We’d like to thank you for shopping at our Maine-owned, family business!
Recently, the State of Maine decided to allow those who are not Maine residents to open a recreational marijuana business in Maine. Please read the full article here
Though on the surface this may not seem like a bad thing, we fear this will allow large out-of-state companies to dominate the market and possibly drive out small Maine owned businesses. Additionally, it disregards the current law on the books without going through the legislative process.
The current Maine law states:
“Every officer, director, manager and general partner of the business entity must be a natural person who is a resident; and
A majority of the shares, membership interests, partnership interests or other equity ownership interests as applicable to the business entity must be held or owned by natural persons who are residents or business entities whose owners are all natural persons who are residents”
This mandate would have lapsed in June 2021, but would have given locals a head-start in the new market.
In an interview with Fox22, Paul expressed some of the concerns of small business:
“You know, we’ve seen it before with these large companies that come in and try to use over regulation and try to put the competition out of business,” said Paul McCarrier, owner of 1 Mill Belfast.
