Dan Pomerantz seemed tense. He was eager to show a reporter around his 200-acre farm in Craftsbury and explain his plans for creating a world-class cannabis breeding and cultivating facility in the Northeast Kingdom. But Pomerantz was also awaiting an important phone call and needed good cellphone service, which is spotty on his sprawling mountainside farm. That afternoon, the Vermont Cannabis Control Board was due to issue two rulings on his application to become a licensed cultivator. One would decide whether his three adjacent properties constitute one location. The other would determine whether Pomerantz qualifies as a “social equity applicant.” By law, the CCB can award this preferential status to applicants who are Black or Hispanic, who come from communities disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition, or who were once incarcerated on pot-related offenses. In 2012, Pomerantz was convicted of felony marijuana possession in Nevada and served a day in jail. Were he to qualify, the CCB would waive his $19,500 application and licensing fees. “I’m just trying to do something that is bettering the people around me, bettering the environment and bettering my community,” Pomerantz said as he anxiously awaited the call from his attorney. If Pomerantz got licensed, it would fulfill his lifelong dream: to grow high-quality cannabis legally in Vermont. For about a decade, the 40-year-old Massachusetts native grew and sold black-market herb in the NEK before moving to northern California’s Humboldt County to hone his pot-growing skills. There, in the fabled Emerald Triangle, the geographic and cultural epicenter of the global cannabis industry, Pomerantz earned a reputation for breeding and cultivating award-winning strains. As CEO and founder of the cannabusiness Rebel Grown, he partnered with licensed nurseries to provide seeds, clones and other cannabis products to dispensaries that cater to medical patients and to those that sell to connoisseur California consumers in Beverly Hills, Pasadena, Eagle Rock and other cities. “My flower doesn’t need to be in 500 stores and make $30 million a year,” Pomerantz said. “It just needs to be on the top shelf of some of the best ones.” Having made a name for himself in the highly competitive West Coast weed market, Pomerantz bought the Craftsbury farm two years ago — on the very land where he once ran a black-market grow operation. He now wants to use his vast stock of rare and exotic varieties, including more than 200 genetic…