The Boston Globe is, I would suggest, correct in its analysis
No new stores have been licensed since Rhode Island legalized recreational marijuana in 2022. Is the former Cannabis Commission chair, one of two front-runners for attorney general, to blame?
Read the article – paywall
Policy Decoded Precis
| Kim Ahern’s two years chairing Rhode Island’s Cannabis Control Commission have become an issue in the Democratic primary for attorney general, nine days out, because no new adult-use retail license issued on her watch after she said in 2023 she hoped stores could open in 2024. The Boston Globe walked the record and quoted the legalization sponsors, who do not put the delay on her. The chronology does not either. The commission ran the process the General Assembly wrote, the residency requirement in that statute drew three federal suits, Judge Melissa DuBose froze licensing in April, and the legislature rewrote the law in June, months after Ahern had left to run. A chair cannot license around a statute, and the applicants who paid $7,500 to enter a round the state later voided know which building the delay came from. Primary day is September 9th. (The Boston Globe; Rhode Island Current) |
