Cannabis regulators in both Delaware and Minnesota announced their departures in the last few days, both at arguably inopportune times for their respective adult-use marijuana markets, which are yet to launch.
In Delaware, Office of Marijuana Commissioner Robert Coupe will step down as both the head of the agency and from government work altogether in favor of a private sector job at a construction firm, the office announced Friday in a press release.
Coupe, a career civil servant, was named to lead the OMC in July 2023 after the state legalized recreational marijuana. Prior to that, he served as chief of staff at the state Department of Technology and Information, chief of staff at the state Department of Justice, cabinet secretary at the Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security, commissioner of the state Department of Corrections, and as superintendent of the State Police.
It’s not clear when exactly Coupe’s last day on the job will be or who will succeed him in the role of cannabis commissioner. The recreational marijuana market in Delaware is slated to launch this spring.
In Minnesota, Interim Director Charlene Briner of the Office of Cannabis Management also announced her departure, effective Jan. 17. She will be succeeded by OCM General Counsel Eric Taubel, CBS reported. Taubel will be the third director of the OCM since the agency was created in 2023, when lawmakers legalized marijuana.
Briner was named to the job in January last year, after Gov. Tim Walz’s first choice – hemp entrepreneur Erin Dupree – when it came to light she’d been selling illegal cannabis goods.
Briner’s departure comes just a matter of days before the newly revamped state cannabis permitting process gets underway, first with social equity eligibility verification beginning Jan. 15, followed by the opening of the license application window in February. In a statement, Briner emphasized that her position was “always intended to be temporary,” CBS reported.
Minnesota’s full adult-use marijuana market is expected to launch sometime later this year, but exactly when is a moving target, partially due to delays in the business permitting process.
Both Delaware and Minnesota have long had small medical marijuana markets, but only recently embraced full legalization of cannabis.
John Schroyer has been a reporter since 2006, initially with a focus on politics, and covered the 2012 Colorado campaign to legalize marijuana. He has written about the cannabis industry specifically since 2014, after being on hand for the first-ever legal cannabis sales on New Year’s Day that year in Denver. John has covered subsequent marijuana market launches in California and Illinois, has written about every aspect of the marijuana trade, and was part of the team that built the cannabis industry’s first-ever trade show, MJBizCon. He joined Green Market Report in 2022.
Unpack the industry with the daily cannabis newsletter for business leaders.
Sign up
Unpack the industry with the daily cannabis newsletter for business leaders.
Sign up
The Green Market Report focuses on the financial news of the rapidly growing cannabis industry. Our target approach filters out the daily noise and does a deep dive into the financial, business and economic side of the cannabis industry. Our team is cultivating the industry’s critical news into one source and providing open source insights and data analysis
Crain Communications Inc © 2017 – . All rights reserved.
Crain Communications Inc © 2017 – . All rights reserved.