provided to an employee.
• In August 2025, NH Ventures 2, doing business as Elite Cannabis, agreed to a $1,000 fine over inaccurate entries in the state tracking system.

The notice says the companies admitted the violations in those earlier consent orders. It also says the CRA denied two new applications in November 2025 from businesses solely owned by Wurtzel, E2C Jackson LLC and Black Rock Brands LLC, citing the same history of noncompliance.

The separate exclusion notice

The CRA also took a second, related step. In a notice of intent to exclude dated July 13, 2026, filed for the agency by Assistant Attorneys General Maryann Hong and Jeffrey Miller, the CRA said it intended to permanently exclude Wurtzel from being employed by, or being a supplemental applicant of, any medical or adult-use marijuana business under its jurisdiction.

Michigan's rules let the CRA move to exclude a person who, while employed by a marijuana business, engaged in conduct that violates the marijuana laws or rules and "could negatively impact public health, safety, and welfare," the notice says. The notice laid out the agency's allegations, including a February 2025 inspection at Elite Cannabis in which the CRA said sales records made it appear the shop had sold product that the agency had placed on administrative hold, and 2019 inspections at the Mount Morris location in which agents said a door between the waiting area and sales floor was left unlocked and some products lacked required warning labels. The notice says Sky Labs closed its license effective June 30, 2025, after agreeing to withdraw its hearing request on a separate nonrenewal notice.

The Oct. 28 release describes the outcome: a permanent bar on Wurtzel working in the licensed industry, reached through a consent order rather than a ruling after a hearing.

Part of a busy stretch for Michigan enforcement

The order follows other high-profile CRA actions this fall. On Oct. 1, the agency revoked the adult-use retailer license of Budbridge LLC, doing business as Muha Meds Ypsilanti, and imposed a $251,250 fine, saying employees deliberately divided orders into smaller transactions to bypass oversale warnings and then handed over amounts exceeding the legal limit. "Deliberately bypassing purchase limits is a serious violation of the responsibilities that come with a marijuana license," CRA Executive Director Brian Hanna said in that release.

On Sept. 29, the CRA said it revoked 20 medical marijuana grower licenses held by GP Holdings LLC, doing business as Millie Montana Industries, and imposed a $2 million fine after finding that packages shipped as marijuana flower included samples from three packages that contained no THC and, according to the findings, resembled dirt and mulch.

What happens next

The order takes effect Nov. 13, 2026. On that date, according to the CRA, Elite Wellness Mount Morris must cease operations, the company's hearing request will be withdrawn, and the agency will change the license record's status. The permanent prohibitions on new licenses, ownership, management and employment for HCM Provisioning and Wurtzel apply under the terms of the agreement.

The CRA's release does not say what will happen to inventory at the Mount Morris location. Hemp Law Watch will update this report if the agency or the parties release more information.