Wellness Connection, the largest marijuana company in Maine, is suing to open the state’s medical marijuana market to outside companies.
According to Wellness Connection, the U.S. Constitution gives nonresidents a right to own medical marijuana dispensaries in Maine, and is asking the court to strike down the residency requirement in Maine’s medical marijuana law.
This is the same constitutional argument it used to successfully open the state’s recreational market to out-of-state investors earlier this year.
Wellness Connection and its parent company, High Street Capital Partners of Delaware, filed papers in U.S. District Court in Maine earlier this month to overturn the state’s requirement that medical marijuana dispensaries be owned by only residents of Maine.
“The self-evident purpose of the residency requirement is to discriminate against non-residents such as Plaintiff High Street, a prospective out-of-state investor, and to exclude them from the economic opportunities available to medical marijuana dispensaries in Maine,” reads the lawsuit.
The company had used its constitutional argument to persuade Portland to give out-of-state applicants equal opportunity to land one of its limited number of marijuana retail licenses.
The City Council had voted to give licenses to all qualified first-round applicants but on Election Day, city voters decided to eliminate the retail license cap altogether.
