The measure to eliminate the 20-store cap in Portland was added to the ballot before the City Council voted to allow all 36 first-round applicants to proceed with retail licensing.
Efficiency Maine changes course, concluding that state-legal marijuana businesses are just as likely to last long enough to produce the energy savings needed to justify the grants as any other businesses.
In the race to secure one of the 20 licenses to sell pot in Maine's biggest city, a dozen applicants haven't satisfied basic requirements such as paying city taxes and fees on time.
One former Franklin County Sheriff's Office deputy is treasurer and another a board member of a wholesale medical marijuana company hit in the sweeping raid last week in Farmington.
Protesters are upset that state's biggest marijuana company, Wellness Connection, is using the courts to open the recreational market to out-of-state competition.
The state reached an agreement with a marijuana company Monday that eliminates the rule that would have required applicants to have lived in Maine for 4 years.
A legislative committee strips out a ban on small extraction labs, federal background checks, plant size limits and fines from a department-backed bill, but adds a testing requirement.
The controversial provisions would have driven up the cost of alcohol-based extractions and allowed marijuana companies to shield certain state license data from the public.
Maine wants the state's medical and adult-use cannabis businesses to have the same rules whenever possible, but small operators say that would drive up prices and put them out of business.
Marijuana advocates see the proposal for a 4-person division of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency to investigate marijuana crimes as an effort to outlaw the drug again.
The disadvantaged, marijuana business veterans and those who own or have long-term shop leases are among those favored in the retail license regulation to be considered by the City Council.
The industry is split over efforts to keep marijuana license details secret, but opposes a bill that would drive up the price of edibles, salves and tinctures.
Advocates say it would allow legitimate businesses to compete with black market sellers, but the state says it would be too hard to regulate at this time.
City Council committees continue to debate proposed rules for a lottery to award as many as 20 retail licenses, meaning Portland won't be ready when the state is likely to start recreational sales.
Josh Quint, director of operations for the Biddeford-based medical marijuana firm Canuvo, will become the first grower to serve on the 15-member panel.
A proposal to protect financial institutions serving marijuana businesses was stripped from the federal spending bill, and a measure to improve access to banking is held up in the Senate Banking Committee.
Three years after legalizing adult-use marijuana, the state’s still waiting for retail shops. Consultants say the economy paid the price as dollars and expertise went elsewhere.