Maine’s rollout of legal marijuana sales has been muted compared with other states because of the coronavirus pandemic, but shops are reporting brisk business nonetheless. Maine wasn’t able to replicate the grand opening scenes that have followed the first sales in other states. But regulators reported more than $1 million in sales in October, more […]
maine marijuana
It may be legal, but high prices and inconvenience may drive black-market marijuana for years in Maine
Rufus St. Hillaire grew six marijuana plants with his husband behind their cabin on their 2-acre property in Poland this year. He has a medical card to purchase marijuana, but no longer needs it to legally buy weed and edibles since a handful of Maine retailers began selling cannabis recreationally to those older than 21 […]
Maine’s largest cannabis company sues to open state’s medical marijuana market to outsiders
The state’s largest cannabis company has asked the court to strike down the residency requirement in Maine’s medical marijuana law, making the same constitutional argument it used to successfully open the state’s recreational market to out-of-state investors earlier this year. Wellness Connection of Maine and its parent company, High Street Capital Partners of Delaware, filed […]
Marijuana has grown to become Maine’s most valuable crop
Cannabis is now Maine’s most valuable crop, besting the state’s signature agricultural products such as potatoes, milk and blueberries. Medical marijuana sales totaled $221.8 million from January through October, more than double what had been sold by this time last year, according to state sales tax figures. That puts the industry on pace to hit […]
Maine’s largest medical marijuana dispensary group asks to join residency lawsuit
Wellness Connection, which owns four of eight licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Maine, filed a motion on Thursday to fight a lawsuit against the state from two small marijuana businesses over recreational cannabis licenses granted to businesses with some out-of-state ownership. It is the latest legal salvo in the recreational marijuana market that launched on Oct. […]
Lawsuit filed over Maine marijuana retail licenses
Two small Maine-based marijuana businesses are suing the agency that oversees recreational marijuana operations, arguing state licenses were illegally awarded to out-of-state owners. State law requires owners of marijuana operations to live in Maine and to have filed state income taxes for four years. But the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy ignored the requirement, based […]
Mainers spent over $250K on cannabis during first weekend
Maine residents spent more than $250,000 on marijuana over the course of the first weekend of legal retail sales of the drug in the state. Voters in the state chose to legalize adult use marijuana in 2016, but retail sales didn’t become legal until this month. The Maine Office of Marijuana Policy said the long […]
First day of recreational pot sales in Maine yields $9,464 in sales taxes
The six marijuana shops that opened Friday across the state reported $94,643 in sales, according to the Office of Marijuana Policy. A half-dozen pot shops reported $94,643.38 in first-day sales on Friday under Maine’s new adult-use marijuana program, resulting in $9,464.34 in sales tax for the state. The preliminary data were reported Saturday afternoon by […]
A long road: Cannabis goes on sale years after approval in Maine
Mainers are getting their first opportunity to legally buy marijuana for adult recreational use, but a supply shortage is a potential buzzkill. Retailers blame the pandemic and a limited number of licensed manufacturers for reducing the variety of products available on Friday, the opening day. Licenses were issued only a month ago. That didn’t dampen Matt Bourgeois’ […]
Once shut out, Maine cannabis industry now eligible for sustainable energy grants
One of Maine’s most energy-intensive industries will no longer be shut out of the state’s energy efficiency incentive programs. The trustees of Efficiency Maine, a ratepayer-funded agency that promotes sustainable energy usage, voted 5-2 on Wednesday to reverse a ban on giving energy-efficiency grants to state-legal marijuana businesses, concluding they are just as likely to last long […]
