Delaware officials are earmarking $6.2 million for a fund for social-equity cannabis industry applicants, WHYY reports. The state will use $4.2 million from application fees for conversion licenses – licenses for current medical cannabis operators to enter the adult-use industry – for the program, while the remaining $2 million was allocated by lawmakers.
Under state law, social equity applicants must own at least 51% of the business and have been convicted of a cannabis offense, as long as the offense wasn’t for selling more than 11 pounds or dealing to a minor; or have a parent, legal guardian, child, spouse, or dependent who was convicted of a cannabis crime; or have lived for at least five of the last 10 years in a “disproportionately impacted area,” which is defined as census area where cannabis arrests have been high in the last decade.
Conversion licenses will cost $200,000 for cultivators and $100,000 for retailers, manufacturers, and testing laboratories.
Delaware lawmakers last month passed a bill that lets current medical cannabis companies in the state apply for the conversion licenses and Gov. John Carney (D) is expected to sign it in the coming weeks. Those