The Department of Consumer Protection announced earlier this year it would be hiring about 60 new employees to serve the state’s cannabis industry.
DCP Commissioner Michelle Seagull said those hirings are underway, with 29 positions filled so far.
“We’re still doing a significant amount of hiring,” Seagull said. “We’ve brought in some licensing people to help with that process, we’ve built out the legal team as well and we’re bringing in others with some drug-control expertise who can be available to start reviewing applications as they come in.”
In terms of her department’s oversight role, Seagull said she’s heard concerns about the license lottery process, including the fact that applicants can submit an unlimited number of applications, giving deeper-pocketed companies an advantage.
“There are different ways you can [host a lottery], but I think they all have some pros and cons to them,” Seagull said. “I trust that the legislative process worked, and we’ll see things play out. If it’s not what people wanted, there’s always next year to tweak that.”
She also said concerns have been expressed about the possibility of multistate operators dominating the adult-use market, but there’s only so much DCP can control. She said the law was heavily discussed and negotiated by the legislature before it passed, and DCP has to implement the language as approved.
Seagull said she recognizes that people would prefer that multistate operators don’t dominate the market, “but the legislation doesn’t really create a pathway for us to prevent that.”
“Our job is really to implement what was written, rather than try to rethink if they could have or should have done something different,” she said.
