Twenty unidentified registered marijuana dispensaries were approved Tuesday to have their applications to enter the recreational marijuana business reviewed by the Cannabis Control Commission on an expedited basis.
The regulatory body on Tuesday agreed to prioritize the review of those 20 applicants and said the companies will be able to apply for a recreational marijuana business license in one week.
At a meeting in Boston, the CCC did not make public any details about the businesses, not even their identities, that it approved for expedited license review. The commission approved all 20 with one vote. CCC Chairman Steven Hoffman said the details of what the CCC voted on would be available online later Tuesday, though details had not been posted as of 5:15 p.m.
The 20 applicants approved Tuesday and any others approved for priority certification will be able to submit their marijuana license applications beginning April 17, though the CCC cannot issue licenses until June 1.
Priority certification — which will allow those entities approved to leapfrog towards the front of the line when the CCC begins issuing licenses — is open to registered marijuana dispensaries (RMDs) and those eligible through the CCC’s economic empowerment program, which is intended to assist people disproportionately affected by marijuana prohibition.
None of the 20 businesses approved for priority review Tuesday applied through the economic empowerment program. The process for economic empowerment applicants is more complex and takes longer for the CCC staff to review, Hoffman said.
“Really, the RMD applicants only have to show us that they have provisional or final certification, whereas we’re asking for the economic empowerment candidates to document that three of the six criteria are met,” he said.
Applications for priority review must be finalized and submitted to the CCC by the end of the day Sunday. Economic empowerment applicants who submit insufficient information will be given five business days to provide the missing documentation, Hoffman said.
“Our philosophy and intent is to help people get those applications completed. We’re not rejecting applications because they’re not complete, we’re going back and saying, ‘you need to provide this information,’” he said. “Our objective here is to try to help as many people as are appropriately qualified to get certified for priority application standing.”
Executive Director Shawn Collins said he expects to bring a bundle of economic empowerment applicants to the commission for approval next Tuesday. As of 8 p.m. Monday, registered marijuana dispensary companies had completed and submitted to the CCC 55 applications for priority review and economic empowerment applicants had completed and submitted 26 applications, Collins said.