The U.S. House has again included the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act in its latest COVID-19 relief package, as reported by NORML.

The newly proposed legislation is an updated version of The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, which the House initially passed in May and which also included the SAFE Banking provisions.

The SAFE Banking Act would allow state-legal cannabis businesses to work with banks and other financial institutions, and was passed as a standalone bill in the House last fall.

“The inclusion of the SAFE Banking Act in the HEROES 2.0 package is a positive development,” said NORML Political Director Justin Strekal in a public statement. “In the majority of states that regulate the marijuana marketplace, cannabis businesses have been deemed essential during this pandemic. Unfortunately, at the federal level, prohibition compounds the problems that this emerging industry faces. Small cannabis businesses in particular are facing tough economic times and access to traditional financial tools will help ensure that they can weather this pandemic."

Portland, Maine, received 43 cannabis dispensary applications last month for the city’s 20 available retail licenses, but a preliminary staff review has found that a dozen of the applicants could be disqualified for not meeting basic requirements such as paying city taxes and fees on time, according to the Portland Press Herald.

The 12 applicants could be disqualified for not having a conditional state cannabis license, being more than 30 days late on paying a local tax or fee in the last five years, having unresolved land-use violations, or planning to operate a dispensary too close to a school or in the wrong zoning district, the news outlet reported.

Portland issued pre-denial letters to the disqualified applicants Sept. 25, according to the Portland Press Herald, and the applicants have 10 days to challenge the disqualification.

The city is still deciding how or if it will be able to use its scoring matrix to award the 20 dispensary licenses, the news outlet reported.

Although Portland approved its local cannabis ordinance in May, its residency bonus for license applicants who have lived in Maine for at least four years was challenged in court by non-local cannabis operator Wellness Connection of Maine, and a federal judge ruled last month that Portland cannot prioritize local businesses in its licensing process.

Michigan issued its first cannabis microbusiness license this month to Onaway’s Sticky Bush Farms, which is now preparing to transition from the state’s caregiver market to adult-use sales.

The vertically integrated license, meant for smaller craft operators, will allow the company to grow up to 150 plants that can be processed into oil, edibles and other products for sale in an adult-use storefront.

“The microbusiness license allows us to be able to do pretty much everything under one roof,” Sticky Bush Farms owner Ben Kolasa tells Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary, adding that the company will grow, process and sell its cannabis in the same building it has been using to serve the caregiver market.

Licensed microbusinesses must be self-contained and cannot acquire cannabis products from third-party cultivators, processors or retailers. Likewise, the licensees cannot sell any products to other licensed businesses along the supply chain.

Sticky Bush Farms plans to bring flower, concentrates, edibles and rosins to Michigan’s adult-use market, and Kolasa sees vertical integration as a key advantage.

“We can control everything we do,” he says. “We really just wanted to be able to … focus on growing the best quality cannabis that we can. … That’s kind of why we got the license, because it was smaller. We could hopefully make it more of a craft business instead of just growing a lot of plants.”

The licensing process required Kolasa to receive municipal approval from Onaway before seeking state approval, and although it was a long process, he says the state was helpful along the way.

Now, with a final license in hand, Sticky Bush Farms team members are focused on tagging all of their plants to log them in the Metrc seed-to-sale tracking system, as well as preparing the storefront for opening day, which is slated for November.

The biggest challenge, Kolasa says, will be preparing the facility’s lab and kitchen to produce concentrates and edibles.

“We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re just pushing forward little by little,” he says.

Overall, Kolasa says he is excited to pave the way for the state’s craft cannabis market as Michigan’s first microbusiness license holder.

“I think it’ll … help the smaller guy out a lot to not have to hopefully spend as much money [on the license],” he says. “They can focus, just like we want to do, on bringing a craft cannabis market. … Competition is good and … I just think it’ll be cool for the market to be able to see all the different little places open up and what people have to offer.”

Looking ahead, Kolasa wants to expand slowly, once the Sticky Bush Farms team has a chance to assess the market.

In the shorter-term, the company is determining which cannabis varieties to cultivate for its expanded customer base.

“We’ve been doing that for a while,” Kolasa says. “We do have strains that we’ve been running for a while, but we’re always going through more to try to find something better, something cool. I’m sure we’ll have some that just stay around, and then there’ll be a revolving wheel [of others]. Testing is kind of expensive, so we’re not going to do a whole lot of strains right off the bat. Plus, we can’t focus on a whole lot of strains at once. That’s … why the smaller [plant] count is kind of cool, so we can focus on those ones that really matter.”

Eventually, the company will look to hire additional staff and add on to its current facility to support additional product categories.

“We definitely have to add on,” Kolasa says. “We need to get to a spot where we can do our concentrates, [and] we need a spot for edibles. We want to be able to provide everything, so people can come in and get whatever they want."