98 apply for RI’s retail cannabis dispensary licenses. Here’s where

Just two applications were submitted for the Woonsocket, Cumberland, Smithfield area

• 12 of the 19 worker cooperative applications were in the Providence-North Providence-Central Falls-Johnston-Lincoln area
• Only 20 licenses will be issued because too few applied in the northern portion of the state
• The retail applications were centered on the zone that combined Pawtucket and East Providence with Aquidneck Island

PROVIDENCE – A total of 98 entities submitted applications for Rhode Island’s 24 cannabis dispensary licenses, with the northern part of the state only seeing two applications.

The Cannabis Control Commission announced the retail license applications during its meeting on Jan. 16.

Applications opened in mid-September and closed on Dec. 29, 2025. The applications will be vetted before being assigned via a lottery system, but a date for applicants to get zoning approval for their retail establishments has been pushed out to March 2, while some cities and towns, such as Pawtucket, are changing their zoning rules after the application period closed.

While Rhode Island passed a law allowing for the opening of retail dispensaries in 2022, the licenses have yet to be issued, although dispensaries that sold medical marijuana have been selling recreational marijuana as well.

Three categories of cannabis dispensary licenses

The license applications were not evenly divided across the six zones Rhode Island has been carved into for the purposes of assigning the licenses. The northern division of the state, called Zone 1, with easy access to Massachusetts’ plentiful and less expensive dispensaries, saw only two applicants, both of them in the social equity category, and none in the general retail or worker-owned cooperative categories.

Rhode Island law recognizes three categories of applicants: social equity, general retail and worker-owned cooperative. Of the 98 applications, 23 were social equity, 56 were general retail and 19 were worker cooperative.

Of the 24 licenses, six are reserved for social equity applicants and another six are reserved for worker cooperatives. However, with no worker cooperative applicants in Zone 1 and Zone 4, and no general retail in Zone 1, the Cannabis Control Commission will only issue a maximum of 20 licenses, Administrator Michelle Reddish said during the Jan. 16 meeting.

Of the 19 worker cooperative applications, 12 were submitted in Zone 2, the state’s urban core, including Providence, North Providence, Central Falls, Johnston and Lincoln. None were submitted in Zone 1, the north, or Zone 4, the West Bay.

“We were expecting one, two or three worker-owned cooperative applications in every zone, or even zero, but 12 is a huge outlier,” worker cooperative organizer Emma Karnes, with United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 328, said in an interview. “There were only 10 traditional license applicants in Zone 2, so who are all of these coops? We have no idea what happened here.”

Karnes has been working with Co-op Rhody to help four worker cooperatives with their applications, including finding real estate and investors.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to organize, even if it’s not with these founding four cooperatives, into cooperative programming and, ultimately, raise awareness about cooperatives and achieve and strengthen cooperatives’ power in the state,” she said.

There were 23 social equity applicants, spread across all the zones, with the most, eight, in Zone 4. According to the RI Current, there were initially 94 social equity license “requests,” but only 36 met the eligibility criteria in November, and the number appears to have dropped to 23. Applications for social equity applicants opened in August.

The social equity provisions in state law are being challenged in lawsuits revived by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a District Court judge dismissed them. The appeals court directed the judge to issue rulings on merits at least 45 days before the date that the Rhode Island Cannabis Control Commission intends to issue retail licenses. There is no timeline for license issuance.

Of the general retail applications, where were none in Zone 1 in the north; 24 in Zone 6, which includes Pawtucket, East Providence and Aquidneck Island; and two in Zone 3, the middle-western portion of the state.

Among the four cooperatives Karnes is working with is Permaculture, which has secured a location in Coventry.

Where are the zones located?

Here are the cities and towns in each zone.

Six municipalities rejected retail sales via a referendum vote in 2022, described at the time as the only way to opt out of allowing it: Barrington, East Greenwich, Jamestown, Little Compton, Scituate and Smithfield.

Zone 1, northern portion of the state: Burrillville, Cumberland, Glocester, North Smithfield, Smithfield, Woonsocket. Smithfield rejected retail sales via a 2022 referendum vote. There were a total of two applications.

Zone 2, East-Central and urban core: Providence, North Providence, Central Falls, Johnston, Lincoln. There were a total of 26 applications.

Zone 3, Middle-western: Coventry, Foster, Scituate, West Greenwich, West Warwick. There were a total of nine applications.

Zone 4, West Bay: East Greenwich, North Kingstown, Cranston, Warwick. East Greenwich rejected retail sales via a 2022 referendum vote. There were a total of 19 applications.

Zone 5, South west corner: Charlestown, Exeter, Hopkinton, Narragansett, Richmond, South Kingstown, Westerly. There were a total of 14 applications.

Zone 6, a combination of Aquidneck Island, the East Bay and Pawtucket: East Providence, Newport, Pawtucket, Barrington, Bristol, Jamestown, Little Compton, Middletown, New Shoreham, Portsmouth, Tiverton, Warren. Barrington, Jamestown and Little Compton rejected retail sales via a 2022 referendum vote. There were a total of 31 applications.