MCG Press Clips 6.12.25
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https://revenue.mt.gov/news/recent-news/cannabis-control-division-june-2025-newsletter
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Great Falls’ first cannabis cultivation facility gets initial approval
by Matt Hudson
06.11.2025
Just before a recently passed law puts a pause on new marijuana operations in Montana, one business owner received conditional approval to create a hub of operation in Great Falls.
On Tuesday, the Great Falls Planning Advisory Board/Zoning Commission approved a conditional use permit for Flower, a company based in Missoula County, to bring a cannabis cultivation operation to a westside industrial corridor in Great Falls.
The debate that preceded the planning board’s vote encapsulated the swirl of legislation, legal proceedings and public concerns surrounding Montana’s legal marijuana movement from medical to recreational use.
Bobby Long, owner of Flower, is planning a retail dispensary and cultivation facility to grow and process marijuana at 748 Crescent Circle, just off of Sixth Street Southwest. The area’s zoning allows for a cannabis retail location but required Tuesday’s hearing to approve the cultivation part of the business.
Long, who has operated cannabis businesses in Lolo and Missoula for more than a decade, told the board that he hopes to make Great Falls an operational hub for further growth.
“I’m not here to tap a market and walk away,” he said. “I’m here to plant something that lasts.”
Long plans to open up the retail dispensary this fall and is already licensed to do so. He may have been among the last operators to receive a license before a new state law puts a freeze on licensing new locations. That takes effect July 1.
The freeze will impact the timeline for opening the cultivation side of the business. Long said he purchased the building in December when the bill to freeze new locations was already being circulated in Helena. He said that an existing tenant in the future cultivation space will remain in the building for a short term and that he will work slowly to have the facility ready by the time the freeze ends in 2027 — barring any additional changes by lawmakers.
“Risk and challenges that I have no control over go with the territory,” Long told Montana Free Press. “That’s been present since day one.”
Once completed, the cultivation facility could be the first such operation within Great Falls, according to city planning staff. The conditional use permit approved at Tuesday’s planning board meeting was a necessary hurdle to push the project forward.
Planning board member Julie Essex was the lone vote against the conditional use permit on Tuesday. She drew a line in the sand over the federal government’s categorization of marijuana as an illegal drug. By extension, she said the permit was illegal.
“I am obligated to follow local, state and federal laws except where there is a conflict with federal law,” Essex said. “Then I am bound by federal law according to the supremacy clause.”
The supremacy clause is part of the U.S. Constitution and says that federal law prevails in a conflict with state-level laws. Essex read at length from a 2024 congressional memo that outlined the illegality of marijuana under federal law and its classification as a Schedule I drug, a determination that says the substance has no accepted medical use.
In practice, the federal classification has done little to hamper the proliferation of medical and recreational cannabis across states. Medical use is legal in 39 states, and 24 states have legalized recreational use. The congressional memo cited by Essex went on to note that past presidential administrations have deprioritized marijuana prosecutions and that Congress has barred the U.S. Department of Justice from limiting state medical marijuana laws.
The Biden administration made headlines last year when it proposed to move marijuana off the list of Schedule I drugs, though that was not implemented.
Locally, a past lawsuit addressed some jurisdictional conflicts regarding marijuana businesses. In 2022, the owners of a medical marijuana business sued Great Falls after being denied a permit to open a second facility within the city. Zoning regulations at the time prohibited marijuana businesses in the city and cited federal illegality to justify the ordinance.
District Court Judge David Grubich ruled in favor of the business owners, writing in his judgment that voters in Cascade County favored marijuana legalization in 2020 and that the power to prohibit marijuana rests with the voters.
“City voters in ‘green’ counties are the only body given the power to prohibit marijuana business under the statute,” Grubich wrote in the judgment.
In September 2022, the Great Falls City Commission voted to amend the zoning regulations to allow regulated marijuana businesses. In November of that year, voters in Great Falls narrowly rejected a measure to prohibit marijuana businesses.
Given the history, Great Falls City Attorney David Dennis advised the planning board that it should vote on the merits of the application rather than the federal status of marijuana.
“If this commission votes on the basis that the city is prohibited by federal law to approve a marijuana business in the city, then I would expect another challenge,” he said.
