A judge in Helena last week struck down a newly passed cumulative fee on marijuana dispensaries in Montana that a group of dispensaries sued over last year.
Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan issued the order Jan. 5 to permanently enjoin the state from enforcing or collecting on the new fees passed by the state Legislature this spring, which were challenged by Granite Peak Holdings, TSB Montana and MariMint – all Montana marijuana businesses.
Attorneys for the three dispensaries and the state had agreed in November to a 60-day preliminary injunction that kept the state from collecting the new fees, as the businesses argued they would be forced to close several locations and lay off workers if they were enforced.
Republicans passed the cumulative fee structure in the final two weeks of the session through an amendment to House Bill 903. Previously, each dispensary site carried a license fee of $5,000 no matter how many sites the business owned.
Under the changes in HB 903, a first dispensary location cost a business a $5,000 annual fee, but each additional business carried a cumulative increase of $5,000, meaning a second would cost $10,000 and a third $15,000. The