PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Office of Cannabis Regulation selected five medical marijuana dispensary applicants to receive licenses to operate during its lottery held at the R.I. Department of Administration on Friday.
The five medical marijuana dispensary winners will receive their licenses for retail sale of medicinal marijuana to the 19,000 registered state patients in one of five geographical zones in the coming days. Lottery winners will have a license to dispense medically prescribed marijuana and cultivate the product, as well.
The winners by zone were: RMI Compassion Center Inc. (zone 1); Pinnacle Compassion Center Inc. (zone 2); Green Wave CC, Inc. (zone 3); Solar Therapeutics Rhode Island, Inc. (zone 4); and Plant Based Compassionate Care Inc. (zone 5).
The OCR had originally intended to issue six medical marijuana dispensaries licenses, but an applicant, Atlas Enterprises Inc., for zone six is tied up in litigation regarding its appeal of its application denial.
The addition of the five licenses will mean that the state will now operate a total of eight medical marijuana dispensaries.
The new zones are as follows:
- Zone 1: Burrillville, Cumberland, Glocester, North Smithfield, Smithfield, and Woonsocket
- Zone 2: includes Central Falls, Johnston, Lincoln, North Providence, and Providence
- Zone 3: Coventry, Foster, Scituate, West Greenwich, and West Warwick
- Zone 4: Cranston, East Greenwich, North Kingstown, and Warwick
- Zone 5: Charlestown, Exeter, Hopkinton, Narragansett, Richmond, South Kingstown, and Westerly
- Zone 6, which was not awarded Friday: Barrington, Bristol, East Providence, Jamestown, Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, New Shoreham, Pawtucket, Portsmouth, Tiverton, and Warren
The selected dispensary winners, who each paid a $10,000 fee to participate in the lottery, are required to pay an annual of $500,000 fee to remain in good standing.
Matthew Santacroce, the state’s cannabis chief, said selected dispensaries have up to nine months to be operational. At a meeting held to announce the lottery on Oct. 22, Santacroce said he expects a few of the dispensaries to be operational by July 1.
As part of the licensing process, Santacroce said selected dispensaries will need to ensure compliance with security and operational requirements. A dispensary’s license could be revoked if they are late in becoming operational, and the lottery for that zone might have to be redone.
Santacroce announced the winners after being handed lottery balls from a blindfolded Russ Griffiths, a policy analyst for the R.I. Department of Business regulation.
One of the winners, Dr. Paul J. Isikwe, owner of RMI Compassion Center Inc., said that he was shocked to be selected, but eager to provide medical marijuana to those in need. Isikwe served at the Touro College of Pharmacy in New York City as an adjunct assistant professor, and has worked in the pharmaceutical industry.
“It was a shock, but a mustard seed. That’s the first thing that came into my head,” he said, referring to a biblical reference to put faith in God’s power.
Isikwe, who moved to Rhode Island about three years ago, said he wants to take what he learned studying to be a doctor of pharmacy and pass it along to his staff and patients.
Spencer Blier, who applied for a dispensary license as Mammoth Health and Wellness in zone four and five, said that while he was disappointed in not being selected for a license, the addition of five more dispensaries in the medical market is good for the state’s licensed cultivators.
“I hope they roll them out quickly,” he said. Blier operates Warwick-based Mammoth Inc., one of 65 licensed cultivators operating in the state. “The state has needed these stores for a while.”
Blier also said that he hopes that state lawmakers give preference to the licensed cultivators when passing legalization of recreational marijuana and the issuance of retail license. Legislation calling for legalization of marijuana is being discussed as a priority by legislators.
As for the dispensary lottery process, the OCR performed a four-month review, selecting 41 applicants to be entered into the lottery out of 45 applications that were submitted by 28 applicants. Applicant companies were permitted to submit multiple applications, one per the six geographic zones, to increase their chances of being selected. Companies could only receive one license in total from the lottery system.
The state’s three existing medical marijuana dispensaries, or compassion centers, as they are also called, are: the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center in Providence, Summit Medical Compassion Center in Warwick, and Greenleaf Compassion Care Center in Portsmouth.
The three operating dispensaries were approved in 2009 per an amendment to the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act, which provides protections for the medical use of marijuana.
Between January and October of 2020, Rhode Island saw $65 million in sales at its three marijuana dispensaries, according to DBR data.
A 4% surcharge is imposed upon the net patient revenue received each month by every compassion center. The sale of medical marijuana is subject to the state’s 7% retail sales tax.
Cassius Shuman is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Shuman@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter @CassiusShuman.
