Rhode Island Marijuana Officials Propose New Rules For State’s Legal Market

“My goal in this decision-making is to avoid further delay, which is certainly a theme we’ve heard in every public comment we’ve ever had.”

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

Long-awaited rules that will govern Rhode Island’s budding recreational cannabis market are finally coming, putting the state one step closer to issuing licenses for two dozen retail pot shops.

Rhode Island’s Cannabis Control Commission on Wednesday released nearly 200 pages of draft regulations for public comment. Public comment will be open for 30 days, after which the commission will consider making any changes before final approval.

Proposed rules include new packaging and labeling requirements, how licenses will be awarded, a new quality assurance testing program and criteria to apply for one of the six social equity licenses.

“It is a very monumental meeting for this commission,” Kimberly Ahern, who chairs the three-member commission, said to the crowd of cannabis workers and advocates who attended Wednesday’s 9:30 a.m. meeting.

It’s been a long road for the state to establish its recreational cannabis market, which was legalized by state lawmakers in 2022. Over a year passed before the three-member panel was even set up, which then needed staff to draft any proposals and to learn what other states have done in setting up their rules.

“This was almost a little bit like running a startup,” Ahern said. “I’m proud of this work and the team that got us here—my top priority as chair of this commission is to regulate cannabis in a way that is safe, equitable and transparent.”

Currently, there are just seven previously authorized medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, leaving cultivars eager for new places to sell their products.

“We’ve got a large market that’s underserved right now and a base that hasn’t even been reached out to experience cannabis,” Jason Calderon, the vice president and CEO of Bonsai Buds, an Exeter-based cannabis cultivator, said in an interview.

Calderon said he was “extremely excited” to see the commission finally enter the next phase of the regulatory process.

“Obviously we still have a lot of hurdles we need to get through before this is real and we’re seeing applications come in and be viewed,” Calderon said.

NEW: CCC approves Rhode Island’s proposed #cannabis rules and regulations – now available for public review. ⁰ Public Comment Hearing: 📅 Jan. 24 @ 1:00 PM⁰ Full rules & regulations: https://t.co/8CE5fuSGpkpic.twitter.com/VZYavxHP2B

— RI Cannabis Control Commission (@Cannabis_RI) January 8, 2025

Lottery for licenses

Under the 2022 legalization, the commission can offer 24 new licenses to recreational dispensaries, with six reserved for social equity applicants and another six reserved for worker-owned cooperatives.

Licenses must be spread throughout six geographic zones, with a maximum of four stores per zone.

The proposed regulations call for a hybrid selection process in which applicants would first be screened based on qualifications before being placed in a lottery. All prospective retailers would have to pay an application fee of $7,500 and a yearly $30,000 licensing fee.

Though he voted in favor of the proposed regulation, Commissioner Robert Jacquard said he would prefer to see a solely merit-based approval system.

But Ahern said relying solely on the commission’s opinion could open them up to lawsuits and continue to bog down expanding Rhode Island’s retail market.

Massachusetts’ Cannabis Control Commission was briefly sued in 2021 by a trade group that sought to block new delivery licenses meant for social equity applicants, but that case was dropped as the group faced an exodus of members. Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management canceled its planned license lottery in December after facing lawsuits from people who alleged they were unlawfully denied entry.

“My goal in this decision-making is to avoid further delay, which is certainly a theme we’ve heard in every public comment we’ve ever had,” Ahern said.

Narrowing the definition on social equity

The draft regulations also narrow down who qualifies for the six social equity licenses. Regulators have sought to refine the definition since November 2023 based upon examples in other state and federal agencies.

The proposed criteria for a social equity license requires applicants demonstrate at least 51 percent ownership and control by individuals directly impacted by past cannabis laws or economic disparities. Qualifying factors include convictions for nonviolent cannabis offenses or residency in disproportionately impacted areas—which can be determined by federal poverty level, unemployment rate, the number of students in a free school lunch program and historic arrest rates by census tract.

Applicants can also qualify by having over half their work force come from a disproportionately impacted community.

A preliminary analysis presented to the commission in October found of the state’s 39 municipalities, only three met the criteria for a social equity zone set in Rhode Island’s 2022 law: Central Falls, Providence and Woonsocket. Some census tracts in Pawtucket and Newport also met the criteria.

Advocates have previously said these criteria are open to interpretation and filled with loopholes that can be exploited by those who didn’t actually interact with the criminal justice system.

