Ahern Left the Cannabis Chair, Then the Lottery Collapsed

Kim Ahern left the Rhode Island Cannabis Control Commission on October 21, 2025, the day after the panel set a timeline for 24 new retail licenses. Gov. Dan McKee’s office said the search for a successor would start at once, and that Commissioners Layi Oduyingbo and Robert Jacquard would keep the work moving with Administrator Michelle Reddish.

The Chair Went Vacant the Day After the Timeline

Ahern had been the inaugural chair since the Senate confirmed the three-member panel in June 2023, a $204,069-a-year post that is the only full-time seat on the commission. Two days after she walked out, she filed to run for attorney general. Peter Neronha, the term-limited incumbent, earns $146,107 in that office.

Her letter to McKee did not mention the campaign. It listed the first adult-use regulations, the first social equity certification window, and the first retail application period as the work of her tenure, then closed on service in some other form.

I will be concluding my service as Chairperson of the Rhode Island Cannabis Control Commission, effective at close of business today. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve as the inaugural Chairperson of the Commission.

Kimberly Ahern, Chairperson, October 21, 2025 letter to Gov. Dan McKee

When the Senate confirmed her in 2023, she said she wanted stores open in 2024. Final regulations took effect May 1, 2025. The first application window opened September 12, 2025. The chair was empty before a single new license went out.

McKee nominated Reddish on May 26, 2026. The Senate confirmed her on June 11, 2026, the last day of the session, and sent Jacquard back for a second term. Both seats run until May 17, 2031. From Ahern’s last day to that vote, Oduyingbo and Jacquard ran a two-member commission.

What the First License Round Cost Applicants

The 2022 Rhode Island Cannabis Act authorized 33 retail licenses in all. Nine hybrid and medical shops were already operating. The remaining 24 were supposed to be spread across six geographic zones, with six licenses reserved for social equity applicants and six for worker cooperatives.

A briefing the commission gave Senate Finance recorded 98 applications and nine existing retailers after the December 29, 2025 deadline, and it said no new licenses had been awarded as of March 7, 2026. Not every license type drew an application in every zone, so the first drawing was capped at 20 stores rather than 24.

THE FIRST ROUND, BY LICENSE TYPE

Everyone except social equity applicants paid a $7,500 fee. On November 14, 2025, the two remaining commissioners certified 36 of 94 social equity pre-applicants in a 2-0 vote, about 38 percent, and left more than 60 percent outside the lottery. Those 36 still had to file a full application by December 29 and later prove final local zoning.

A Federal Injunction, Then a Voided Lottery

Out-of-state plaintiffs spent two years attacking the Act’s rule that retailers be majority-owned by Rhode Island residents. On April 8, 2026, U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose issued a preliminary injunction that froze screening, review, and the lottery. She wrote that the fallout would be, “to be blunt, self-inflicted,” because the commission had kept moving while the constitutional problem was already in court.

Jacquard and Oduyingbo met behind closed doors for about an hour on April 14, then filed an appeal. Applicants who had already leased space kept paying. Former Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, appearing for investors, later told the panel that time was of the essence and pushed for licenses by January 1.

Lawmakers did what the lawsuit demanded. McKee signed H8544 on June 10, 2026. The bill wiped the first round, ordered a new process within 60 days, and told the commission the statutory mark fell on August 10.

WHAT THE 2026 AMENDMENTS CHANGED

• The old round: Prior license applications and social equity certifications were rendered void, so certified applicants had to reapply from scratch.
• Residency: The majority-Rhode Island-owner rule came out of both general retail and social equity eligibility.
• Who counts: Disproportionately impacted area criteria were dropped; certification now turns on a cannabis arrest, conviction, or adjudication, including equivalent out-of-state offenses before May 25, 2022, or status as a member of an impacted family.
• The fee: The $7,500 application fee is refundable; rent, build-out, and other costs are not.

A commission guidance memo was blunt with people who had already been certified: that status does not carry over. The narrower definition also shut out applicants who had qualified only through neighborhood criteria the old law used for restorative licensing.

Applicants Kept Paying Rent on Closed Storefronts

The people who ate those months were not on the commission. They were on leases.

Lisa Ann Pontarelli, part-owner of a social equity bid for a former Pizza Hut on Reservoir Avenue in Cranston, said she and her partners had put in “at least six figures.” Jason Calderon, a cultivator who applied for a North Kingstown shop, called the injunction “very disheartening.” RCN started paying rent on Branch Avenue in December 2025, then watched the lottery freeze.