Essex disagreed, holding up her hands to make quotation marks while saying that Montana “legalized” marijuana.
There were other concerns about a potential marijuana grow operation in town. Atop the list was odor. Long said that he was confident that there would be no odor outside of the facility and that it would use air filters and a closed-loop HVAC system. He said that odor control is a byproduct of keeping pests out.
“It’s in my operational interest to seal out the smell because it seals in the environment,” he said.
Conditions of the permit include a ban on outdoor marijuana cultivation.
Members of Neighborhood Council No. 2 raised another concern, according to a city memo. The council has multiple marijuana retail businesses within its boundaries. Although city zoning restricts these businesses to certain light industrial areas, the system can “unintentionally create an uneven concentration” in neighborhoods that have lots of industrial areas. Ultimately, the neighborhood council voted to “not oppose” Long’s permit.
Other planning board members weren’t interested in a broader conversation about the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“But that’s not what we’re here to discuss today,” board chair Tory Mills said. “We’re here to discuss a CUP for the applicant.”
Based on the permit criteria and assurances from Long that odor would be mitigated, the board voted 4-1 to approve. Members Mills, Joe McMillen, Michael Bicsak and Jim Wingerter voted in favor. Essex voted against. Members Michael Gorecki and David Cantley were absent.
The conditional use permit still requires approval from the city commission.
The new state licensure legislation, SB 27, puts a halt on new marijuana business locations in a strategy called “freeze the footprint.” There are about 1,000 currently in the state. The freeze begins July 1 and ends June 30, 2027.
Montana voters first approved the use of medical marijuana in 2004. Since then, cannabis use has been shaped by numerous lawsuits and legislative actions. Federal agents raided medical marijuana facilities in 2011 following a relatively unregulated period that former Montana Attorney General Tim Fox described as a “regulatory free-for-all that was disconcerting to the public and the Legislature.” An initiative passed by voters in 2016 set the stage for a more formal marijuana regulatory structure.
In 2020, voters approved recreational cannabis use for adults.
US marijuana business licensing stable in early 2025
By Andrew Long, Data Reporter
June 12, 2025
https://mjbizdaily.com/us-marijuana-business-licensing-stable-in-early-2025/
The U.S. marijuana licensing market remained stable in early 2025, with the total number of active licenses growing less than 1%.
There were 38,509 active business licenses in regulated medical and recreational marijuana markets during the first quarter of 2025, according to a recent report by CRB Monitor, a cannabis intelligence firm that tracks and monitors permits.
Cannabis licensing growth plateaued in the third quarter of 2024 after two years of contraction, where total licenses declined 13%.
Meanwhile, approved/pending and pre-licensing activities declined in the first quarter of 2025, signaling a slowing of businesses entering the market.
Approved/pending licenses fell 5% for the quarter to 5,095, marking the third consecutive quarterly decline in new license approvals.
Applications set for approval slid 12% to 5,493, extending a decline that began in the third quarter of 2024 as a flood of applications in New York moved slowly through the review process.
Recent license growth has been driven largely by fast-growing adult-use markets in Massachusetts, New Jersey and, despite the delays, New York.
“After a period of aggressive expansion and painful corrections, we’re seeing the market settle into equilibrium,” said Steven Kemmerling, CEO of Nashville, Tennessee-based CRB Monitor.
“But stagnation isn’t growth – this could mean tougher competition for existing operators.
“Most markets are now focused on profitability, not expansion. The era of easy money is over.”
Select state highlights
California
While slight, the number of active licenses in California rose for the first time in more than three years.
State licenses grew 1% from the end of 2024, closing out the first quarter of this year with 8,530 operators.
That’s a welcome respite as California lost 30% of its active licensees in the past two years.
Michigan
Michigan remains the third-largest U.S. market in terms of active licenses, even as it shed 138 permits in the quarter and ended at 4,148.
While this is a 3% quarterly decline from the end of 2024, active licenses have grown 17% year-over-year.
New Mexico
New Mexico cannabis licenses grew 27%, with 644 new licenses issued in the first quarter of 2025 – the most of any market.
The state’s explosive growth can be attributed to a laissez-faire licensing regime that is very reminiscent of Oklahoma’s early efforts.
