For a while, that process was bottled up by a court by lawsuits – but that hasn’t been the case for a while now.
Lonnie Affrime said his application for a medical marijuana license has been in limbo for more than two years without any communication from the state, and he wonders whether he ought to pursue a license under the system about to launch or wait.
“We still have not gotten one email, one phone call, one piece of mail, one comment as to when these applications are going to be forthcoming and awarded,” Affrime said.
Darrin Chandler said the licenses were identified by the Cannabis Regulatory Commission as one of the two top priorities – but still, nothing has happened. Meanwhile, he said a dozen multistate operators keep expanding.
“The state has now had 11 months to accurately score these applications, and this is not even including the time that the pause was in place due to the lawsuit,” said Chandler, who said the review in 2018 by the state health department took three to four months.
“To address this is critical,” said David Feder, an attorney and marijuana business consultant. “People are spending money on rent that they can’t possibly afford ongoing forever. We need to have a timeline. We need to have some sort of understanding of what the program is looking like for the applicants that have been sitting there waiting.”