After more than a year of deliberation, Maine’s largest city joined 40 other communities to opt into the cannabis industry, but it broke ranks with the state by deciding to stand by its plan to give Mainers a leg up in the race to nab one of Portland’s 20 coveted retail cannabis licenses.
The City Council voted 8-1 to approve its proposed licensing ordinance, fee schedule and rules for cannabis businesses late Monday night, but rejected a staff recommendation to strip the residency bonus available to applicants who have lived in Maine for at least five years in the wake of the state’s decision to abandon a similar licensing preference last week.
The state Office of Marijuana Policy abandoned its four-year residency requirement for state business licenses last week after the state Attorney General’s Office decided it could not defend a legal challenge raised by Maine’s largest medical cannabis operator, Wellness Connection of Maine, which went to court to fight the requirement on constitutional grounds.
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