Rhode Island’s cannabis regulators could begin awarding new retail licenses to prospective business owners eager to join the state’s budding market as early as May 2026.
That’s according to a timeline the Cannabis Control Commission voted 2-1 to adopt on Monday. The timeline sets the pace for officials’ to review applications for the state’s 24 available retail licenses after the application deadline on Dec. 29, 2025.
“It’s clear to me that we need to do a better job forecasting what the next months look like after the application portal closes at the end of this calendar year,” Commission Chairperson Kimberly Ahern said. “We have never shared what 2026 held.”
Starting Jan. 1, 2026, the state’s Cannabis Office will have 90 days to review applications and verify that each meets eligibility qualifications before being placed in a lottery. The timeline builds in at least 60 days to allow applicants to secure approvals at the local level in order to qualify for random selection, Ahern said.
Ahern said the intention is to begin the lottery selection process in the second quarter of 2026, likely in May.
“I want to add that we reserve the right to delay this process depending on several external factors outside our control,” Ahern said. “For example, if we receive thousands of applications, it will be hard for us to do that.”
As of Monday, no retail applications have been submitted to the state’s cannabis office, spokesperson Charon Rose told Rhode Island Current after the meeting.
Objections on getting ducks in a row
Commissioner Robert Jacquard, the lone vote against regulators’ review timeline, argued that allowing businesses to secure local zoning approvals after the application deadline is unfair to those who met the requirements on time.
“If an applicant is better prepared, better financed, got an earlier start, I think that’s important,” he said. “We have had our regulations out for a good amount of time, people were well-warned that there would not be any extensions beyond the deadlines that were set.”
Those same feelings were shared by many of the members of Rhode Island’s cannabis industry who attended the meeting within the Public Utilities Commission’s office building in Warwick.
“Many of us have invested significant time and money securing compliant locations, paying for rent, purchasing properties, and obtaining special use and zoning permits,” Karen Ballou, owner of CultivatingRI, told commissioners. “I recognize some municipalities have made it difficult for applications to meet certain requirements, but that should not penalize those who have successfully navigated the process.”
Business owners awarded medical cannabis licenses have faced setbacks opening in Woonsocket and Foster amid disputes with local officials and property owners, causing them to miss the state’s initial nine-month deadline to begin operations.
And not every town is willing to have a cannabis retailer. In 2022, voters in six communities — Barrington, East Greenwich, Jamestown, Little Compton, Scituate, and Smithfield — rejected allowing retail pot shops within their borders.
Ballou said if regulators really need to give some applicants more time to get all their needed material together, those businesses should be subject to a second lottery.
Sasha Gorski, co-owner of the cultivation company Talaria, agreed, saying the 60-day window to secure local zoning permits after the application deadline shouldn’t apply to general retail applicants.
“It hurts to be punished for being ahead,” she said.
But others in the room argued the commission’s review timeline helps to create a sense of fairness as the retail industry starts to grow in Rhode Island.
“Applicants need breathing room to go through the proper channels,” Emma Karnes, an organizer for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 238, told the commission. “I think we all want a healthy pool of applicants. We all want a reasonably accessible application process.”
Read more of this Rhode Island Current story here.