Ahern on Wednesday said some had urged the commission to hold off on moving forward with social equity measures in favor of advancing the standard retail licenses more quickly.

“It wasn’t the right thing to do,” she said. “Our future social equity applicants are, by very definition, those who have been most impacted by the very fact that using and selling cannabis used to be a crime—all the while others have managed to make this their livelihood.”

Andre Dev, a founding member of the proposed cooperative PVD Flowers, commended the commission for prioritizing social equity in the industry.

“As we’ve seen in other states, that really leaves less capitalized workers and owners behind and creates real structural barriers to them getting into the market,” he told Rhode Island Current.

The Cannabis Control Commission will accept written comments on the proposed regulations through February 7, 2025.

Comments can be sent via email to cccinquiry@ccc.ri.gov or the Commission’s mailing address at 560 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick, RI 02886. A public hearing on the draft regulations will be held in-person on Friday, January 24, 2025, at 1 p.m. at the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission office at 89 Jefferson Blvd. in Warwick.

This story was first published by Rhode Island Current.

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Top German Official Approves Rules Allowing Commercial Marijuana Sales Pilot Programs For Research Purposes

A top German official has signed off on a plan to allow for research-focused commercial marijuana pilot programs to test legal and regulated access to cannabis for consumers—the latest iteration of the country’s legalization law.

Months after Germany’s law took effect providing for legal possession and home cultivation of cannabis by adults, as well as social clubs where people could access marijuana products, Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Cem Özdemir approved rules on Tuesday to expand the program.

This is not quite the second “pillar” of the legalization law that the government had pledged was coming, but it will make it so universities and private companies can apply for permits to participate in commercial marijuana sales, with mandates to study the impact of the policy change.

“Applicants must meet the criteria specified in the Consumer Cannabis Act, demonstrate the required expertise and demonstrate an interest in research. Not only universities, but also companies can submit research applications,” the ministry said in a press release, according to a translation. “Research can help to effectively curb the black market, expand health prevention and make the debate more objective.”

Industry stakeholders have expressed some concern about the fate of German’s cannabis laws ahead of an election that’s set to take place in late February. Members of conservative parties have indicated that they may seek to scale back or even repeal legalization if they reclaim a majority, which analysts predict may likely be the case.

But with the minister’s signing of the new research-focused rules, the stage is set to build upon the country’s reform.

Green MP Kirsten Kappert-Gonther called the development an “important step towards more knowledge about health and youth protection and to curb the black market.” However, she advised that the research-centered pilot program “cannot and will not replace” the coalition government’s second pillar of legalization that envisages broader commercial access to cannabis.

Die Verordnung zur Forschungsklausel für #Cannabis ist unterzeichnet! Ein wichtiger Schritt für mehr Wissen über Gesundheits- & Jugendschutz und zur Eindämmung des Schwarzmarkts Für @GrueneBundestag ist aber klar: Die Forschungsklausel kann und wird die #Säule 2 nicht ersetzen. https://t.co/1VEJkJgZyo

— Kirsten Kappert-Gonther (@KirstenKappert) December 11, 2024

Carmen Wegge of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) said she’s “very pleased that we are now taking a step forward here.”

“The model projects are an important part of fighting organized crime and promoting the health of consumers,” the lawmaker said.

Ich freue mich sehr, dass wir auch hier jetzt einen Schritt weiter kommen! Die Modellprojekte sind ein wichtiger Bestandteil um gegen die organisierte Kriminalität und für die Gesundheit von Konsument*innen. #cannabishttps://t.co/qMdzFOvk0k

— Carmen Wegge (@CarmenWegge) December 11, 2024

It became legal in Germany in April for adults to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal use, but until last month, there was no other legal means of obtaining the substance. That changed when German officials began approving marijuana social clubs, which cultivate cannabis on behalf of enrolled members.

Meanwhile, the city of Frankfurt recently announced plans to move forward with a five-year pilot program that would make cannabis products available to adults more broadly, with the city of Hanford also pursuing a similar plan. A number of other localities have also expressed interest in conducting cannabis sales pilot projects.

Omar Khan, chief communications and public affairs officer at the Canadian cannabis company High Tide, told Marijuana Moment that the business has “closely monitored German legislative and regulatory developments since 2022.”

“As such, we have been preparing to participate in these consumer research projects and have recruited prominent academics to develop a proposal focusing on consumer behavior,” he said. “These research projects form just one pillar of a broader plan we have been working on to bring High Tide and our Canna Cabana brand to Germany, and we look forward to sharing further details soon.”