Hopefully, it can avoid the issues that Oklahoma regulators are trying to get a grip on.
Oklahoma
With an ongoing moratorium on new licensing and a crackdown on noncompliant operators, Oklahoma -once the nation’s leader in cannabis licenses – has experienced a 53% drop in active licenses over the past two years.
The trend continued as the state lost 379 active licenses between the end of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
That said, the state still has 5,823 active cannabis business licenses, second behind California.
Other states
There were other states with significant active licensing during the quarter.
Connecticut licenses grew 51%, Illinois 17%, New Jersey 16% and Maryland 11%.
Vermont added the most licenses per capita, granting 52 new licenses during the quarter.
The license market also had a welcome reprieve from a multiyear contraction as no established state market lost more than 10% of its active licenses during the first quarter of 2025.
Oklahoma, Oregon and Michigan experienced the largest decline in the quarter, losing 379, 218 and 138 licenses, respectively.
Consumption-venue licenses continue to grow
One bright spot for cannabis license growth are consumption venues.
This new category of licenses continued to expand in the first quarter, growing 183% since the end of 2024.
This marks a nearly fourfold increase in the past 12 months to 68 licensed clubs, as New Mexico joined Colorado, Michigan and Nevada in establishing social use formats for their markets.
Sports Fans Welcome Cannabis Brand Sponsorships For Teams In Professional Leagues Like NFL, NBA And MLB, Poll Shows
By Kyle Jaeger
June 12, 2025
A majority of sports fans across multiple leagues—from NFL to pro tennis and NBA to NASCAR—say it’s acceptable for cannabis companies to sponsor teams, according to a new survey.
As more professional sports leagues loosen policies around marijuana use among players, and some have allowed for cannabis-related sponsorships, the poll from Performance Research and Full Circle Research found either majority or plurality support for letting cannabis brands partner with teams.
There was more support for allowing CBD-related sponsorships, as opposed to deals with “THC brands,” but in no case was there majority opposition to either kind of partnership among fans of nine different sports leagues: NFL, NBA, MLB, MLS, UFC, NHL, Pro Tennis, Pro Golf and NASCAR.
Here’s the percentage of sports fans across those leagues who say it’s “completely” or “mostly” acceptable for CBD companies to sponsor teams:
· MLS: 73 percent
· UFC: 68 percent
· Pro Tennis: 64 percent
· NHL: 62 percent
· Pro Golf: 62 percent
· NBA: 60 percent
· NASCAR: 56 percent
· NFL: 55 percent
· MLB: 55 percent
Here’s the percentage of sports fans across those leagues who say it’s “completely” or “mostly” acceptable for THC companies to sponsor teams:
· MLS: 69 percent
· UFC: 60 percent
· NHL: 55 percent
· Pro Tennis: 53 percent
· NASCAR: 53 percent
· NBA: 50 percent
· Pro Golf: 49 percent
· NFL: 46 percent
· MLB: 46 percent
The survey included 1,o00 sports fans over the age of 21 in the 24 states where recreational marijuana is legal and was conducted between April 23-26.
“I think there’s no longer a justifiable reason to be shy about this,” Jed Pearsall, president and founder of Performance Research, told Sports Business Journal, which first reported the poll results.
The outlet reported that the survey also showed that a majority of sports fans’ perceptions of leagues and teams are either positively affected or unchanged due to cannabis sponsorships—though it also found that only 17 percent are aware of any such specific partnerships.
“I think those on the sales side can aggressively sell these opportunities and those on the sponsor side should realize that these opportunities will be welcome where they go,” Pearsall said. “Sports has a way of normalizing things, and that’s good for the cannabis industry, and those marketing with it.”
To that point, major sports leagues have been gradually reducing the stigma against cannabis use, with policy changes for players and professional affiliations with the industry.
For example, the NFL recently reached an agreement with its players union to further reform its marijuana policies, significantly reducing fines for positive tests while increasing the allowable THC threshold for players.
About four years after NFL ended the practice of suspending players over cannabis or other drugs as part of a collective bargaining agreement, the league has again revised its Substances of Abuse Policy and Performance Enhancing Substances Policy.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) last year voted to remove marijuana from its banned substances list for Division I players.
