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.