Judge DuBose noted the commission could have cut third-party harm by refunding fees or rolling applications into a new period. H8544 later required the fee refunds. It did not repay landlords. Vicente LLP, which advised first-round applicants, later walked through the reset and the retail application window reopened August 7, with social equity certification due September 11 and full retail filings due November 23.

The political fight over who counted as a social equity applicant, then the court fight over residency, used the calendar those fees were supposed to buy. People who had already cleared a screen were told to start over under a tighter statute.

Nine Shops Held Onto a $120 Million Market

While the new licenses sat in a file, the shops already open kept selling. The commission’s January 26, 2026 release put $167 million in regulated cannabis activity on the 2025 books, including $120 million in retail sales and $47 million in wholesale transfers. The average ticket was $34.97. Combined retail and wholesale activity since the 2022 Act had reached $471 million.

THE 2025 REGULATED MARKET

• Retail sales: $120,092,348 moved through the existing shops.
• Wholesale transfers: $46,974,089 moved between cultivators and stores.
• Store count: Nine cannabis retailers and 57 cultivators held licenses; none of the 24 new adult-use retail seats had been filled.
• Tax take: Senate Finance figures put adult-use tax collections for calendar 2025 at about $20.4 million, with medical tax on top of that.

Reddish, still administrator when those numbers went out, called the year stable and said the commission was focused on oversight, consumer safety, and an equitable marketplace. Equity, in the statute, was the six reserved licenses that had not been issued. The nine shops did not need a new chair to keep the register open.

Retail Applications Stay Open Through November 23

McKee’s May 26 nomination statement said Reddish had shown, in two years, “a deep understanding of Rhode Island’s cannabis landscape and how we can continue to effectively and safely regulate it.” She had run the Cannabis Office since 2024 after serving as chief operating officer and chief regulatory officer at the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority. She answered, “I’m proud to continue contributing to the growth and success of Rhode Island and its cannabis industry.”

The commission’s staff directory has listed Michelle Reddish as chair since that confirmation, with Jacquard and Oduyingbo as the other two votes. July 24 was her first meeting in the seat. Asked about Fung’s January 1 target, she said a January 1 deadline would be “nice aspirational,” then added that the panel did not want to overpromise and under-deliver.

DuBose dissolved the injunction on August 17, writing that defendants were free to accept applications, hold a lottery, and issue adult-use and social equity licenses. The new social equity window ran August 7 through September 11 at 5 p.m. The adult-use retail portal opened the same week and stays open through November 23 at 4 p.m.

THE 2026 RESTART CLOCK

1. June 10, 2026: McKee signs H8544, voiding the first round and ordering a new process.
2. June 11, 2026: The Senate confirms Reddish as chair and Jacquard to a new term.
3. July 24, 2026: The commission maps refunds of the $7,500 fees and a restart timetable.
4. August 7, 2026: The retail portal and social equity interest form open.
5. August 17, 2026: DuBose lifts the injunction.
6. September 11, 2026: Social equity certification applications close.
7. November 23, 2026: Adult-use retail applications close.

On September 22 the commission’s official account posted that the portal was open through that November date. A day later it added that a letter of intent is not enough to show site control, and that applicants need an executed lease or proof of ownership.

📢 The Adult-Use Retail Licensing Portal is now open! Prospective applicants may submit applications through November 23.

Learn more about the application process at https://t.co/yU8PDvU3Pn. pic.twitter.com/956zWuKD9R

— RI Cannabis Control Commission (@Cannabis_RI) September 22, 2026

Ron Crosson, chair of the Cannabis Advisory Board, has called Ahern’s tenure methodical and meticulous about matching the statute. The statute she left behind still had a residency clause a federal judge would not let stand, and the chair she left empty stayed empty through the injunction, the appeal, and the rewrite.

The Delay Followed Her Onto the Ballot

Ahern won the Democratic primary for attorney general on September 9, 2026, with 36.3 percent of the vote, according to the tally carried on Ballotpedia from the state count. She finished ahead of Keith Hoffmann, the candidate outgoing Attorney General Peter Neronha had backed, along with Rep. Joseph Solomon Jr. and Rep. Jason Knight. She faces Republican Alan Gordon on November 3.

The unfinished licenses were campaign material. Ahern’s answer was that she was the full-time employee but that her vote “was not more important than my two other commissioners.” Jacquard and Oduyingbo did not offer a public rebuttal in that exchange. McKee had already blown a 40-day clock in 2022 when he took until May 2023 to name the first panel, so the slow start was not hers alone.

She is still the person who set a license timeline on October 20 and left on October 21. The 24 new stores in the 2022 law have not opened. The second application window is the bill coming due, and it closes November 23, three weeks after the attorney general election.