A Montana judge has ordered state cannabis regulators to delay the enforcement of steep new fees for marijuana dispensary business licenses while a suit challenging the new fee structure is heard by the courts. The 60-day preliminary injunction was ordered by Lewis and Clark County District Court Judge Mike Menahan, with the move agreed to by attorneys for the state and three cannabis businesses that filed the legal action in August.
The plaintiffs in the case are challenging new fees established by the Montana Department of Revenue’s Cannabis Control Division under a law passed by the state legislature earlier this year. Under the new fee schedule, business owners are required to pay a fee of $5,000 for the first dispensary, with the fee increasing by $5,000 for each additional dispensary license.
“This means a license’s initial dispensary fee is $5,000, its second dispensary renewal fee is $10,000, its third is $15,000, and so on,” Angela LeDuc, an attorney for the plaintiffs, wrote in court documents filed last month, as reported by the Independent Record.
The owners of the businesses that brought the suit—Granite Peak Holdings, Inc. doing business as Elevated; TSB Montana LLC, and MariMint LLC—say that if the new