Coverage of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
“With inflation being whatever it is on everything else, that discretionary income basically goes to zero for many people. But we know that cannabis consumers do not just stop consuming cannabis. They look for another alternative resource at a lower price,” said Mazin.
Maine requires lab testing for potency and contaminants for its adult use market. Adult use operators must also track their products through Metrc. Neither requirement applies to medical cannabis.
“The War on Drugs did real harm to real people. We now have an opportunity not to fix that…but to acknowledge it and help put resources in place to help people in a real sincere way.”
“It would probably destroy that program. They might be able to survive by becoming suppliers for the adult used market, but why would anybody stay a patient?”
Theory Wellness, which owns the Hi5 brand of drinks and edibles, claimed that Beacon Compassion, a prospective cannabis retail operator, copied their brand when they named their three proposed storefronts HiFive.
There are about nine New York municipalities along the Massachusetts border, none of which opted out of the new adult use market, unlike the 57% of New York municipalities that voted to bar retail adult use sales.
Although the state decided to stay with the 10^5 limit, it did reject a public suggestion that the state allow producers to remediate cannabis that fails testing.
“There certainly is a trend in the industry overall for lab shopping, or finding a lab that will give you the results that you want. Is there a good incentive for honesty in the industry? No, not directly”
Next week, the application window for the final license type will open, which will be for transporters.
The state will begin accepting applications for small cultivation licenses, for those seeking no more than 1,000 square feet of cultivation space, and testing lab licenses, on April 1.
