As if the Trump administration didn’t have enough conflagrations to put out, it has now handed fire extinguishers to US attorneys and told them blast away with the full weight of federal law at even the faintest ember glow at the end of a marijuana joint. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s taciturn attorney general, may have recused […]
Marijuana
Posted inCriminal Justice
Sessions turns back pot clock
ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS has thrown the emerging legal marijuana industry into turmoil by rescinding an Obama-era memorandum that ordered the Justice Department to ignore enforcing federal drug laws in states that allowed adult use. Sessions, a longtime opponent of legalizing marijuana who often tied it to the opioid crisis, issued a new guidance that […]
Posted inThe Download
Pot rollout tentative in Cali
Retail pot stores began opening across California on New Year’s Day, at least six months ahead of Massachusetts even though voters in both states approved the legalization of recreational marijuana at the same time. The California rollout was a bit tentative. To sell cannabis commercially in California, marijuana businesses need a state license and local approval. […]
Posted inEconomy
Open bar
WHEN VOTERS PASSED the referendum legalizing adult use of marijuana, most people focused on the ability to use pot in their own homes or with friends. State regulators, however, are being urged to set their sights on another place to get high – the neighborhood pot bar. At a meeting of the state’s Cannabis Control […]
Posted inUncategorized
Pot board finds a home
SALT AND PEPPER. Hammer and nail. Bacon and eggs. Crimson and clover. Yin and yang. Pot and gambling. All things that apparently go together in many people’s minds. The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has finally landed some temporary office space and it is in the same building – actually, on the same floor – as […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Rosenberg: We’re not done with pot
SENATE PRESIDENT STANLEY ROSENBERG said the recreational marijuana law will continue to evolve and he foresees the Legislature making several changes a year. “We created a joint standing committee because we know additional questions are going to come back to us over time and we know that because that’s what happened in Colorado,” Rosenberg said […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Pot board wants $5 million more
THE STATE’S CANNABIS Control Commission has asked lawmakers for another $5.2 million for the remainder of the fiscal year on top of the $2.3 million that was already set aside to get the regulatory structure for legal marijuana up and running in time for the launch target of July 1 for retail pot shops to […]
Posted inPolitics
Amazon vs. marijuana
WHEN A CHICOPEE woman won the record-setting Powerball jackpot in August, lost in the cacophony were the two $1 million winning tickets sold in Dorchester and Watertown. Despite the disappointment of not hitting the big one, neither winner said “no, thanks” to the lesser sums. But that appears to be what’s happening in Massachusetts with […]
Posted inPolitics
New pot czar is known quantity
A TOP AIDE to state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg who fashioned the regulatory infrastructure for the nascent retail marijuana business when that office was set to oversee the emerging industry has been tapped as the state’s executive director of the new commission in charge of legal pot. Assistant Treasurer Shawn Collins, 31, was unanimously approved by […]
Posted inPolitics
Islanders want their pot, too
THE “LISTENING TOUR” by the board charged with regulating the state’s emerging marijuana industry landed on Martha’s Vineyard Tuesday, where the two members heard pleas from pro-pot advocates to help their island as well as Nantucket steer clear of the federal obstacles no other communities in Massachusetts face. About 70 people crowded into the West […]