Obtaining a marijuana business license in Massachusetts is a fairly long and drawn out process. There is a caveat to the process not included in the following post and that is the assumption that the municipality you are planning to locate your marijuana business in has already passed the necessary zoning regulations and other bylaws to allow for the operation of marijuana businesses. If a host town has not done either of the aforementioned, then expect the road to a license to be significantly longer.
Application Packets
As seen in the above screenshot from the CCC licensing portal, there are 3 informational packets that must be submitted and a fee to be paid that is dependent on the class of license you are pursuing. In our Product Manufacturer example here, you would need to pay a $300 application fee plus a $5,000 annual license fee. The packets themselves can be completed in any order.
There are two tasks that must be completed as part of the Application of Intent worth noting:
- Hold a community meeting open to the public in the municipality hosting your facility.
- Sign a Host Community Agreement (HCA) with the host municipality.
The community meeting is very straightforward though it must be held within the 6 months prior to filing the Application of Intent packet. So if you submit your application of intent July 10th, you must have held your community outreach meeting no earlier than January 10th. The CCC provides guidance on what boxes to check for a successful community meeting which can be found here.
Many municipalities that already have operating marijuana businesses now provide a generic HCA agreement, making this portion of the process much easier than it was a year ago. That said, there may be an amount of negotiation involved, specifically around required “donations” to local non-profits or other local beneficiaries above and beyond the 3% Community Impact Fee that is proscribed by state regulations within an HCA.
Application Accepted
Once all packets have been submitted an application enters the Pending queue. As of this writing there are currently 279 applications that have been accepted and are awaiting review by commission staff and/or a response from the host municipality certifying compliance with local regulations.
Special Permit
Special permits are required for uses specified in local zoning ordinances and bylaws and must be obtained from the host city council. Getting a special permit will typically be conducted in parallel with the state license application as it tends requires much of the same information, though the specific requirements vary with the local bylaws from city to city. For example, the city of Holyoke requires that the police department and the fire department sign off on the security and safety plans for each facility.
Once a special permit has been granted, the municipality will certify to the CCC that an applicant is in compliance and the state application can move forward towards the provisional license queue. Note that a special permit comes from a local city council, which have a limited number of meetings per month. Applicants should be aware of the amount of time it will take to navigate through this part of the overall process.
Provisional License
This is the first “real” license awarded by the CCC. Once your initial application has been completed, reviewed and accepted it will be placed in the queue for provisional license consideration. The application will be brought before the commission at one of the bi-monthly public meetings with a staff recommendation and the commissioners will vote on whether to approve awarding a provisional license.
As of this writing 93 applicants have been awarded provisional licenses. To date, only one organization has been denied a Provisional License. CCC staff will let applicants know if they find deficiencies in the application during their review prior to being brought before the full commission, so that you have time to make corrections. I reached out to the CCC to ask about this part of the process and they said
On our initial review of an application, if there is information missing, we will contact the applicant to have them submit more information. Should all the necessary information be provided and the applicant is in compliance with our regulations, they should receive a license.
In general, the CCC has brought forward 6 - 8 applicants for provisional licenses at each meeting. Be aware of the time it takes to get through this process given the length of the queue and the pace of approval by the CCC.
A note on priority applications
If you are applying as a general applicant, your application will be considered in the order in which it was received. However, there are a few categories of priority application that are given, well, priority, though the queue of priority applicants is also growing.
In no particular order, first, applicants that have a license as a Registered Marijuana Dispensary (RMD) under the state Medical Marijuana program are given RMD priority status. Second, applications that are considered as part of the Economic Empowerment program are given priority status. Read more about the Massachusetts Economic Empowerment Priority and Social Equity programs here.
As of this writing there are 10 Economic Empowerment and 58 RMD priority applications that have submitted all of the license packets but are awaiting review. There are a further 57 RMD priority provisional licenses out of 93 applicants that have been awarded a provisional license.
Final License
Once you have received a Provisional license, you likely need to finish your buildout and then await inspection by staff from the CCC. Once a facility has been inspected, whether it’s retail, cultivation or product manufacturing, the CCC will again vote on awarding a Final License at one of the bimonthly meetings. Typically, 4 - 6 final licenses are considered at each meeting.
Note, that the Final License does not allow you to begin operations.
Operational
The CCC will provide permission to “Commence Operations” as the final step before a facility can open its doors. There is a mandatory waiting period of three days from the award to when a facility can actually begin operating.
If the license is for a retail operation, it isn’t uncommon for the city or town to also place some restrictions on when a dispensary can open its doors. This has typically been based on a desire by the town to control traffic and parking, particularly in these early days of legal adult use that see a surge at each new dispensary.
See the map on the dashboard for current Provisional, Final and Operational adult use marijuana establishments.