STATE REGULATORS GAVE the final okay for two cannabis testing labs to begin analyzing recreational marijuana, one of the last remaining steps before retail stores can open – more than two years after voters legalized the sale of pot. The Cannabis Control Commission on Wednesday authorized MCR Labs of Framingham and CDX Analytics of Salem […]
Cannabis Control Commission
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Final approval given to two retail pot stores
THE STATE BOARD overseeing the nascent marijuana industry gave final approval to the first licenses for retail stores Thursday with some conditions. But the vote, one of the most momentous the panel has yet taken, was not unanimous with one commissioner abstaining because of problems with the host community agreements. The Cannabis Control Commission approved […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Slow pot rollout costing state tax revenue
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SAYING MASSACHUSETTS HAS missed out on $16 million in marijuana taxes, officials behind the 2016 legal marijuana ballot question on Monday pointed to staffing levels and bureaucracy at the Cannabis Control Commission as potential reasons for the slow rollout of retail sales in Massachusetts. “The Cannabis Control Commission needs to pick […]
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AG: Towns can’t ban medical pot
IN A STARTLING TURNAROUND, Attorney General Maura Healey has reversed her office’s decision that allowed communities to ban medical marijuana dispensaries after opening the door earlier this summer for cities and towns to block the dispensaries from coming to their communities. “The Attorney General’s Office is committed to ensuring that the marijuana legalization law is […]
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Pot notes: Everything but the labs
THE STATE CANNABIS Control Commission approved seven more provisional licenses for recreational marijuana, bringing the total to 19 retail stores, cultivation facilities, and manufacturers. But the commission still has not approved any license for a testing laboratory and, by law, nothing can be sold without the approval of a licensed lab. Shawn Collins, executive director […]
Posted inPolitics
Another twist for legal pot
THE STATE’S MARIJUANA oversight board wants to put a halt to communities demanding payments from legal pot businesses in excess of what’s allowed by law but the panel’s decision could move the opening of retail stores even further back. The Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday put off for two weeks a proposal by Commissioner Shaleen […]
Posted inEconomy
State’s first pot store to open in Leicester
THE STATE’S CANNABIS Control Commission on Monday awarded its first license for a retail recreational pot store to a medical marijuana facility in Leicester, where sales will probably start sometime in September. The board unanimously approved the provisional license for Cultivate Holdings to add retail pot to the medical marijuana the company sells at the […]
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Massachusetts issues first marijuana license
THE CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSION marked a historic milestone Thursday with the approval of the first license for recreational pot in the state – the first ever granted east of the Mississippi River, in fact – to a cultivation facility in Milford. “We’ll go back to the office and celebrate for about five minutes,” Chairman Steven […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Pot board red-faced over green light
THE STATE BOARD overseeing the nascent pot industry in Massachusetts had been running smoothly in its first months of operation. But as the most critical aspect of its mission began – giving thumbs up or down to applications for marijuana sales and cultivation – the commission hit a glitch when 10 suitors for licenses were […]
Posted inEconomy
Pot board high on Worcester
THE STATE BOARD regulating the legal marijuana industry will set up permanent shop in Worcester as its headquarters with a satellite office in Boston. The five-member Cannabis Control Commission on Tuesday voted unanimously to seek a 13,000-square foot office space in the state’s second largest city and find a smaller, 5,000-square foot office in the […]