While I'm all for free-market #cannabis, including out of state ownership, something about this decision smells fishy.
"In its lawsuit, Wellness argued that a residency requirement violates its constitutional right to interstate commerce by explicitly favoring Mainers over non-residents. Wellness, Maine’s largest medical cannabis company, is controlled by an out-of-state investor owned by multinational Acreage Holdings."
The problem with this argument is that, irrespective of Maine's residency requirement, due to FEDERAL law, the one MAJOR thing that cannabis companies CANNOT do is conduct "interstate commerce."
Changing Maine's law doesn't in any way change the Federal law ban on interstate cannabis commerce.
This is why cannabis companies only use local regional banks, as opposed to national banks. Banks with branches in multiple states DO NOT take cannabis cash because the transfer of cannabis money from one state to another could be deemed interstate commerce of cannabis cash, in violation of federal law!
Therefore, the surprising decision to just change the rules based on the alleged "conclusion" that "Maine was unlikely to beat the Wellness suit in court" is baffling at best.
Something's up. Why not wait to see what the court decides?
Read more here:
Comments