LOOKING TO Rob Gronkoswki for well-considered medical advice feels a bit like turning to Curt Schilling for tips on video game startups. They both excelled as pro athletes, but it’s not clear why anyone should think their gifts on the field translate to brilliant insight in other endeavors. But no matter. Gronk, the devil-may-care party boy […]
Marijuana
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Commissioner abstains on most pot license votes
THE MOST IMPORTANT ROLE for the state’s five-member Cannabis Control Commission is, arguably, its mandate to vote on granting recreational marijuana licenses, without which there can be no growing, manufacturing, or, most importantly, sales. But Commissioner Shaleen Title has not cast a vote on the vast majority of final licenses issued by the board, the […]
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A pot research bonanza
Massachusetts, despite its Puritan “blue laws” past, showed more of its blue state liberal leanings through a 2016 ballot question that made it one of 10 states to legalize recreational marijuana. Now, given its status as a world center of biomedical research, it seems only fitting for the state to also become a mecca of […]
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In pot chase, social equity meets economic reality
THE MESSAGES BEGAN ARRIVING last year, shortly after the Cannabis Control Commission released the names of people eligible for economic empowerment status, which would allow them to cut to the front of the line if and when they sought licenses to open marijuana businesses. “I am reaching out to everyone on the cannabis control list to […]
Posted inThe Download
Boston stumbles on pot shop ordinance
A cannabis shop buffer zone of half a mile approved by Mayor Martin Walsh recently created mayhem at a Zoning Board of Appeal meeting. Why? Because Walsh’s administration approved two cannabis shops less than a half a mile apart, in potential violation of its own city ordinance. From the get-go, city officials said marijuana companies […]
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Boston stumbles on pot shop ordinance
A CANNABIS SHOP BUFFER ZONE of half a mile approved by Mayor Martin Walsh recently created mayhem at a Zoning Board of Appeal meeting. Why? Because Walsh’s administration approved two cannabis shops less than a half a mile apart, in potential violation of its own city ordinance. From the get-go, city officials said marijuana companies […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Was ‘Reefer Madness’ right?
IN THE MID-1930s, a church group financed a film intended to frighten parents about the dangers their children face from marijuana. “Reefer Madness” portrayed cannabis as a powerful drug capable of sending users into psychotic, violent rages. The movie has become something of a cult classic in recent decades, mocked as a laughable example of anti-drug […]
Posted inOpinion
Cannabis deliveries would solve a lot of problems
THE CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSION’S impending listening sessions on cannabis delivery are a welcome sign of progress for adult use in Massachusetts. While legal cannabis products have been available for purchase for a few months, we remain well short of making it truly accessible. Policymakers have stressed that they want to get it right, and that’s […]
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Pot shop openings gaining steam
MORE THAN TWO YEARS after voters decided to legalize non-medical cannabis, Massachusetts granted New England Treatment Access in Brookline a recreational marijuana license on Thursday. The business will be the first recreational pot shop that will be open to buyers in the Greater Boston area, and police are expecting mayhem when the store opens up […]
Posted inOpinion
A 1% solution to promote cannabis diversity
ALMOST A DOZEN adult-use cannabis stores have opened in Massachusetts, and so far there is at least one clear pattern: Not a single retail outlet is owned by empowerment candidates and none are likely to be opened anytime soon. The fundamental obstacle is access to capital, but there is a way to tap a significant […]