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August 10, 2022

CT issues first preliminary license for recreational marijuana industry

Photo | Lindsay Fox via Flickr A worker tends to cannabis plants.
By Skyler Frazer

Massachusetts-based Insa has been granted a provisional cultivator license, making it the first company given the ok to move forward with establishing recreational cannabis operations in Connecticut.
    
According to information from the state, Insa CT was officially granted its provisional social equity cultivator license from the state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP). DCP Spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt confirmed Wednesday that the company has passed the department’s background checks and paid the $3 million fee to receive the licensing, and no other provisional licenses have been issued yet. A 14-month provisional license gives companies time to hire employees, iron out a detailed business plan, and outfit their facility before opening.

Insa CT’s application names Clara Jackson, of Bloomfield, as the company’s CEO and social equity applicant with a 65% stake in the company. Peter Gallagher and Patrick Gottschlich, the co-founders of Insa, are listed as backers.

Insa CT currently has a business address of 35 Center St., Chicopee, Mass., but this will be the Massachusetts company’s first endeavor in Connecticut. Insa currently operates three recreational dispensaries in Massachusetts, including right over the border in downtown Springfield.

Insa’s license, when and if it gets full approval, will allow it to open large-scale operations of more than 15,000 square feet of grow space, differing from micro-cultivator licenses that go to establishments with between 2,000 square feet and 10,000 square feet of grow space.

Insa was one of 16 companies recently approved by the Social Equity Council for disproportionately impacted area cultivator social equity status.

DIA applicants were allowed to submit paperwork during a one-time, 90-day window not subject to the lottery, like other license types. Last year’s cannabis law defines a disproportionately impacted area as a U.S. census tract in Connecticut that has a higher historical conviction rate for drug-related offenses, or an unemployment rate greater than 10%.

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