Two months after pushing back on a claim he would be leaving by the end of the year, Shawn Collins is resigning as executive director of the Cannabis Control Commission, the latest move to rock the troubled state agency, whose chair was suspended in September.
Cannabis Control Commission
Posted inMarijuana, State Government
Former treasurer Shannon O’Brien picked to lead cannabis board
FORMER STATE TREASURER Shannon O’Brien, who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2002, will be the next chair of the Cannabis Control Commission. Treasurer Deborah Goldberg announced the appointment Tuesday. O’Brien will be sworn in Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the commission’s founding. O’Brien replaces Sarah Kim, who had been serving as interim chair since […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker signs bill bringing equity to cannabis industry
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Thursday signed a bill aimed at giving minority cannabis entrepreneurs easier access into the industry, and also paving the way for municipalities to allow marijuana cafes. The bill better regulates host community agreements, creates a state-run loan fund for minority entrepreneurs, lowers taxes for marijuana businesses, and makes it easier to […]
Posted inUncategorized
Marijuana retailers sue over home delivery rules
A COALITION OF marijuana dispensaries has made good on the threat to sue state regulators over new regulations governing home delivery of marijuana, in a case that is illustrating the contentious divide among various segments of the state’s young marijuana industry. When the Cannabis Control Commission approved the marijuana delivery regulations in November, the Commonwealth Dispensary Association, […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
No marijuana ‘apocalypse,’ but legalization brings concerns
Second of two parts. Read the first part here. WHEN MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS were considering the 2016 ballot question to legalize recreational marijuana sales, opponents, including Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and a raft of public health and safety officials, raised concerns about everything from youth use to drug trafficking to impaired driving. […]
Posted inUncategorized
Marijuana companies hid illegal pesticide use
THE STATE Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday unanimously approved hefty fines against two marijuana companies for illegally using pesticides on their products, then trying to hide it. Garden Remedies will pay $200,000 and Healthy Pharms will pay $350,000. They are not the first marijuana companies to be cited for pesticide use under strict rules […]
Posted inUncategorized
Cannabis regulator Kay Doyle jumps to pharma
CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSIONER Kay Doyle is leaving the state oversight panel to take a job as US director of public policy for Greenwich Biosciences, the first company to manufacture an FDA-approved cannabis drug. “It returns me back to really focusing on patients, which is where my heart is,” Doyle said. The five-member Cannabis Control Commission […]
Posted inUncategorized
Opponents fume over Baker vaping ban
FOR SAFIA JAMIL, the owner of vaping shops in Marlborough and Walpole, the one-two punch of Gov. Charlie Baker’s emergency vaping ban and legislation passed this week to ban all flavored tobacco products is likely to be a knockout that puts her out of business. Jamil said she has lost “thousands of dollars” because of […]
Posted inEconomy
Weather doesn’t dampen first day of pot sales
PARIS COLEMAN DIDN’T even know how to pronounce Leicester, and most assuredly had never visited the aging mill city in the northern Blackstone River Valley. But the 26-year-old New England Patriots employee came here from his Mattapan home for two reasons. “Weed,” he said. “Weed and history. I need to find some real haze [a […]
Posted inThe Back Story
‘Big Marijuana’ is actually a thing
DURING THE 2016 CAMPAIGN, and since the passage of the law legalizing the sale and adult use of marijuana in Massachusetts, opponents of legal pot have continually pointed to the potential for wealthy investors to cash in on the billion-dollar industry and nudge smaller entrepreneurs to the side. They have labeled such corporate backers “Big […]