Delaware Online
The reality of recreational marijuana retail continues to inch closer in Delaware, and there is already high demand.
The Office of the Marijuana Commissioner received over 1,260 applications for marijuana business licenses between when the application period opened on Aug. 19 and when it closed on Sept. 30.
The office made over $4 million on these applications alone. Open applications cost $5,000, and micro applications cost $3,000. All of the social equity applications cost $1,000.
The applications will mostly be approved by a lottery, the first one coming on Oct. 24 for cultivation licenses. All applications are currently under review to ensure they meet the qualifications.
Marijuana Commissioner Rob Coupe said the number of applications exceeded his expectations.
“It looks like the word got out and yes, the response was very significant,” Coupe said.
More than half of the applications were for either “Open Retailer” and “Social Equity Retailer.” Open retailers are for anyone, anywhere.
The social equity applications are part of the legislation’s effort to designate a portion of all licenses to communities disproportionately affected by past marijuana laws, according to the OMC website. They are intended to benefit people with past marijuana-related convictions and people in “disproportionately impacted areas” around the state. Some areas include parts of Wilmington, Dover, Laurel and Middletown.
Social equity licenses and open retail licenses require the same qualifications, except that applicants who apply for a social equity license must live for five of the last 15 years in the disproportionately impacted area or the applicant or their immediate family must have a past marijuana conviction.
How many people applied for a retail license?
There were 519 applications for the 15 available open retail licenses.
- 208 applications for seven available licenses in New Castle County
- 148 applications for three available licenses in Kent County
- 163 applications for five available licenses in Sussex County
There were 325 applications for the 15 available social equity retail licenses.
- 125 applications for seven available licenses in New Castle County
- 96 applications for three available licenses in Kent County
- 104 applications for the five available licenses in Sussex County
A separate, retail-only lottery will happen in late November or early December because of the strong interest. Applicants selected in the lottery are given conditional licenses and advance to a second, more rigorous application, according to Coupe.
Each applicant was given the option to keep their hat in the ring if they paid the fee and weren’t selected, so if there were a second lottery for potential vacant licenses, they wouldn’t have to reapply.
In August 2025, the commissioner could evaluate the market and begin taking new applications.
“The codes kind of already set up for us to, essentially, next spring or summer, evaluate where we are and determine if we need to have another process,” Coupe said.
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There won’t be a lottery for a few of the licenses because there weren’t enough applications to justify it. The two “open testing lab” applications won’t be in a lottery, as there are only two licenses available. There were only two applications for the three available licenses, one in New Castle County and one in Kent County.
Similarly, there were six applications for the nine available micro-cultivation licenses in New Castle County.
There also won’t be a lottery for the “social equity testing labs,” which received only two applications for its two available licenses in New Castle County and Sussex County. There were only three “micro manufacturing” applications in Sussex County with three available licenses.
All existing medical marijuana businesses have applied for conversion licenses. Those should be given out by November, according to Coupe.