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The winning applicants for Rhode Island’s next two-dozen cannabis retail licenses could be selected through a lottery – but only after they are screened based on qualifications such as “ability and readiness for licensure” – under a proposal approved by the Rhode Island Cannabis Control Commission.
The three-member regulatory board unanimously approved a proposal presented Friday by Mariana Ormonde, the commission’s chief legal counsel, according to digital news site Rhode Island Current.
Ormande said that under the hybrid selection process – license applicants would have to be deemed eligible before being enrolled in the lottery system – legal and economic challenges that dogged states such as Illinois, New Jersey and New York would be avoided.
Commission Chair Kimberly Ahern said during the meeting that she is eager to avoid further marijuana industry delays in the state, which legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021.
Other states that have implemented a hybrid application process include Connecticut, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, and Massachusetts, where prospective businesses must obtain local planning and zoning approval before appearing before the state’s Cannabis Control Commission.
The lottery would occur only in zones where demand for retail licenses is greater than the available supply.
Under the Rhode Island Cannabis Act, retail licenses must be distributed throughout six geographic zones, with each zone permitted a maximum of four stores, including two that are reserved for a social equity applicant and a workers’ cooperative, or business owned by employees.
Ormonde’s presentation to the commission did not provide an estimate of the fee to enter the license lottery.
But under the state’s Cannabis Act, retailers must pay $125,000 to the Department of Business Regulation to sell recreational marijuana and an annual licensing fee of $30,000 (the initial fee was $500,000).
Draft regulations still must be finalized before the licenses can be awarded.
