Delaware officials are earmarking $6.2 million for a fund for social-equity cannabis industry applicants, WHYY reports. The state will use $4.2 million from application fees for conversion licenses – licenses for current medical cannabis operators to enter the adult-use industry – for the program, while the remaining $2 million was allocated by lawmakers.
Under state law, social equity applicants must own at least 51% of the business and have been convicted of a cannabis offense, as long as the offense wasn’t for selling more than 11 pounds or dealing to a minor; or have a parent, legal guardian, child, spouse, or dependent who was convicted of a cannabis crime; or have lived for at least five of the last 10 years in a “disproportionately impacted area,” which is defined as census area where cannabis arrests have been high in the last decade.
Conversion licenses will cost $200,000 for cultivators and $100,000 for retailers, manufacturers, and testing laboratories.
Delaware lawmakers last month passed a bill that lets current medical cannabis companies in the state apply for the conversion licenses and Gov. John Carney (D) is expected to sign it in the coming weeks. Those licenses are expected to be issued in November.
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