Latest news with #CannabisControlCommission
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Massachusetts lawmakers poised to approve major cannabis bill on Wednesday
An expansive bill to restructure the embattled Cannabis Control Commission, regulate and tax hemp-based drinks and gummies that have proliferated in convenience stores, and open the door to retail-only medical marijuana businesses will go before the House of Representatives on Wednesday, having now cleared two committees without opposition. Frustration with the CCC's slow pace of regulatory changes, headline-grabbing internal conflicts and a plea from the inspector general for the Legislature to intervene at the 'rudderless agency' and revisit its 'unclear and self-contradictory' 2017 enabling statute combined last summer to get lawmakers thinking more seriously about a response. The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday reported out the bill (H 4160) that last week unanimously cleared the Cannabis Policy Committee, and officials said Ways and Means made no substantive changes. 'This legislation not only makes needed changes to the structure of the Cannabis Control Commission, it's also representative of the House's commitment to ensuring that the cannabis industry in Massachusetts is regulated in a manner that bolsters economic opportunity, especially for communities that were disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of marijuana,' House Speaker Ronald Mariano said. 'I look forward to hearing more from my colleagues in the House about this issue, and to ultimately voting to pass these critical reforms tomorrow.' Created by the Legislature in 2017 after voters legalized non-medical marijuana in 2016, the CCC is a five-commissioner independent body, with appointments made singularly and jointly by the governor, attorney general and treasurer, with the treasurer selecting the chair. Under the bill the House will debate Wednesday, the CCC would be consolidated entirely under the governor. The state's executive would appoint all three commissioners and select one of them to serve as chair (who would be the only full-time commissioner). The CCC would be 'subject to the laws applicable to agencies under the control of the governor.' The chair would serve conterminously with the governor, according to the bill, and the other two commissioners would each serve terms of four years, or until a successor is appointed. The bill extends beyond cannabis products that are already under the CCC's purview to address intoxicating hemp-based products that largely fall into a gray area of the law and between the regulatory cracks. Since hemp-based gummies, energy shot-like drink bottles and seltzers became ubiquitous across Massachusetts convenience store checkout counters and social media feeds in recent years, lawmakers and regulators have flagged the need to straighten out what is and is not cannabis, and how it should all be regulated. The committee bill would ban the sale of hemp-based beverages and consumable CBD products unless the product is registered with the CCC and complies with regulations that the CCC would be required to promulgate to deal with things like product testing, labeling requirements and more. Those products would also be subject to a new tax (5.35% for CBD consumables and $4.05 per gallon for hemp-based drinks). The bill adjusts the existing cap on retail licenses any one operator can hold. The current limit is three, but some business owners have said the cap prevents them from selling their businesses. Under the bill advancing towards the House, the cap on retail licenses would be raised to six over a three-year period (increasing first to four, a year later to five and finally to six), and the existing three-license caps would remain in place for cultivation and manufacturing. Opponents, including Equitable Opportunities Now and the Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council, have warned that multistate operators are able to spend heavily to increase their market share and that allowing them to grow even more will hurt small and equity-owned businesses. 'This bill is a gift to corporate cannabis and a death sentence for local and social equity businesses. How is someone with one, two, or three stores supposed to compete with someone buying for six or more stores?' EON co-founder Shanel Lindsay said. 'It will undermine everything Massachusetts has worked so hard to achieve in building the most equitable cannabis industry in the country.' The bill also contemplates the possibility that Massachusetts might want to cap the total number of licenses granted by the CCC. It would require the CCC to conduct an economic analysis of the entire cannabis industry and gives the CCC the power to limit the total number of licenses issued based on that study. EON pointed to a number of the bill's provisions that it views as positive steps for the industry, including medical vertical deintegration and increasing the daily purchase limit to two ounces, but the group said it would prefer no legislative action to 'a flawed bill that gives control of the market and policymaking to the largest, most profitable businesses.' 'We appreciate action on medical deintegration, enforcing ownership limits, and other overdue reforms — but handing more power to big cannabis and gutting the CCC's independence are poison pills,' EON Deputy Director Kevin Gilnack said. 'Most cannabis businesses would be better off if the Legislature did nothing.' On the medical side of the legal marijuana world, the bill eliminates the requirement that medical marijuana businesses be 'vertically integrated,' meaning they must grow and process all the marijuana they sell. Patients and advocates have been calling for that change for years, saying the medical-only options have become scarce across Massachusetts since cannabis was legalized for non-medical use. It includes language that would let the CCC 'establish and provide for issuance of additional types or classes of licenses to operate medical use of marijuana-related businesses' and would change the standard terminology in state law from 'medical marijuana treatment center' to 'medical marijuana establishment.' Medical marijuana retail licenses would be available exclusively to social equity applicants for at least the first three years they are available. The House Ways and Means Committee advanced the bill with 23 Democrats in support, no committee members opposed, eight Republicans electing to essentially abstain from the committee vote, and five Boston Democrats taking no action on the committee poll. Asked about the Cannabis Policy Committee's bill last week, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz said he was 'hopeful to do it soon' and that the House would 'make it a priority to kind of get through it as quickly as we can.' Top Senate Democrats haven't expressed the same sense of urgency on the CCC. 'I will talk to senators and the chair of the Cannabis Committee, and we'll see. We'll take a look at whatever the House sends over, of course,' Senate President Karen Spilka said Thursday. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House poised to approve major cannabis bill on Wednesday
