LANSING, Michigan — The state's marijuana regulator is instructing marijuana retail shops and provisioning centers to stop referring to themselves as dispensaries, stressing that the term, legally, is reserved for pharmacies.

The reminder issued to licensed cannabis retailers on Wednesday was first issued in a 2019 bulletin, but was repeated this week amid continued use of the term "dispensary," said David Harns, a spokesman for the Cannabis Regulatory Agency.

The public health code prohibits marijuana retailers — whether recreational or medical — from using the term dispensary in signage, website content, advertising or marketing materials. The term has never been a legally accurate name for marijuana facilities.

"The CRA did similar outreach back in 2018-2019 when Michigan's licensed cannabis market was first taking shape, but the industry has evolved a lot since then and many operators are new," Harns said Wednesday. "This is simply an effort to make sure everyone understands the requirement."

The agency's goal, Harns said, is "education before regulation."

The technical terms for recreational adult-use marijuana shops are "retailers" and "provisioning centers" for facilities selling marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Aside from dispensary, the public health code also prohibits marijuana retailers and provisioning centers from referencing their shops by terms such as a pharmacy or pharmacist, apothecary, drugstore or prescriptions.

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Thomas Lavigne, an attorney who has worked in Michigan marijuana law since 2010, said the word dispensary somehow crept into the marijuana vernacular and stayed there for years, despite the fact that it is a term legally restricted to pharmacies.

It's something Lavigne has had to remind clients of regularly throughout the years, he said.

"It just kind of became part of the vernacular," Lavigne said. "Even government officials would throw that term out there. I saw it all around me. And people use that term despite the law, despite it being improper."

Lavigne speculated that the use of the term would increase again as Michigan's new 24% wholesale tax takes hold of the industry and drives more marijuana sales into the black market, where proper terminology is the least of a seller's concerns.

"The revenue’s already gone done," Lavigne said of the effect of the new tax adopted late last year. "People are already lining up their old dealers.”

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