Cannabis regulators have extended the period that cannabis delivery licenses are available only to social equity applicants for another three years. On Friday, the Cannabis Control Commission voted to extend the delivery license exclusivity period for social equity applicants, defined as those who have been disproportionately affected by previous marijuana prohibition and enforcement activities, until April 2029. Commissioners left themselves the option to extend it again.
The vote came as the original exclusivity period was set to expire April 1. The period was established in 2022, and the CCC extended it in 2025 by one year to allow commissioners to gather more data on whether the program is meeting its goal of promoting industry participation among communities that were disproportionately affected by marijuana prohibition. The updated regulations specify that commissioners must collect and publicly report on data assessing how well the program is meeting its goals every six months.
The three-year extension falls short of calls for at least five years, supported by some who testified during a public hearing on the proposal as well as a December report that the CCC commissioned from the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute. That report found the original three-year period was too short for "the effects of the policy and its follow-up interventions to be measurably realized."
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