Judge strikes down state’s new dispensary licensing fees

A Lewis and Clark County district court judge has struck down a new state law that dramatically increased the licensing fees for marijuana dispensaries with multiple locations. 

Under House Bill 903, a dispensary would have had to pay $5,000 to renew a license for its first shop, and then a cumulatively additional $5,000 for each additional location. Under the new law it would have cost marijuana retailers $10,000 to renew a license for a second store, $15,000 to renew a license for a third store, and so on. Previously, the Montana Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act required dispensaries to pay a flat $5,000 renewal fee for each location. State law requires that dispensary licenses be renewed annually.

After the bill was signed into law last year, three marijuana businesses, Granite Peak Holdings, Inc., TSB Montana and MariMint LLC, sued the state, arguing that the new law was unconstitutional and that licensing fees gathered by the Montana Department of Revenue were more than enough to cover the state’s costs of administering its adult-use marijuana program.