A Delaware Senate committee has advanced a House-passed bill that would let existing medical marijuana businesses in the state begin selling cannabis to adults<\/a>, a move designed to allow recreational sales to begin months earlier than planned. Critics, however, say the legislation would give an unfair market advantage to larger, more dominant businesses already operating in multiple states.<\/p>\n The legislation, which the Senate Judiciary Committee approved on Wednesday, would let current medical marijuana providers convert to dual-use licensees that could serve both registered patients and adults over 21. Fees from the license conversions\u2014which are estimated to bring in more than $4 million\u2014would be used for financial assistance to social equity-owned cannabis businesses.<\/p>\n HB 408, sponsored by Rep. Ed Osienski (D), would create a \u201cconversion license\u201d category, laying out requirements for medical cannabis businesses to apply and also stipulating that the applicants who are denied due to local bans can apply for general licenses for a new location, which must be approved as long as they meet the requirements.<\/p>\n Prospective conversion licensees would have to demonstrate that they can continue to meet demand among medical patients, show plans to support the state\u2019s social equity program and enter into a labor peace agreement with a \u201clegitimate\u201d union, for example.<\/p>\n \u201cHouse Bill 408 essentially creates a pathway for the existing compassion centers to be able to have licensing for recreational marijuana,\u201d Sen. Trey Pardee (D) said during the committee hearing, explaining that when lawmakers first approved legalization, \u201cthe idea was to have everybody starting from the same starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal would attempt to address what Pardee called \u201csome issues\u201d with the current legalization law, which was enacted last year. \u201cNumber one was funding for the social equity licenses, to make some money available for grants and trying to figure out where that funding would come from,\u201d the lawmaker said.<\/p>\n The senator also argued the conversion plan could also eventually help equity-owned retail businesses by allowing existing medical marijuana businesses to provide product for the shops to sell.<\/p>\n \u201cFor particularly smaller dispensary operators\u2014again, some of the social licensees\u2014where would their product come from?\u201d he said. \u201cThe hope would be that those [existing] facilities would be able to ramp up production and be able to provide wholesale product to some of the startup operators of dispensaries.\u201d<\/p>\n Others at Wednesday\u2019s hearing<\/a>, however, slammed the bill as a handout to big business.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a corporate giveaway, not an equity program,\u201d said Chris Goldstein, a regional organizer for the advocacy group NORML in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n In New Jersey, Goldstein continued, \u201ca lot of these same promises were made by these same companies about equity and medical access\u2026 I can tell you that since adult-use conversions were made in New Jersey, our medical program has shrunk in membership by 50 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPrices in New Jersey are equal to Delaware,\u201d he added, \u201cand unfortunately, they are the most expensive cannabis prices in the country. We will not begin to compete with the black market by offering more expensive prices.\u201d<\/p>\n Zo\u00eb Patchell, president of the Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network, said she appreciated recent amendments to the bill made on the House floor but still has serious worries about the conversion plan.<\/p>\n \u201cOur main concerns are that this bill gives six exclusive businesses a head start, permits deferred licensing payments for funding that is needed upfront for social equity businesses and grants these six businesses guaranteed vertically integrated licenses,\u201d Patchell said.<\/p>\n Yet other cannabis consumers in the state, however, pushed back on those claims.<\/p>\n \u201cThe opposition to this bill would have you believe that this bill is about corporate greed,\u201d said Sally Stewart, a commenter who identified herself as a Delaware cannabis user. \u201cIn reality, this bill would give millions to the people who were disproportionately affected by prohibition.\u201d<\/p>\n Advocates at the group Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), meanwhile, support the legislation but want to see further amendments.<\/p>\n Rawan Elfar, MPP\u2019s public policy and membership coordinator, said lawmakers should modify the proposal to allow all adult-use stores to offer tax-free medical marijuana products to registered patients. That would give patients broader access to higher-potency products\u2014with higher purchase limits\u2014without having to travel to a dedicated medical dispensary.<\/p>\n MPP also wants to see a delivery option added to the bill to allow businesses to drop off medical marijuana products to patients.<\/p>\n The House of Representatives approved the measure on a 29\u201311 vote earlier this month.<\/p>\n Under the\u00a0legislation<\/a>, the Delaware Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC) would need to open applications for conversion licenses by August 1 of this year. The application window would close on November 1.<\/p>\n Conversion licensees could start selling cannabis upon approval. Prior to the license expiring, businesses could apply for general licenses.<\/p>\n An amendment made in the House stipulates that all funds derived from conversion licensing fees from existing medical marijuana businesses \u201cshall only be used as sources of financial assistance for social equity applicants issued a conditional license.\u201d<\/p>\n Osienski said during the House floor discussion at the time that the bill \u201cwill allow those that are coming in that were disproportionately affected by the prohibition on marijuana to have financial assistance, just like many of our companies and corporations throughout Delaware when they apply to expand here or move here. So this will provide that resource for them and also allow them to get up.\u201d<\/p>\n An amendment from Osienski made a number of other changes before House passage, including increasing the conversion licensing fee from $100,000 to $200,000, making it so the licenses would expire after 24 months instead of 48 months and requiring applicants to \u201cprovide an attestation\u201d that they will continue to serve medical cannabis patients.<\/p>\n With the current lack of regulated adult-use access, there have been examples of unlicensed businesses selling cannabis, underscoring the \u201curgency\u201d of enacting the bill, Osienski\u00a0said, adding that he agrees with colleagues that \u201cwe need to bolster the compassion centers also and make sure that they are not harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n Also this week, state lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. John Carney (D) that would enact state-level protections for banks that provide services to licensed marijuana businesses<\/a>.<\/p>\n That measure, from Osienski and Pardee, is designed to clarify that banks, credit unions, armored car services and accounting services providers are not subject to state-level prosecution simply for working with cannabis businesses.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, last month Carney signed into law separate legislation to significantly expand the state\u2019s medical cannabis program<\/a> as regulators take steps to launch the recreational marijuana market. That new law removes limitations for patient eligibility based on a specific set of qualifying health conditions. Instead, doctors will be able to issue marijuana recommendations for any condition they see fit.<\/p>\n The measure will also allow patients over the age of 65 to self-certify for medical cannabis access without the need for a doctor\u2019s recommendation.<\/p>\n All of this comes as regulators are\u00a0rolling out a series of proposed regulations to stand up the forthcoming adult-use cannabis market<\/a>. The current timeline puts the launch of the market at March 2025, according to Delaware Marijuana Commissioner Robert Coupe.<\/p>\n GOP Congressional Panel Moves To Block Marijuana Rescheduling While Amending Medical Cannabis Rider With Penalties For Sales Near Schools<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The post Delaware Bill To Let Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Begin Recreational Sales Clears Senate Committee<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A Delaware Senate committee has advanced a House-passed bill that would let existing medical marijuana businesses in the state begin selling cannabis to adults, a move designed to allow recreational sales to begin months earlier than planned. Critics, however, say the legislation would give an unfair market advantage to larger,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"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\/76649"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76650,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76649\/revisions\/76650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Delaware Bill To Let Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Begin Recreational Sales Clears Senate Committee<\/a><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"