The state announced eight winners Thursday from the second of two lotteries to select some of the first businesses that will be eligible to grow and sell cannabis for adult recreational use in Connecticut.
The general lottery winners announced by the Department of Consumer Protection on Thursday included six applicants for a retailer license and two applicants for a mico-cultivator license, out of what a spokeswoman said were a total of over 15,000 applications. A little more than half of those were applicants who had initially entered in an earlier social equity lottery, but were not selected.
Each selected applicant will now have the ability to submit additional information for a state background check and provisional license, said the DCP spokeswoman, Kaitlyn Krasselt. Businesses were not limited in the number of applications for a license they could submit, resulting in some applicants being selected more than once in both lotteries.
The selected winners are as follows:
Retailer License: Debbie’s Dispensary, LLC; Shangri-La CT, Inc (selected twice), Hydra East, LLC; Slap Ash, LLC, and Sara’s Dispensary LLC.
Mico-Cultivator License: Debbie’s Dispensary, LLC; Chillax LLC.
Under the process established for awarding the 14 different types of licenses for growing, manufacturing, transporting and selling recreational marijuana in Connecticut, the state plans to conduct a series of lotteries each year for licenses, with half of the winners being selected from social equity applicants who qualify based on income or residency in an area disproportionately affected by the decades-long War on Drugs.
That process had already led to a number of lawsuits from applicants who allege that they were unfairly denied social equity status. The lawsuits have since been consolidated into one.
With the selection of the general lottery winners on Thursday, the state has announced all of the winners for the the 12 retailer licenses and four micro-cultivator licenses that it will award in the first round of lotteries. Other license categories include delivery services, food and beverage manufacturers, packagers, and hybrid retailers who can sell both recreational and medical marijuana.
Krasselt said that all of the general lottery winners have been notified so that they may proceed with applying for a provisional license. That license will allow them to take additional business steps such as formalizing lease agreements and hiring security teams.
Businesses must still receive a final license before they can begin selling product, which Krasselt said the state currently expects to happen around the end of this year.
Recent Comments