Delaware to Begin Lottery for Issuing Marijuana Business Licenses on Thursday

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Delaware is advancing its plans to regulate the legal marijuana industry, with the Delaware Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC) preparing to hold a lottery for business licenses.

A total of 727 applications have been approved to participate, significantly exceeding the number of licenses available. The lottery is set to begin on Thursday and will be livestreamed on the OMC’s Facebook page.

The first round of lotteries will focus on licenses for cultivation, manufacturing, and testing. Each county will have its own lottery. Additionally, due to the overwhelming number of applications for retail licenses, a separate lottery for this category will be held in December.

Once the lottery is complete, selected applicants will be notified and issued a conditional license, kicking off the supplemental application process.

According to the OMC, applicants cannot change their license category before the lottery, except for those who applied for a social equity license but were deemed ineligible. These individuals can amend their application by paying an additional $4,000 to switch to the open license category.

In cases where there were not enough applications to fill the allotted licenses for a particular county, the OMC will reassign the vacant spots to other counties. For instance, in New Castle County, only 6 applications were submitted for the 9 available micro-cultivation licenses. As a result, the remaining licenses will be distributed between Kent and Sussex counties.

The Office of the Marijuana Commissioner was created under the Delaware Marijuana Control Act, which became law without Governor John Carney’s signature.

Under Delaware’s recreational marijuana law, those 21 and older are allowed to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, which they can purchase from licensed marijuana retail outlets. The Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement is charged with regulating the marijuana industry through a new Office of Marijuana Control Commissioner. Marijuana sales are taxed at 15%, with medical marijuana remaining tax free.

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