Connecticut Hemp Farmer Says State Cannabis Laws Are Discriminatory

A Connecticut hemp farmer has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the
state’s cannabis industry’s licensing rules are discriminatory and
unconstitutional, CT Insider reports.

The lawsuit takes particular aim at provisions that prioritize social
equity applicants for the state’s cannabis industry licenses. The
plaintiff, Brant Smith, who owns and operates an 80,000-square-foot
greenhouse in Cheshire that he dedicated to hemp cultivation after the crop
was federally legalized in 2018, claims in the suit that federal law
prohibits the state from excluding cannabis applicants based on their
location or residence.

Attorney Genevieve Park Taylor, who represents Smith, suggested that
Connecticut’s restrictions on cannabis licensing is “unequal and a little
unbalanced.”

“Everybody gets a chance or nobody gets a chance, whether it’s cantaloupes,
cannabis or cabbage,” Taylor said in the report.

“By favoring in-state social equity individual applicants and
discriminating against all others, including out-of-state applicants,
Connecticut’s marijuana licensing program amounts to economic
protectionism, and improperly serves to benefit only in-state economic
interests in general and social equity individuals specifically.” — Excerpt
from the lawsuit

The suit references a federal appeals court ruling from August that found
part of New York’s cannabis social equity rules to be unconstitutional.
Specifically, the ruling determined that a policy blocking people with
federal or out-of-state cannabis convictions from receiving social
equity-based priority was unconstitutional.