Maine’s biggest medical cannabis operator is trying to end its relationship with a company behind its fast-growing edibles operation.
Wellness Connection, based in Portland, Maine, contends CanWell of Rhode Island is to blame for $14 million in losses caused by low yields from its extraction equipment and processes.
The dispute in Maine is part of a larger legal tangle between CanWell and Acreage, a New York-based multistate cannabis operator.
CanWell last week filed an arbitration request in Rhode Island, alleging that Acreage breached a noncompete contract by pursuing competing marijuana business opportunities in Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
In Maine, CanWell said Wellness Connection has stopped making its 20% sales royalties and, thus, owes the Rhode Island company at least $650,000.
According to CanWell, Acreage owns 97.4% of the company that runs Wellness Connection, and executives on the Wellness board do Acreage’s bidding.
Wellness Connection has four dispensaries in Maine and a cultivation and processing center, according to Acreage regulatory filings.
For more on this story, click here.
– Associated Press and Marijuana Business Daily