Delaware officials have announced the state’s first cannabis licensing lottery to select over 700 businesses that will serve the adult-use market that’s set to launch next year.

The Office of the Marijuana Commissioner (OMC) said in a notice that the lottery will be held on Thursday. Of the more than 1,200 applications it received over the summer, 727 advanced to the lottery stage.

This initial drawing will include applicants for cultivation, manufacturing and lab testing licenses. The office said it expects to hold a separate lottery for retailers in December.

“If an applicant passes the minimum qualifications review and has paid their application fee, they receive a lottery number generated by the system,” OMC said. “A separate drawing is conducted for each category of license by County.”

“The OMC will contact the selected applicants in the days following the lottery,” it said. “Once all selected applicants have been officially notified, the identity of the selected applicants will be shared with the media and the public. The selected applicants in categories that did not require a lottery drawing will also be released at this time.”

A total of 125 licenses will ultimately be issued, including 30 retailers, 60 cultivators, 30 manufacturers and five testing labs. Earlier this month, regulators also detailed what portion of each category is reserved for social equity applicants, microbusinesses and general open licenses.

Delaware Marijuana Commissioner Robert Coupe has said that the current timeline puts the launch of the market at March 2025. In the meantime, regulators have been rolling out a series of proposed regulations to stand up the forthcoming adult-use cannabis industry.

Meanwhile, the governor of Delaware recently signed several additional marijuana bills into law, including measures that would allow existing medical cannabis businesses in the state to begin recreational sales on an expedited basis, transfer regulatory authority for the medical program and make technical changes to marijuana statutes.

The dual licensing legislation is meant to allow recreational sales to begin months earlier than planned, though critics say the legislation would give an unfair market advantage to larger, more dominant businesses already operating in multiple states.

Last week, Gov. John Carney (D) also gave final approval to legislation to enact state-level protections for banks that provide services to licensed marijuana businesses.

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Delaware’s medical marijuana program is also being significantly expanded under a new law that officially took effect in July.

The policy change removes limitations for patient eligibility based on a specific set of qualifying health conditions. Instead, doctors will be able to issue cannabis recommendations for any condition they see fit.

The new law also allows patients over the age of 65 to self-certify for medical cannabis access without the need for a doctor’s recommendation.

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