The Cannabis Control Commission is contemplating slowing the already long-delayed awarding of 20 new retail cannabis dispensary licenses after local industry stakeholders raised concerns that new dispensaries will hurt their profit margins.
The discussion is set for a meeting at 1 p.m. on Friday, March 13, posted to the commission's website late on March 10, along with a slew of proposed rule changes.
Cannabis Control Commission Commissioner Robert Jacquard said at a Feb. 13 meeting that "a lot of stakeholders" are complaining that new licenses being issued that "come online at the same time could result in the price of the product dropping so precipitously that no one would be able to profit by it."
Neither Jacquard nor Administrator Michelle Reddish have publicly said who these stakeholders are, but the only organizations in the state that stand to drop prices in the face of competition are the eight dispensaries, six of which are partially or fully vertically integrated, meaning they grow their own product.
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