PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Two years after state lawmakers approved an expansion of Rhode Island’s medical marijuana program from three dispensaries to nine, the state is still months away from completing the process to randomly select the six new stores.
A lottery to pick six marijuana dispensaries for licensure, originally pegged for early 2021, is in a “holding pattern” until at least August after one of the applicants appealed being deemed not qualified to participate, according to Matthew Santacroce, chief of the Office of Cannabis Regulation.
The state also received zero bids in its search for a contractor to conduct the lottery, which was originally proposed by former Gov. Gina Raimondo as a way to impartially select which applicants will be allowed to open medical cannabis dispensaries, known in Rhode Island as compassion centers.
The lottery will instead be conducted by the Department of Business Regulation, Santacroce said, in public and likely with an analog — rather than computer-generated — system of randomly selecting the businesses.
After a four-month review of the 45 applications submitted by 28 applicants, state regulators deemed 41 of them met the qualifications to enter the lottery. (Organizations could submit multiple applications to increase their chances — one per geographic zone — but can ultimately only get one license even if picked from the lottery twice.)
But one of the denied applicants appealed the…
Original Author Link click here to read complete story..
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Two years after state lawmakers approved an expansion of Rhode Island’s medical marijuana program from three dispensaries to nine, the state is still months away from completing the process to randomly select the six new stores.
A lottery to pick six marijuana dispensaries for licensure, originally pegged for early 2021, is in a “holding pattern” until at least August after one of the applicants appealed being deemed not qualified to participate, according to Matthew Santacroce, chief of the Office of Cannabis Regulation.
The state also received zero bids in its search for a contractor to conduct the lottery, which was originally proposed by former Gov. Gina Raimondo as a way to impartially select which applicants will be allowed to open medical cannabis dispensaries, known in Rhode Island as compassion centers.
The lottery will instead be conducted by the Department of Business Regulation, Santacroce said, in public and likely with an analog — rather than computer-generated — system of randomly selecting the businesses.
After a four-month review of the 45 applications submitted by 28 applicants, state regulators deemed 41 of them met the qualifications to enter the lottery. (Organizations could submit multiple applications to increase their chances — one per geographic zone — but can ultimately only get one license even if picked from the lottery twice.)
But one of the denied applicants appealed the…
