Delaware Cannabis Licensing
Delaware has had an active medical cannabis industry since 2015, but now the adult-use market is opening up. Every state has its own way of rolling out legalization, and in the case of DE, it’s going to be competitive. This has the downside of making it difficult to win a license, but it has the upside of making it a lucrative market for those who win.
We at Cultivation Sector Consulting have been writing licensing documents since 2016, and we have helped cannabis entrepreneurs obtain and maintain licenses in California, Mississippi, New Jersey, Illinois and are currently working on Maryland and New York. We have a good sense of what regulatory agencies are looking for and we have plenty of experience reading and understanding regulations and license requirements.
What sets us apart? We don’t write your application for you. We provide you with sophisticated starter materials for you to do it yourself. This saves you thousands, sometimes 10s of thousands of dollars over using a full-service cannabis consultant or cannabis law firm.
What will be the requirements for a cannabis license application in Delaware?
From HB 2 we can see that they will be scoring applications based on the following criteria:
(3) The criteria for the competitive scoring process for all license types must include the following:
a. The applicants comprehensive business plan, including an annual budget and pro forma financial statements.
b. The experience, training, and expertise of the applicant and managing officers.
c. The applicant’s plans for safety, security, and the prevention of diversion.
d. The applicant’s plans for operations, training, and staffing, including all of the following:
1. A social responsibility plan outlining diversity goals, including plans to recruit and hire people of color, women, and veterans and to support their ownership and promotion within the organization, as well as the percent of employees it plans to hire from within the respective city or region of the State.
2. A plan to provide a safe, healthy, and economically beneficial working environment with fair scheduling practices, family-supporting wages, and benefits for its employees.
3. Any criminal, civil, or regulatory history encountered by other entities the applicant and managing officers have previously controlled or managed.
4. The suitability of the proposed location for the facilities.
For applications for marijuana cultivation facility license and marijuana product manufacturing facility license only, an environment and sustainability plan, including efforts it will take to minimize the environmental impact, and resources needs of its facilities and other business operations, such as plans to minimize water usage, employing organic cultivation methods, and adoption of other sustainable business practices.
What Will it Cost to Get a Delaware Cannabis License?
The application fee is $1000 for social equity applicants and $5000 for standard applicants, and biennial license fees (every 2 years) are $2500-$10,000 depending on license type and canopy size.
How Do I Start?
First, be aware that one of the scoring criteria is experience (item b above). Without experience, it could be difficult to score as high as other applicants. Don’t lose hope, though. The regulations have not yet been published, and until they are, we don’t really know how the process will go. This page will be updated when we have more information.
What’s Different About Social Equity and Microbusiness Applicants?
To qualify for a Delaware cannabis microbusiness license, these are the criteria:
- The business must be 51% owned and controlled by 1 or more individuals who have resided in Delaware for at least 5 of the preceding 10 years;
- The business must employ no more than 10 employees;
- A cultivation business must not operate a facility with a cannabis plant grow canopy area greater than 2,500 square feet and must not possess more than 1,000 marijuana plants each month.
For social equity licenses, you can qualify if you meet one of the following criteria:
- The applicant/s must have 51% ownership and be controlled by 1 or more individuals who have resided for at least 5 of the preceding 10 years in a disproportionately impacted area.
- The applicant/s must have 51% ownership and control by 1 or more individuals who meet one of the following criteria:
- Delivery to a minor.
- Any marijuana offense with a Tier 3 quantity of marijuana as defined in § 4751(c) of Title 16.
- The functional equivalent of the offenses described ABOVE under the laws of the United States, any state or territory of the United States, or any other country.
OR
1) Was convicted of or adjudicated delinquent for any marijuana-related offense except any of the following:
OR
2) Is married to or the child of a person who was convicted of or adjudicated delinquent for any marijuana-related offense.
Here’s What We Can Do For You:
Here at CS Consulting, we can provide anything referred to above as a Plan or Procedure. It will come with Delaware-specific regulatory citations, aimed to provide what we think, based on our experience, the regulatory agency is looking for.
What if My Application Looks Like Someone Else’s?
This is a common question for us to receive. Since Delaware will have a competitive scoring process, it IS important to distinguish your application from everyone else’s. We are providing you high quality starter materials, and you can take it from there. Highlight your experience, what makes your business unique, add images and adjust the wording in a way that matches your style. Starting from a great model is a lot better than starting from scratch!
We had two winners in the highly competitive state of Illinois who started with our documents. They spent a few hours making the documents their own and had veteran status, and that was enough to put them over the top.
