Marijuana Business Magazine November-December 2019

Maine State officials said they were poised to begin accepting adult-use marijuana license applications before the end of the year and expect customers will have the ability to purchase products in retail stores by March 15. Maine will need time to process the applications, and retailers also will need local approvals, said David Heidrich, an agency spokesman. There are no statewide license caps, but municipalities can limit or ban recreational marijuana in their jurisdictions—and most have. Maryland Medical marijuana regulators put on hold plans to award an additional four cultivation and 10 processing licenses after a judge’s temporary restraining order barring the state from issuing licenses. Instead, Medical Cannabis Commission Chair Brian Lopez said the state would take more time to review applications, acknowledging concerns raised by the Legislative Black Caucus that minority- owned firms weren’t getting a fair shake. Lopez reportedly didn’t specifically mention the judge’s temporary restraining order, which was in response to a complaint by the company Remileaf that the state had wrongfully not accepted its application.