Maine will miss deadline to launch recreational cannabis market

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Maine officials say the state won’t be able to meet its February deadline to allow recreational marijuana sales.

Republican State Sen. Roger Katz said the agencies responsible for the recreational market rollout don’t have sufficient time before the deadline to perform such tasks as licensing growers, writing departmental rules and hiring new inspectors, the Portland Press Herald reported.

The president of Legalize Maine estimates the delay means adult-use business licenses won’t be issued until summer 2018.

Advocates for legalization say the delay “keeps the black market going.”

The adult-use marijuana program voters legalized in November 2016 already has been delayed once to give regulators more time to craft regulations.

– Associated Press