The Maryland Cannabis Administration selected 179 businesses out of over 1,500 applications Thursday in a lottery to get the chance to enter the state’s nascent cannabis industry.
The selection process put an end to a process fraught with weeks of delays as the MCA processed over 1,700 applications and lawsuits that threatened to stop the rollout of new cannabis businesses.
After the first winners of the lottery were selected, MCA Executive Director William Tilburg smiled as a group of local entrepreneurs got one step closer to opening their own dispensary business. The names of the winners were not disclosed.
“This was a multiyear effort,” Tilburg said. “A lot of different people working led to today. It was just [full of] excitement and relief.”
Applicants did not win a license in the lottery, as the MCA plans to conduct due diligence research to verify ownership and other aspects of each business owner’s application. The state plans to give out preliminary licenses to lottery winners in the next several months. All applicants in the lottery had to be eligible through one out of three social equity criteria.
