BOSTON — The Cannabis Control Commission won’t issue the first marijuana business license in Massachusetts until the end of next week at the earliest, and regulators already have more than 50 applications waiting for their consideration.
The commission was given authority on Friday to issue licenses to grow, sell and process marijuana, but the agency’s executive director said Tuesday that applications will be ready for commissioners’ review “within the next few weeks.” The Cannabis Control Commission meets next on June 14 and expects retail sales to begin July 1.
Twenty-eight entities have applied for 51 business licenses and the commission has begun to review those applications. The review process includes a background check and a 60-day window during which the municipality where the business hopes to be must certify that the applicant has met all local requirements.
“There are a lot of qualifications I would put on this, which is, we are waiting for information back from those third parties, including municipalities and our background check vendor. … Assuming all of those things come back, within the next few weeks, we could have a number of applications to recommend for provisional licensure,” Cannabis Control Commission Executive Director Shawn Collins said Tuesday.
Asked after Tuesday’s meeting, commission Chairman Steven Hoffman said he is “pretty confident” the agency will grant licenses this month to allow businesses to open on or around the July 1target date for legal marijuana sales.
“I think we’re on schedule,” he said.
In total, 108 prospective marijuana businesses have submitted at least one “packet” of the application to the Cannabis Control Commission and 51 have submitted all four necessary packets. The commission has begun its review of those applications.
Applying for a marijuana business license is a multi-step process and the application is made up of four “packets” that the applicant must submit to the Cannabis Control Commission — an application of intent, a background check, a management and operations profile and payment of the application fee. If the application is approved, payment of another fee — the license fee — becomes the fifth and final step in the process.
Of the 51 applications already under review by the commission’s licensing staff, 18 are seeking to cultivate marijuana, 15 are hoping to act as retailers, 12 want to manufacture marijuana products, three of the applications are to operate a research lab, two microbusinesses have applied for licenses and one person has applied to transport marijuana, according to data presented at Tuesday’s meeting.
Those applications are spread across the state: 16 in Worcester County, five each in Middlesex, Norfolk, Bristol and Plymouth counties, four in Franklin County, three each in Hampden and Essex counties, two each in Suffolk and Hampshire counties and one in Berkshire County. There is none in Barnstable, Dukes or Nantucket counties, according to the commission.
Collins, commission’s executive director, said 38 of the 51 applicants that have submitted all four packets have priority review status. Thirty-five are registered marijuana dispensary companies and three are part of the commission’s economic empowerment program.
Once it begins considering the suitability of license applicants, the commission plans to alternate between considering registered marijuana dispensaries and applications from participants in the its economic empowerment program.