MASSACHUSETTS MARIJUANA regulators are soliciting public opinion about eliminating one of the costliest rules affecting the medical marijuana market, the requirement that medical retailers grow their own marijuana. But the Cannabis Control Commission does not appear enthusiastic about the idea, which gets into murky legal ground. Current law requires vertical integration of medical marijuana dispensaries, […]
Marijuana
Posted inUncategorized
Marijuana delivery model seen as unworkable
DEVIN ALEXANDER, 26, is the type of entrepreneur state regulators have said they hope will be able to get into the state’s new marijuana home delivery industry. A black man from Quincy, Alexander was arrested for marijuana possession as a high school senior, derailing his plans to enlist in the Air Force. He graduated in […]
Posted inUncategorized
What will happen to 620,000 quarantined marijuana vapes?
WHAT DOES ONE do with 620,000 quarantined marijuana vapes? The answer, according to the state Cannabis Control Commission, is retest and resell them; use the material in another product; or destroy them. That answer was arrived at after the commission took the unusual step of acknowledging that it had no idea what to do with the quarantined vapes. Commissioners asked […]
Posted inUncategorized
Cannabis Control Commission: Regulators, activists, or both?
AT A RECENT VIRTUAL RALLY highlighting the need for more opportunities for black, Latino and other minority groups in the cannabis industry, two of the speakers were members of the commission responsible for regulating marijuana in Massachusetts. Steven Hoffman, the chairman of the Cannabis Control Commission, urged attendees to call US Sens. Ed Markey and […]
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
Drive-up marijuana sales start Monday
DRIVE UP IN YOUR CAR, pay for your marijuana, take the bag, and leave. A global pandemic has moved Massachusetts’ legal marijuana industry into what had previously been the domain of illegal street market sales – curbside pickup, where a customer can buy marijuana without leaving their car. The curbside sales will still have all […]
Posted inEconomy
Marijuana companies beg for state relief money
IT TOOK TWO YEARS from the time Angela Brown applied for a license to sell recreational marijuana to the time she got final approval to open T. Bear’s manufacturing plant in Wareham. On March 24, one day before she planned to open for sales, T. Bear – and the entire recreational marijuana industry – was […]
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
Judge upholds Baker decision on marijuana
SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE Kenneth Salinger ruled on Thursday that Gov. Charlie Baker’s decision to close recreational marijuana stores as non-essential was constitutional, and not subject to second-guessing by him. But then the judge seemed to second-guess anyway, pointing out that the marijuana businesses that challenged Baker’s decision “convincingly argue” that the governor’s two main reasons […]
Posted inOpinion
Weld parts with Baker on pot sales
MASSACHUSETTS RECENTLY concluded that while adult-use cannabis dispensaries should be closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical cannabis dispensaries can stay open. There are a number of reasons, some relating to public health and some relating to social justice or economic harm, why the Commonwealth might wish to reconsider this distinction between the two types of cannabis […]