Connecticut residents may soon be able to have their marijuana delivered straight to their homes.
The state is gearing up for cannabis home delivery with the deadline to apply for the delivery license lottery closing next week.
Contactless delivery of medical cannabis to patients and their caregivers became a reality in Connecticut due to COVID-19. Home delivery to adult consumers is the next step in the legalization process.
“It was a licensed type that we thought certainly would be in high demand,” DeVaughn Ward, senior legislative counsel for the Marijuana Policy Project, said.
A bill from 2021 enables dispensaries, hybrid retailers or micro-cultivators to apply to provide delivery. If they are approved by the Department of Consumer Protection, they will be able to deliver their inventory starting on the same date DCP allows the first recreational sales.
“We anticipate that those licenses will be issued sometime either this fall or this winter,” Ward said. “So there aren’t any adult use delivery companies here in the state, but there should be within the next year or two.”
“For folks who may not have a dispensary located very close to them, to still be able to receive their medicine or their cannabis in a safe and efficient way,” Ward added.
Ward said more than 300 applications were submitted for delivery licenses.
Ward added that cannabis delivery will create jobs related to the product as well as ancillary jobs, like security. “It remains to be seen how Connecticut’s licensing scheme, what effects it will have on diversifying the cannabis market here in Connecticut,” he said. “But we’re all hopeful that it does, that those efforts do result in a more diverse market with a number of players, specifically folks from communities that have been strongly disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs.
