Jennifer and Don have become familiar with dozens of state cannabis regulations, such that we have an in-depth understanding of how regulatory agencies operate, communicate and expect.  This can help cannabis applicants avoid common mistakes and ensure that they meet their goals as painlessly as possible.

In the past, merit based competitive application processes were the norm. But over the past year, the method by which states grant licenses has moved towards a “vetted lottery” system. This means applicants must submit several documents to qualify for a lottery, then a fair lottery process determines the winners of a fixed number of licenses. This system has some big shortcomings. For one, applicants must invest money, time and energy into a long process that is likely to end with no benefit. Applicants in most states have no better than a 1% chance of winning a license. Second, the winners of these lotteries often have no experience, which results in a weak pool of participants once the licenses are granted. 

Nevertheless, cannabis license lotteries are worth entering, because anyone who wins has a real opportunity to become a millionaire, if the business is in a state with limited numbers of licenses. It would be truly exciting to be among the winners of cannabis licenses in newly legal states, so if you are excited about the opportunity and can invest into making it happen, we are excited to help you get your hat into the ring! 

CannabisLicensing.Support is a relatively new website, but we have several other websites that have been serving cannabis applicants since 2017. We are known as one of the few nationwide cannabis licensing support companies with extensive experience and an excellent track record. 

Our experts, Jennifer Martin and Don Duncan, have decades of experience in the cannabis industry and can provide ongoing support and advice to ensure that cannabis applicants and license holders succeed in navigating the complex regulatory process.

In particular, we provide high quality, state-compliant templates for all of the plans and procedures required for a cannabis license application in each state. This includes Security Plans, Environmental Plans, Inventory Plans, Staffing & Training Plans, Quality Assurance Plans, Waste Management Plans, and more. These templates are designed to meet the specific requirements of your state, ensuring that licensees will stay in compliance as they are getting their businesses off the ground. They follow your state’s definition of each plan, citing the most current version of the regulations wherever applicable.

Cannabis regulations vary widely across the country, but they also have some consistent things in common with each other. All legal cannabis states are operating under a “tax and regulate” model that requires significant security and oversight over the facility and inventory. Product quality is also carefully overseen, to ensure consumer safety. Tight regulation of these business components adds a lot of cost and complexity to cannabis business ownership. In states with unlimited license numbers, extra cost and complexity can be deal breakers, especially considering the ever-present black market competition. In states with limited cannabis license numbers, however, the opportunity to make great money is alive and well, and new states are opening up every year for either medical or adult-use cannabis licensing. Even in the states with onerous regulations and excess competition, regulations are quickly evolving to address industry-participant pain points, hopefully improving the prospects for cannabis business operators more and more over time. Fortunately, resources like us at CannabisLicensing.Support can help applicants get a better handle on the regulations they will need to comply with. By providing state-specific, sophisticated templates for all of the required plans and procedures that will be required throughout the cannabis licensing process, we can help simplify your application process, no matter the state.

What Are the Rhode Island's Cannabis Licensing Requirements? Rhode Island legalized adult-use cannabis on May 25th, 2022. The text of the statute can be found here: Rhode Island Cannabis Act.  The legislation specified a maximum of 33 retail licenses to be distributed between 6 zones around the state. Nine of those recreational cannabis