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The governor of Rhode Island announced on Tuesday that the state\u2019s first adult-use marijuana retail sales will begin next week, on December 1.<\/p>\n
Gov. Dan McKee (D) and the state Department of Business Regulation (DBR) said that five existing medical cannabis dispensaries have been licensed as \u201chybrid\u201d retailers that will be the first to serve adults 21 and older.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis milestone is the result of a carefully executed process to ensure that our state\u2019s entry into this emerging market was done in a safe, controlled and equitable manner,\u201d McKee said in a press release.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is also a win for our statewide economy and our strong, locally based cannabis supply chain, which consists of nearly 70 licensed cultivators, processors and manufacturers in addition to our licensed compassion centers,\u201d he said, adding that he\u2019s grateful to lawmakers for passing a marijuana legalization bill that he signed<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n Matt Santacroce, interim deputy director of DBR, said<\/a> that the department was \u201cpleased with the quality and comprehensiveness of the applications we received from the state\u2019s compassion centers, and we are proud to launch adult use sales in Rhode Island just six months after the Cannabis Act was signed into law, marking the Northeast\u2019s fastest implementation period.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to continuing to work with the state\u2019s cannabis business community to ensure this critical economic sector scales in compliance with the rules and regulations put forward by state regulators,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The announcement comes two weeks after Rhode Island voters in more than 30 cities were asked to decide on whether or not to allow cannabis businesses to operate within their jurisdictions. Almost all of those cities opted in to marijuana commerce<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rhode Island cities that didn\u2019t place the question on the ballot will allow marijuana marketplaces in their area. Some of the state\u2019s largest cities\u2014including Cranston, Pawtucket, Providence and Warwick\u2014declined to ask voters to decide on the matter, meaning retailers will be permitted by default.<\/p>\n The first five dispensaries to get hybrid licenses are:<\/p>\n DBR started accepting applications for existing dispensaries to become hybrid retailers last month, but the overall licensing process has faced criticism over delays.<\/p>\n McKee has yet to appoint commissioners to oversee the regulation of the adult-use market. Legislative leaders have made recommendations to the governor for those appointments, but nobody has been formally selected yet.<\/p>\n Adding to the difficulty of getting the Cannabis Control Commission together, there have been calls for the governor to reject recommended appointees from House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (D) after one of his top aides was recently accused of failing to disclose that he was a \u201csilent\u201d partner in a marijuana business, while also reportedly having ties to an alleged mob figure. That staffer has since resigned.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, as regulators continue to work toward bringing retailers online, adults 21 and older are allowed to legally possess up to one ounce of cannabis and grow up to six plants for personal use, only three of which can be mature, under the law signed by the governor.<\/p>\n There were months of negotiations between lawmakers, advocates, stakeholders and the governor\u2019s office before\u00a0a revised version of the legislation was introduced<\/a>\u00a0in May. But once the text was released, the identical companion bills in both chambers\u00a0quickly advanced through committee<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0were quickly approved on the floor<\/a>.<\/p>\n McKee, who released his\u00a0own reform plan as part of his budget proposal<\/a>\u00a0this year, signed the measure just one day after the legislature sent it to his desk.<\/p>\n \u2014 The primary components of the now-enacted law are largely\u00a0consistent with an earlier version of the bill as introduced<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0considered during earlier committee hearings<\/a>\u00a0in March.<\/p>\n Both the governor and legislative leaders\u2019 legalization plans were notably different than the proposal that former Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) had included in her budget in 2020. Prior to\u00a0leaving office to join the Biden administration<\/a>\u00a0as commerce secretary, she\u00a0called for legalization through a state-run model<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Rhode Island lawmakers\u00a0introduced a pair of drug decriminalization bills<\/a>\u00a0in March\u2014including one focused on psilocybin and buprenorphine that would authorize doctors to prescribe the psychedelic mushroom.<\/p>\n Last year, the governor also\u00a0signed a historic bill to allow safe consumption sites<\/a>\u00a0where people could use illicit drugs under medical supervision and receive resources to enter treatment.<\/p>\n The Senate Judiciary Committee also held a hearing last year on legislation that would\u00a0end criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of drugs<\/a>\u00a0and replace them with a $100 fine.<\/p>\n Congressional Researchers Lay Out Six Key Limitations Of Biden\u2019s Marijuana Pardons<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Rhode Island Recreational Marijuana Sales Will Start Next Week, Governor Announces<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The governor of Rhode Island announced on Tuesday that the state\u2019s first adult-use marijuana retail sales will begin next week, on December 1. Gov. Dan McKee (D) and the state Department of Business Regulation (DBR) said that five existing medical cannabis dispensaries have been licensed as \u201chybrid\u201d retailers that willContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":58413,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58414,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58412\/revisions\/58414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Rhode Island Recreational Marijuana Sales Will Start Next Week, Governor Announces<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"