On the edge of Providence's Federal Hill and West End neighborhoods is a former industrial building still filled with old machinery and abandoned pallets. It's the very spot a group of entrepreneurs had envisioned for a cannabis dispensary run by a diverse worker cooperative. PVD Flowers secured the location in October in order to qualify for the state's retail license application pool by the deadline last December.
Applications like theirs were being screened with the intention of moving toward a lottery as soon as May to award a limited number of licenses. But then came the April 8 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Melissa DuBose temporarily halting Rhode Island cannabis regulators from awarding any new licenses or even continuing to screen and review the 97 applications vying for one of 20 licenses up for grabs.
"We just have to sit here and wait now," Andre Dev, one of the listed owners for PVD Flowers and founder of the Community Cannabis Network of Rhode Island, said in an interview outside the building Monday afternoon.
He was joined by other applicants who assembled to voice their concerns about Dubose's licensing injunction and call on expedited action from the state's Cannabis Control Commission, which scheduled an emergency closed-door meeting Tuesday morning on the ruling.
Read more at Rhode Island Current