The reform builds on a 2022 change that increased the allowable THC threshold for college athletes, aligning NCAA’s rules with those of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
In October, Nevada regulators officially adopted a rule change that will protect athletes from being penalized for using or possessing marijuana in compliance with state law.
The head of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) blasted the “unfair” ban on marijuana for athletes competing in international sport events, including the Olympics that were underway in Paris at the time of the comments.
USADA CEO Travis Tygart said it was “disappointing” that WADA has maintained the cannabis prohibition based on what he considers a misguided justification.
WADA did carry out a review into its marijuana policy at the request of USADA and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) following the controversial suspension of U.S. runner Sha’Carri Richardson, who was barred from participating in the Olympics in 2021 after she tested positive for THC. Richardson said she used cannabis to cope with the recent passing of her mother.
While UFC announced in late 2023 that it was formally removing marijuana from its modified banned substances list for athletes, the league notified participants that the reform didn’t apply under California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) rules.
UFC advised fighters that they could be subject to a $100 fine by CSAS if they tested over 150 nanograms of THC per milliliter ahead of the UFC 298 event that took place in February.
At the beginning of 2024, the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty entered into partnerships with a CBD beverage company—the first teams in the NBA and WNBA, respectively, to forge deals with the cannabis industry.
The New York-based clubs are partnering with Mynd Drinks, a hemp-based CBD sparkling beverage company that also made history last year when it became an official partner of the Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Chicago Cubs.
Last year, NFL announced it was partnering with Canadian researchers on a clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of CBD for pain management and neuroprotection from concussions—key issues for many football players who experience injuries as part of the game.
Separately, NFL and the Denver Broncos last year asked a federal court to reject a player’s lawsuit alleging discrimination over penalties he incurred due to positive THC tests from his prescribed use of a synthetic cannabinoid.
In a joint motion to dismiss filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, the league and team defended their marijuana policy for players, affirming it’s their view that use of cannabis can lead to on-field injuries, poor job performance and “alienation of the fans.”
MORE MONTANA NEWS
After staff cuts, Forest Service asks workers to 'come back' to help fight wildfires
June 12th, 2025
https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-regional/article
The U.S. Forest Service has a new message for the roughly 1,400 employees it pressured to retire early despite their qualifications to help fight wildfires: Please come back.
Among the more than 4,200 workers who took the federal agency’s early retirement offer, referred to as the “Deferred Resignation Program” or DRP, about one-third had red cards, meaning they were qualified to fight wildland fires. That’s according to testimony from Tom Schultz, the new Forest Service chief under President Trump, speaking during a Senate budget hearing Wednesday.
“We had 1,400 people with fire (qualifications) that did leave,” Schultz told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies. “We have reached out to those folks to secure their services this fire season, to see if they want to come back on a voluntary basis.”
The Trump administration has said its DRP staff cuts and earlier mass layoffs did not target federal employees whose primary job was firefighting. But many workers who have been laid off or were pushed to resign provided support roles for the agency’s firefighting efforts, or were qualified to join fire crews during the height of the wildfire season.
And indications are growing that a significant fire season could lie ahead in Montana and other parts of the American West. Fast-melting snowpack and unseasonably warm conditions this spring are drying out much of the state, including around Missoula, well ahead of normal.
Fire experts both in Montana and around the country have for months been raising alarms about the potential impacts of the Trump administration's staff cuts on wildfire preparedness.
Those concerns were echoed by Democratic senators during Wednesday morning’s budget hearing.
“It feels like we are not prepared for this wildfire season,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told Schultz. “You just said we are. We’ll see what happens. But I fear I’m going to be right.”
Schultz also noted the effort to lure back Forest Service employees began about a week earlier, and comes from his boss, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Last week the agency also published a video on its website, part of a new “Chat with the Chief” series, in which Schultz acknowledged the partial reversal on what he termed a workforce “restructuring.”
“We do know that DRP did have some impacts though,” he said in the video. “I guess my encouragement at this point is to reach out to those folks and assess their interest and availability, and then encourage them to come back and be available for this season.”
