Licensing

A Minnesota judge blocked the state’s cannabis social equity license lottery this week in light of several lawsuits filed by applicants whose applications were denied last week.

Two lawsuits filed against the Minnesota Office of Cannabis Management aim to delay the state’s social equity licensing lottery after the agency denied about two-thirds of the social equity applicants.

Minnesota officials this week denied about 1,200 cannabis social equity applicants, two-thirds of those who applied, for issues ranging from inadequate paperwork to “flooding” the application pool in an attempt to improve the odds of receiving a license.

Massachusetts cannabis regulators last week issued the state’s first cannabis research license to a facility operated by Curaleaf Processing, a subsidiary of Curaleaf Holdings.

Seven cannabis transportation companies in Illinois are suing the state Department of Agriculture claiming the agency’s licensing process favors larger, white- and male-owned companies.

Kentucky is conducting the state’s first lottery for medical cannabis business licenses today. The first round of lottery-based licensing will cover medical cannabis cultivators and processors.

A New York judge this week ordered the owner of an unlicensed cannabis retailer in upstate New York to pay $9.5 million for selling cannabis without a license.

A Montgomery Circuit judge in Alabama has appointed a mediator to help resolve the legal dispute over the state’s attempts to license integrated operators for its long-embattled medical cannabis program.

California cannabis regulators revoked the license of cannabis vape manufacturer K.U.S.H. Collective, ordering product recalls for vape cartridges and integrated vaporizer products from 12 brands associated with the company.

Only seven of Missouri’s first 24 social equity cannabis dispensary license winners have been formally certified by state officials, while the other 17 were found to be ineligible by the Division of Cannabis Regulations.

Delaware cannabis regulators have received more than 1,260 adult-use cannabis business applications ahead of the state’s September 30 deadline.

Cannabis operators hoping to land a retail license in the Redford suburb of Detroit, Michigan camped out for weeks in line for the jurisdiction’s first-come-first-served cannabis licensing process, which kicked off on Thursday.

Cannabis regulators in Vermont have paused accepting new cannabis retail and some cultivation applications in an effort to curb the “problem of retail saturation.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) this week announced the first company to receive a medical cannabis business license is KCA Labs, a Nicholasville-based testing facility that already conducts tests on hemp products.

One of the companies suing the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission asked a judge to toss all three of the agency’s attempts to award integrated cannabis licenses and to declare the regulators’ appeal process void.

Kentucky officials have received 4,998 applications for medical cannabis business licenses, the governor announced this week. The majority of the applications (4,076) are for dispensary permits.

Legal battles are delaying Alabama’s medical cannabis rollout, leaving thousands of patients in limbo as both regulators and licensees push for court approval to start operations.

City officials in Sacramento this week voted to put on hold a proposal to increase the number of cannabis dispensary licenses in the city by 50%.

South Dakota lawmakers this week voted to raise the price of a medical cannabis business license by nearly 70%. Officials say the change will cover the program’s administrative costs.

The number of total approved or pending cannabis industry licenses in the U.S. increased during Q2 2024 for the first time in two years.

Minnesota cannabis officials have received 1,817 applications for cannabis industry licenses. The first licenses will go to social equity applicants, and regulators have verified social equity status for 2,307 individuals, mostly veterans and people with cannabis-related convictions.

Delaware officials will begin accepting adult-use cannabis license applications next week for the licensing lottery set to take place in October.

Alabama regulators last week approved two new cannabis cultivation licenses as the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission considers options for unblocking the lawsuit-laden industry.

Ohio regulators said they will issue dual-use licenses to many medical cannabis dispensaries on Tuesday this week, setting up the state’s first legal adult-use cannabis sales since voters approved the legalization reforms last year.