By Simon Malinowski

Well, the big Cannabis Control Board (CCB) meeting happened on May 11, 2023, and it was as action packed as advertised. There were rules and regulations, Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses issued, and heated exchanges between the regulators. Here are the key takeaways:

The revised adult use rules were released

As expected, the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) posted the revised adult-use rules and regulations on its website on May 10, 2023. We will follow up with a detailed breakdown of the changes, but here are some high level items:

• actually securing real estate prior to submitting an application is no longer required. The revised rules and regulations allow the CCB to issue a provisional license if all of the required materials are provided except for information about a secured location.
• All dispensaries and microbusinesses will have the ability to include on-site consumption, with the on-site consumption rules and regulations forthcoming.
• The timeline for the 10 existing Registered Organizations (“ROs”), i.e. existing medical licensees, opening adult-use retail dispensaries was moved up, with each RO allowed to enter the adult-use market with one location after December 29, 2023, and two more locations after June 29, 2024. As part of those revisions, each RO will be required to pay a $5,000,000 upfront fee, another $5,000,000 upon opening its second adult-use location, and $10,000,000 in installments tied to the RO’s revenue (with the full $20,000,000 to be paid by 2033).
• The True Party in Interest rules were changed, increasing the maximum amount of revenue to $250,000 from $100,000. We’ll cover the specifics of the TPI rules in a later post, given their significance in the application process.

CCB “confirmed” the application timeline

OCM Chief of Staff Axel Bernabe reiterated that the OCM is targeting opening the application portal in the fall of 2023 (with the final adult-use rules and regulations approved in August of 2023). Mr. Bernabe’s statement was corroborated by a statement to amNewYork Metro from Trivette Knowles, a spokesperson from the OCM, who stated that the CCB “anticipates issuing general licenses at the beginning of next year (2024).”

CCB issues more CAURD licenses

The CCB issued another 50 CAURD licenses, with the total licenses issued to date reaching 215. We’ll cover it on a later post, but the new batch of CAURD licensees included applicants from the previously enjoined regions. It is clear that the CCB and OCM are pushing the applicants affected by the injunction.

The social and economic equity plan was released

OCM Chief Equity Officer Damian Fagon introduced the social and economic equity plan, although many specifics were not included (a source of much heated discussion during the meeting). A corresponding action plan for social equity license application assistance should be forthcoming.

Stay tuned

All in all, this meeting delivered in that the revised rules and regulations were released, the application and licensure timelines were softly confirmed, we finally got to see a social and economic equity plan, and more CAURD licenses were issued. Stay tuned for our detailed breakdowns of the revised rules and regulations and summary of the new TPI rules!

Re-published with the permission of Harris Bricken and The Canna Law Blog