Connecticut To Begin Accepting Applications For Cannabis Businesses

The state Department of Consumer Protection will begin accepting the first applications for certain adult-use cannabis establishment license types in early February. This week a panel establishing a framework for the sale of legal marijuana in Connecticut also approved criteria to ensure that Black and other underserved communities targeted by the war on drugs, reported the Hartford Courant. Up to 56 first-round licenses will be available for retailers, micro-cultivators, delivery services, food, and beverage businesses, manufacturers, transporters and others.

Lawmakers sent a cannabis reform bill to Governor Ned Lamont’s desk on June, 17th 2021, the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s declaration of the war on drugs.

Connecticut became the 18th state in the union to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes and the 4th in 2021, as Gov. Lamont signed the bill into law on June 22.

The current bill, initially introduced by House Speaker Matt Ritter and Senate President Martin Looney, includes a preference for people coming from low-income communities defined by census tracts.

They are evenly split among social equity and general licenses. Applications for social equity cultivator licenses located in areas that are considered “disproportionately impacted” will have a one-time 90-day application period beginning Feb. 3 and ending May 4.

In a recent analyst note, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Pablo Zuanic reviewed the retail price differences in cannabis flowers across 14 states, including Connecticut. Although retail prices vary widely across the medical markets, the lowest prices were found in Connecticut. In this regard, Zuanic noted “there are only four licensed growers in CT, and only 17 medical dispensaries opened at present. But it seems supplies are plentiful relative to demand. We say this because the five stores that we surveyed in CT had a combined 246 SKUs of flower in 3.5g formats, which is well above most of the other medical states. “The lower prices may be reflective also of the quality available,” Zuanic wrote.

Photo by Kirill Sharkovski On Unsplash