Maine wants to ban cannabis entrepreneurs outside of the city |

The state of Maine is determined to uphold its claim to be owned by its own residents, bringing the dispute into legally uncharted territory.

First some background. Pine Tree state officials “originally required that all medical and recreational cannabis businesses be owned by residents,” the Portland Press Herald stated in an article.

But that requirement was challenged last year by Wellness Connection of Maine, the state’s largest chain of medical cannabis pharmacies, which applied for a license to operate a recreational cannabis pharmacy in Portland, capital of Maine.

Wellness Connection, owned by a Delaware-based LLC, filed a lawsuit against the City of Portland after councilors approved an ordinance limiting the number of licenses for adult cannabis dispensaries and instituting a system that local applications treated preferentially.

Matt Warner, a Wellness Connection attorney, argued that the requirement was unconstitutional, saying that states and cities cannot, for constitutional reasons, discriminate against citizens of other states on the basis of their place of residence alone.

“More than 25 percent of the points awarded through Portland’s competitive licensing process are based on residence, so we will be automatically disqualified for those points just because our owner is from Delaware,” Warner said at the time.

The company argued in its motion that restricting “the opportunities for (Wellness Connection) to create a brand, reputation and build customer loyalty in Portland early on in the adult market would harm them in ways that weren’t at all.” monetary damage can be reduced “. forgive.”

The state stepped back and eventually abolished the requirement for recreational cannabis businesses, and in August a federal court sided with Wellness Connection in a ruling that lifted the residency requirement for medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

This ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen set the stage for the final round of the state-Wellness Connection battle as Maine seeks to uphold its demand that medical dispensaries be owned by residents.

The Press Herald reported that “the case appears to be the first of its kind to go to a federal appeals court where the opinion could affect other states,” with the central question hovering over “whether the residence regime is in violation of the US Constitution.” Restriction of international trade. “

In her August ruling, Torresen said that “the notion that the medical marijuana industry in Maine is entirely domestic is inconsistent with reality.”

“I acknowledge that none of the courts that have dealt with this particular constitutional issue have passed final judgments, and it also appears that no county court has dealt with it,” the judge wrote, as quoted by the Press Herald.

“But given the unmistakable antagonism of the Supreme Court and the First Circuit against state laws that expressly discriminate against non-resident economic actors, I come to the conclusion that the dispensary’s residence obligation violates the dormant trade clause.”

The appeal was filed by both the state of Maine and a nonprofit industry group called the Maine Cannabis Coalition advocating the residency requirement.

In briefs filed in the US 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, the state says “the dormant trade clause does not apply to Maine’s domestic medical marijuana market”.

“The residency requirements in the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Act do not burden interstate trade more than Congress, since Congress has already eliminated this market,” the brief said, as quoted by the Press Herald. “Since the Maine residency requirement at issue in this case would not help expand legal international trade in the United States, it should persist.”