Rhode Island closer to licensing 24 recreational marijuana stores

Rhode Island regulators might soon license 24 new recreational marijuana stores now that the state has signed off on new industry regulations.

The state expects “thousands” of applications for the new retail permits, including six reserved for social equity applicants, Cannabis Control Commission Chair Kim Ahern told the Providence Journal.

However, no date has been set for when applications will be accepted, according to the Rhode Island Current.

Adult-use sales began in Rhode Island in December 2022.

However, recreational sales have to date been restricted to the seven existing vertically integrated “compassion centers,” as medical marijuana dispensaries were identified when Rhode Island launched its MMJ market in 2009.

Any expansion of the state’s adult-use industry was on hold until the state Cannabis Control Commission approved new rules, as it did April 11.

Under state law, in addition to the six retail permits set aside for qualified social equity applicants, Rhode Island is reserving another six permits for “worker-owned cooperative stores,” the Journal noted.

Once the state starts accepting applications, prospective business owners will undergo a merit-based screening process before proceeding to a lottery, the Current reported.

Retail applicants must pay a $7,500 application fee and, if selected, a $30,000 licensing fee.

Social equity applicants in Rhode Island must own 51% of the business and have been a resident for at least five of the past 10 years in a designated “disproportionately affected area.”

Those are defined as census tracts that meet one of several identified criteria, such as a poverty rate of at least 20%, according to the Journal.

A judge recently dismissed a lawsuit challenging Rhode Island’s social equity provisions brought by a California-based litigant who’s also sued other states.