As the first deadline in New Jersey for final license awards looms, the holders of over 300 conditional cannabis licenses are still scrambling for capital and real estate.
The hammer finally dropped on Maine’s residency rule for medical operator ownership, after a federal appellate court found it in violation of the U.S. Constitution, striking it down.
The CCB has been favoring outdoor license approvals, given that Vermont’s grow season is tightly bound between May and October. This means that although most of the license holders can grow outside, not everyone decided to take the plunge on a short season.
Although a common refrain in states with nascent adult use markets is that the biggest competition comes from illicit sellers. In Maine, that competition largely comes from the medical caregiver market.
New England’s oldest adult use cannabis market is set for a regulatory overhaul now that Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker signed a major cannabis reform bill.
A few weeks ago I predicted that the Social Equity Council was probably going to be sued over the state’s licensing process. I am not Nostradamus.
“Next to obscene pictures, probably no vice is so absolutely destructive of manhood as the ‘dope vice,'” said the New England Watch and Ward Society’s 1912 report.
Over 100 years ago, cannabis was still processed and used in a variety of ways. Back then, edible cannabis was often portrayed as dangerous and exotic in origin. Smokable cannabis was typically associated with minorities in the South.
The case could also have crucial implications for cannabis’ current Schedule I status, because a ruling in favor of coverage for medical cannabis would indicate that cannabis has some medical benefit.
Every social equity applicant that does not successfully win a license in the social equity lottery then gets a second chance in the general lottery.