Schultz’s comments about his agency’s offer to re-hire workers referred to employees who left the agency through deferred resignations. Another 3,400 employees were abruptly fired in February due to their status as probationary employees, but were subsequently reinstated after labor unions sued to block the layoffs.
Updated: Former Navy SEAL Rob O'Neill takes shots at Butte, Democrats; says later he loves Butte
MIKE SMITH
June 12th, 2025
https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/government-politics/article
Former Navy Seal Rob O’Neill has taken a shot at his native town of Butte, posting a sharply worded comment on X about the city and the Democratic Party.
“I grew up in a mining town,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter, around 9 a.m. on Tuesday. “Unions were good. It’s so frustrating to go home to Butte, MT and see how blind they are to the demons that have hijacked the democrat party. Pure evil.”
The Montana Standard reached out to O’Neill via social media Wednesday morning and he indicated he would get in touch with the newspaper regarding the comment.
On Wednesday around 10 a.m., he sent a direct message to a Montana Standard employee stating “I’m a registered independent and the democrats have completely lost their way. They need leaders.”
Later Wednesday, shortly after messaging the employee, he posted publicly on X: “I love Butte, MT and the people there. Op-ed coming soon @MontanaStandard.”
Aaron Flint, a conservative who has a syndicated morning talk radio show in Montana, mentioned the O’Neill comment on X in passing Wednesday morning and posted it on his Montana Talks website.
O'Neill said in 2014 that he was the SEAL Team Six member who shot Osama bin Laden dead in a May 2, 2011, raid, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
He has often espoused conservative views, was once a Fox News contributor, has been a motivational speaker and now has a podcast called The Operator.
Butte-Silver Bow County has long been considered a stronghold for Democrats in Montana. Donald Trump won the state by 20 percentage points in November and won all Montana counties except Butte-Silver Bow, Anaconda-Deer Lodge, Gallatin, Glacier and Missoula.
Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a Democrat, got 51% of the vote in Butte-Silver Bow County in November to 44% for Trump, a lesser margin than Democrats received in recent presidential elections.
The Standard reached out to J.P. Gallagher, Butte-Silver Bow’s chief executive, Wednesday morning. He said he had not heard about O’Neill’s posting but it was read to him.
“I think that’s an ignorant comment,” Gallagher said. "I’d like to know what he bases that off of and what the intent of that is.”
Local elections in Butte-Silver Bow County are nonpartisan, meaning candidates are not affiliated with political parties on the ballot. Gallagher says he is an independent and is glad local elections are non-partisan in Butte “because you can support different agenda items without being fixed to a party.”
But he questions O’Neill’s comment.
“I haven’t had a conversation with him and he hasn’t come in to talk to us, but I don’t know what he’s referring to on that,” Gallagher said. “I know he’s a very strong Republican and a supporter of Donald Trump. I don’t know what the basis for his comments are, though.”
Mickey Boysza, who chairs the Butte-Silver Bow Democratic Central Committee, also questioned O’Neill’s posting.
“I don’t know if Rob is addressing something that he personally, you know, was affected by or had somebody affected by, but I think to be so general about a statement like that is not good,” Boysza said.
Boysza said politically, “I think with the influx of new voters coming in that things aren’t what they used to be in Butte but I think Butte is solid as far as trying to represent the people.”
She said she’s not sure what O’Neill meant by his “pure evil” statement.
“That’s a pretty wide-open statement and doesn’t really give a direction to what it is he’s so concerned about,” she said. “I think it’s so general.
“Quite obviously, with the number of people that we’re having show up at rallies … I think Butte is holding together,” Boysza said, noting that another Trump protest rally is planned Saturday.
“I think that if Rob does have a problem, he should be more direct about it and address what he sees as the problem rather than leaving it to people’s imagination.”
O’Neill made headlines in Butte and all of Montana when a British newspaper published a story in November 2014 that O’Neill was the one who killed Bin Laden. His father, who lived in Butte, detailed his son’s role in the mission.
O’Neill was arrested for a DUI in Butte during a visit in April 2016. He said he took a prescribed sleep aid before his arrest and was innocent. The charge was later amended and prosecution of it was deferred.
He talked with The Standard during another visit in November 2017 and among other things, said, “Always good to be back in Butte.”
