State lawmakers last week advanced a bill that would cap the number of marijuana dispensaries in Montana.
Senate Bill 27 would freeze the footprint of the state’s legal cannabis market. It would allow existing marijuana licenses to change hands, but block new licenses until 2027.
Current law limits dispensary licenses to existing medical marijuana providers, but does not limit the number of locations a license holder can open.
Pepper Petersen of the Montana Cannabis Guild told lawmakers the industry welcomes the bill because it allows the industry to develop while giving local governments room to regulate that growth.
“Giving those counties and cities the mechanism to do that right now, so they can go back and look at what policies they want to put in place for additional zoning or maybe population based models, this is going to be quite necessary,” Petersen says.
The bill came out of the Interim Economic Affairs Committee, partly in response to growing concern over the number of dispensaries opening across the state.
Montana currently has around 500 dispensaries. The state Cannabis Control Division projects hundreds more would come into the state over the next two years if the cap is not passed.
The bill passed out of the Senate last week . It now heads to the House of Representatives.