Meanwhile, German officials recently convened a multi-national conference where leaders were invited to share their experiences with legalizing and regulating marijuana, with a focus on public health and mitigating the illicit market.

Representatives from Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Switzerland were invited by German Commissioner for Addiction and Drug Issues Burkhard Blienert to the meeting in Berlin last month.

The countries that participated in the ministerial have varying cannabis policies. Malta, for example, became the first European country to enact cannabis legalization in 2021. Luxembourg followed suit, with the reform officially taking effect last year.

Government officials from several countries, including the U.S., also met in Germany last year to discuss international marijuana policy issues as the host nation works to enact legalization.

A group of German lawmakers, as well as Blienert, separately visited the U.S. and toured California cannabis businesses in 2022 to inform their country’s approach to legalization.

The visit came after top officials from Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands held their first-of-its-kind meeting to discuss plans and challenges associated with recreational marijuana legalization in 2022.

A novel international survey released in 2022 found majority support for legalization in several key European countries, including Germany.

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) drug control body recently reiterated that it considers legalizing marijuana for non-medical or scientific purposes a violation of international treaties, though it also said it appreciates that Germany’s government scaled back its cannabis plan ahead of the vote.

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Canada’s Marijuana Legalization Law Effectively Shifts People Away From Illicit Market, While Youth Use Remains Steady, Government Report Shows

Six years after Canada legalized marijuana sales nationwide, a new government report shows that daily or near-daily use rates by both adults and youth have held steady. Meanwhile, the vast majority of consumers now say they obtain cannabis legally, with only 3 percent of respondents reporting purchasing from illicit sources.

By comparison, in 2019—a year after shops opened—16 percent reported buying marijuana from an illegal source.

Health Canada, the country’s national health agency, announced the results of its 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey on Friday. The polling was conducted from April into early July of this year and included responses from 11,666 people ages 16 and older across all of the nation’s provinces and territories.

Published annually since 2017, the survey is aimed at helping officials “better understand where support is needed the most” and informing Health Canada initiatives meant to “educate and raise awareness around the use of cannabis,” a press release says.

Seventy-two percent of those polled in the new survey said they now purchase marijuana from legal stores or online retailers—up from 37 percent in 2019.

Usual source of cannabis among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2018 to 2024 / Health Canada

An additional 15 percent said they usually get cannabis from a social source like a friend of family member, 5 percent reported growing their own or having it specifically grown for them and 2 percent said they typically buy marijuana from a storefront on a First Nations community.

In addition to showing a general trend of consumers moving away from the illicit market, findings from the new survey also indicate that rates of driving after consuming marijuana have fallen since 2019, while daily or almost daily use rates have been largely stable among adults and youth alike.

Specifically, 18 percent of people who reported using cannabis within the past year also said they’d driven afterward, what officials described as “a significant decline from 27% in 2019.”

As for daily or near-daily use, that’s “been stable at 2018” among both adults (at about 25 percent) and youth (at about 20 percent), Health Canada said. Those who report being “at high risk” of developing problems from cannabis use has also remained stable since 2018, at about 3 percent.

Less-frequent use among youth, meanwhile, appears to have fallen slightly since legalization took effect. Among people aged 16 to 19 in the new survey, 41 percent said they’d used marijuana within the past year, compared to 43 percent last year and 44 percent in 2019 and 2020, according to Health Canada’s press release.

The average age at which Canadians first try cannabis also appears to be rising since the legalization took effect. It currently stands at 20.7 years—up from 18.9 years in 2018.

As for how consumers choose to obtain marijuana, more survey respondents listed convenience as a top factor (30 percent) than price (23 percent), while 22 percent pointed to safe supply and 16 percent said they wanted to follow the law.

Top factors that most influenced from whom cannabis was obtained, among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2024 / Health Canada

The report also looked at Canadians’ knowledge and beliefs about cannabis, finding, for example, that 71 percent believe that daily or near daily use increases the risk for mental health problems—a figure that increased from 68 percent in 2023.

Forty percent of respondents said they were aware that there’s an association between THC levels and impairment, while 37 percent knew that legal products in Canada are tested for contaminants and 30 percent knew that edibles typically have longer effects than inhaled products.

