“Knowing the Act was facing legal challenges…CCC continued forward with its plan to implement the Act and its licensing scheme. The resulting fall-out will be, to be blunt, self-inflicted.”
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Currant
Nearly 100 applicants vying for 20 new cannabis retail licenses that were supposed to be awarded via lottery as soon as May remain in limbo after a federal judge’s order this week put the plan on pause.
U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction against the Rhode Island Cannabis Control Commission. The commission is the defendant in three federal lawsuits filed by out-of-state entrepreneurs over the state’s residency requirement for retail licenses.
DuBose’s order blocks regulators from holding a license lottery or even continuing to screen and review any of the retail license applications submitted to the commission by the December 29, 2025, deadline.
“It’s very disheartening right now,” Jason Calderon, a cultivator who applied for a retail license in North Kingstown, said in an interview. “This most certainly could have been avoided. All we’ve done now is give more time to the existing monopolies to be a monopoly.”
Charon Rose, spokesperson for the commission, on Friday said regulators were aware of
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