Maryland Cannabis Administration Releases Draft Regulations for the Social Equity Partnership Grant Program

By Meg Nash, Charles Alovisetti, Bridgette Nikisher

Dec 30, 2024

Draft regulations governing Maryland’s Social Equity Partnership Grant Program have been released. The Social Equity Partnership Grant Program is meant to promote “qualifying partnerships” between operational cannabis licensees and social equity licensees.

Here’s a breakdown of the key points to know about these draft regulations.

Application and Award Limits

A social equity licensee may submit one application per award period.
An operational cannabis licensee may submit one application per award period and those licensees who share common ownership or control may collectively submit up to two applications per award period.
An operational cannabis licensee may be awarded up to one qualifying partnership per award period and those licensees who share common ownership or control may collectively be awarded no more than two qualifying partnerships per award period.

Grant Distribution

Grant amounts will be determined based on the number of partnership applications, programmatic needs, and the availability of funds to ensure an equitable distribution of qualifying partnerships across license types.

Application Scoring

Applications will be scored on a pass/fail basis. The criteria includes, but is not limited to:

Demonstration that the operational cannabis licensee has the capacity to support a social equity licensee.
An estimation of the value of services provided.
Demonstration that the operational cannabis licensee has been compliant with health and safety, diversion and theft, and area material to the proposed partnership.
Attestation that both the operational cannabis licensee and social equity licensee will have an equal role in the partnership.

Any request for information must be submitted within 10 days of the date of the request.

Restrictions on Qualifying Partnerships

Qualifying partnerships may not:

Require the social equity licensee to conform with any branding, messaging, SOPs, etc. through the social equity licensees’ operations
Restrict, hinder, exploit, or unfairly treat the social equity licensee to benefit the operational cannabis licensee
Exist between entities that have common ownership or control.

These draft regulations are available for public comment until January 6, 2025. Comments may be submitted to policy.ose@maryland.gov. Please reach out to our Maryland team if you have any questions about these regulations or would like assistance preparing your comments.