Knowledge or beliefs regarding cannabis-associated harms, 2018 to 2024 / Health Canada

Notably, those who used marijuana within the past year were also better educated about the substance than other respondents, the report says. They were more likely to be aware that edibles have a delayed onset and longer-lasting effects, that higher THC levels mean more significant impairment and that legal products are tested for contaminants. They were also more likely to acknowledge that cannabis can be habit-forming.

Past-year users were less likely than nonusers to say that daily or almost daily use carries a higher risk of mental health issues, however, or associate cannabis use with risk of harm when pregnant or breastfeeding.

Knowledge or beliefs regarding cannabis-associated harms, among those who had and had not consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2024 / Health Canada

Overall, 77 percent of respondents said there was either moderate or great risk to smoking marijuana or vaping cannabis extracts regularly, while 75 percent said the same of vaping marijuana flower and 65 percent associated moderate or great risk with regularly eating or drinking cannabis.

All those activities were seen as risky by fewer respondents than regularly smoking tobacco (94 percent), using nicotine e-cigarettes (87 percent) or drinking alcohol (85 percent).

Past-year marijuana consumers were also significantly less likely to associate smoking, vaping or eating or drinking cannabis with great or moderate risk.

Another finding in the report was that cannabis use combined with drinking has steadily fallen in recent years, while use of tobacco and marijuana together has ticked up since 2023.

Past 12 months, use of alcohol and tobacco in combination with cannabis, among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2018 to 2024 / Health Canada

The survey also asked cannabis consumers how they felt their use had affected other areas of their lives. In every category, the largest share of respondents said cannabis seemed to have no effect. But more respondents were likely in each category to say that marijuana was beneficial than harmful.

Past 12 months, effects of cannabis use, among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2024 / Health Canada

Nevertheless, the proportion of cannabis consumers who say their use has had harmful effects on other areas their lives has slightly increased since legalization. Depending on category, between 5 percent and 10 percent of respondents reported some harmful effect.

Percentage reporting that their cannabis use had a harmful1 effect on their lives, among people who consumed cannabis in the past 12 months, 2019 to 2024 / Health Canada

One slight change to the survey that may affect year-to-year comparisons, Health Canada notes in the new report, is that the distinction between medical and nonmedical use was removed from several questions in 2023. “This served to significantly shorten the survey while still allowing responses to be disaggregated by cannabis use,” the agency explained.

Among survey areas that did specify medical use, findings indicated that a plurality of medical marijuana patients (46 percent) said cannabis allowed them to reduce their use of other medications. That number has fallen notably from 68 percent in 2018.

You can now view 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey results. Find out how Canadians viewed and used #cannabis in 2024: https://t.co/nQhBQfTcUGpic.twitter.com/W4K1Dsr0lM

— Health Canada and PHAC (@GovCanHealth) December 6, 2024

The most common medications that respondents said marijuana allowed them to cut down on were non-opioid pain relievers (57 percent), anti-inflammatories (52 percent), sleep aids (46 percent), opioids (29 percent) and sedatives (23 percent).

Twenty-eight percent of medical marijuana patients said cannabis did not help them decrease their use of other medications, while a nearly equal share (27 percent) said the question wasn’t applicable.

The new report is the latest in ongoing efforts to track the behavioral and health impacts of legalization, which Health Canada and others have said is crucial for optimizing public health messaging and other initiatives in the era of legalization.

The 2024 Canadian Cannabis Survey results are now available. The survey examines knowledge, attitudes and patterns of cannabis use, the cannabis market, and topics related to cannabis and public safety.https://t.co/jgJOgmls8Y

— GC Newsroom (@NewsroomGC) December 6, 2024

Observers have also been watching how broader adult-use legalization impacts medical marijuana in Canada, noting, for example, patient enrollment rates declining after legalization was enacted but before retailers opened for business.

A study earlier this year, meanwhile, found similar marijuana use rates and support for legalization in both the U.S. and Canada despite the countries’ different national approaches to regulating the drug.

Another report out of Canada this year found marijuana legalization was “associated with a decline in beer sales,” suggesting a substitution effect where consumers shift from one product to the other.

A separate study last year found that the proportion of high-school students who said marijuana was easy to obtain has fallen in recent years.

Yet another recent survey found that nearly 8 in 10 Canadians (79.3 percent) said they believe psilocybin-assisted therapy is “a reasonable medical choice” to treat existential dread at the end of one’s life. Almost 2 in 3 (63.3 percent) felt the substance should be legal for medical purposes generally.

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