MJBizMag January 2021 - 54

New Year, New Opportunities
retail permits to refile their paperwork
with amendments aimed at correcting
previous errors. That, in turn, could
result in changes to the permit winners.
But that was only one of several lawsuits
filed, and the licensing situation overall
remains murky, with no clear timeline for
any new business permits as of press time.
Key Details: The state's social equity
program has been a key factor contributing
to the delays and problems plaguing
the rollout of an expanded adult-use industry.
Social equity has been a growing
MONTANA
Business-Friendliness Score:
4 out of 5 leaves
When it comes to the fees and availability
of cannabis business licenses in Montana,
the state boasts a lot of advantages. Montana
residents have been accepting of the
state's medical marijuana program, with
patient counts reaching 3.8% per capita.
With fewer than 1.1 million residents
spread across a large area, however, sales
will never reach the astronomical levels
seen in more populated areas.
Milestone: Voters approved a
recreational marijuana program in the
November election by a margin of 57%
to 43%.
Initiative: Initiative 190.
Market Data: A University of
Montana study projects an adult-use
market will generate $217 million in the
first full year of sales (likely 2023) and
$234 million in 2024.
Companies in the Market: Only
Montana residents can obtain medical
marijuana licenses, and that will be
the case with the recreational cannabis
program as well.
There are no statewide limits on
medical marijuana providers, and
as of the third quarter, there were
278 licensed MMJ operators and
368 dispensaries in operation.
Big Picture: Montana has embraced
medical marijuana, and the same
is expected for
recreational cannabis.
Tourism could help
boost sales. Montana
attracted 12.9 million
tourists in 2019, and
those numbers should be
strong once the coronavirus
pandemic is over
and people feel safe to
travel again.
Montana residency will be required
to get an adult-use business license, and
existing medical marijuana companies
will get an exclusive opportunity to
enter the recreational market for the
first 12 months.
Pepper Petersen, spokesman for New
Approach Montana, the committee
running the legalization campaign, said
the residency requirement was carefully
considered.
The Marijuana Policy Project also
played a key role in crafting the initiative.
" We wanted to make sure the people
who participate have already proven
their worth in the Montana system, "
Petersen said. " It keeps things tighter and
a little more homegrown. "
It is possible that the residency
requirement will be challenged in the
courts, as happened recently in Maine
and other states. Maine ultimately
backed off its residency requirement, but
54 Marijuana Business Magazine | January 2021
trend in various U.S. cannabis markets,
as victims of the war on drugs make
the argument that their demographic
deserves a special place in the industry
given the decades of legal warfare largely
mounted against minority communities
in the name of cannabis prohibition.
The problem with most social equity
programs has been infighting over a
limited number of business permits. In
Illinois, that manifested this year with
only 21 social equity applicants qualifying
for a lottery that will determine the
winners of the 75 retail permits. That
development resulted in several lawsuits
from social equity applicants who alleged
they weren't given the opportunity to
amend errors in their paperwork-a
chance they were supposed to get under
Illinois law.
Naturally, those challenges were met
with pushback from other applicants
who were loath to relinquish any claim to
a cannabis retail permit in Illinois, and so
the legal fights have continued.
- John Schroyer
the issue remains in litigation.
Key Details: Adult-use marijuana sales
are expected to launch in late 2022 or
early 2023.
Local governments will be able to ban
marijuana operations-but only after
getting permission from voters to do so.
Licensees must be vertically integrated.
However, licensed operators will be
allowed to sell up to 50% of the products
they grow or manufacture on the
wholesale market to other cannabis
businesses.
The initiative calls for 10 cultivation
tiers, including a micro-tier of up to
250 square feet. But experts say that,
in some areas, cultivation companies
already have the market covered, so
there could be few opportunities for
new growers.
A seed-to-sale tracking system will be
implemented.
- Jeff Smith
MJBizMag January 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MJBizMag January 2021
