Marijuana Retail Report

11 March 2026… Cannabis regulators have extended the period in which cannabis supply licenses are only available to social capital applicants by another three years.

On Friday, the Cannabis Regulatory Commission voted to extend the exclusive supply license period for welfare applicants, defined as those disproportionately affected by the previous marijuana ban and enforcement, until April 2029. Commissioners left the possibility to extend it again.

The vote took place due to the fact that the original period of exclusivity was supposed to end on April 1. That period was set at 2022, and the CCC extended it by one year in 2025 to allow commissioners to gather more data on whether the program is meeting its goal of promoting industry participation among communities disproportionately affected by marijuana prohibition. The updated rules specify that commissioners must collect and publicly report data every six months that assess how well the program is achieving its goals.

The three-year extension falls short of the requirement by at least five years, a point supported by some who testified at public hearings on the proposal and in a December report the CCC commissioned from the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute. This report found that the original three-year period was too short for “the effects of the policy and its follow-up to be measurably realised”.