BOSTON (SHNS) – An expansive bill to restructure the embattled Cannabis Control Commission, regulate and tax hemp-based drinks and gummies that have proliferated in convenience stores, and open the door to retail-only medical marijuana businesses will go before the House of Representatives on Wednesday, having now cleared two committees without opposition. Frustration with the CCC's slow pace of regulatory changes, headline-grabbing internal conflicts and a plea from the inspector general for the Legislature to intervene at the 'rudderless agency' and revisit its 'unclear and self-contradictory' 2017 enabling statute combined last summer to get lawmakers thinking more seriously about a response. The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday reported out the bill (H 4160) that last week unanimously cleared the Cannabis Policy Committee, and officials said Ways and Means made no substantive changes. 'This legislation not only makes needed changes to the structure of the Cannabis Control Commission, it's also representative of the House's commitment to ensuring that the cannabis industry in Massachusetts is regulated in a manner that bolsters economic opportunity, especially for communities that were disproportionately impacted by the criminalization of marijuana,' House Speaker Ronald Mariano said. 'I look forward to hearing more from my colleagues in the House about this issue, and to ultimately voting to pass these critical reforms tomorrow.' Created by the Legislature in 2017 after voters legalized non-medical marijuana in 2016, the CCC is a five-commissioner independent body, with appointments made singularly and jointly by the governor, attorney general and treasurer, with the treasurer selecting the chair. Under the bill the House will debate Wednesday, the CCC would be consolidated entirely under the governor. The state's executive would appoint all three commissioners and select one of them to serve as chair (who would be the only full-time commissioner). The CCC would be 'subject to the laws applicable to agencies under the control of the governor.' The chair would serve conterminously with the governor, according to the bill, and the other two commissioners would each serve terms of four years, or until a successor is appointed. The bill extends beyond cannabis products that are already under the CCC's purview to address intoxicating hemp-based products that largely fall into a gray area of the law and between the regulatory cracks. Since hemp-based gummies, energy shot-like drink bottles and seltzers became ubiquitous across Massachusetts convenience store checkout counters and social media feeds in recent years, lawmakers and regulators have flagged the need to straighten out what is and is not cannabis, and how it should all be regulated. The committee bill would ban the sale of hemp-based beverages and consumable CBD products unless the product is registered with the CCC and complies with regulations that the CCC would be required to promulgate to deal with things like product testing, labeling requirements and more. Those products would also be subject to a new tax (5.35% for CBD consumables and $4.05 per gallon for hemp-based drinks). The bill adjusts the existing cap on retail licenses any one operator can hold. The current limit is three, but some business owners have said the cap prevents them from selling their businesses. Under the bill advancing towards the House, the cap on retail licenses would be raised to six over a three-year period (increasing first to four, a year later to five and finally to six), and the existing three-license caps would remain in place for cultivation and manufacturing. Opponents, including Equitable Opportunities Now and the Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council, have warned that multistate operators are able to spend heavily to increase their market share and that allowing them to grow even more will hurt small and equity-owned businesses. 'This bill is a gift to corporate cannabis and a death sentence for local and social equity businesses. How is someone with one, two, or three stores supposed to compete with someone buying for six or more stores?' EON co-founder Shanel Lindsay said. 'It will undermine everything Massachusetts has worked so hard to achieve in building the most equitable cannabis industry in the country.' The bill also contemplates the possibility that Massachusetts might want to cap the total number of licenses granted by the CCC. It would require the CCC to conduct an economic analysis of the entire cannabis industry and gives the CCC the power to limit the total number of licenses issued based on that study. EON pointed to a number of the bill's provisions that it views as positive steps for the industry, including medical vertical deintegration and increasing the daily purchase limit to two ounces, but the group said it would prefer no legislative action to 'a flawed bill that gives control of the market and policymaking to the largest, most profitable businesses.' 'We appreciate action on medical deintegration, enforcing ownership limits, and other overdue reforms — but handing more power to big cannabis and gutting the CCC's independence are poison pills,' EON Deputy Director Kevin Gilnack said. 'Most cannabis businesses would be better off if the Legislature did nothing.' On the medical side of the legal marijuana world, the bill eliminates the requirement that medical marijuana businesses be 'vertically integrated,' meaning they must grow and process all the marijuana they sell. Patients and advocates have been calling for that change for years, saying the medical-only options have become scarce across Massachusetts since cannabis was legalized for non-medical use. It includes language that would let the CCC 'establish and provide for issuance of additional types or classes of licenses to operate medical use of marijuana-related businesses' and would change the standard terminology in state law from 'medical marijuana treatment center' to 'medical marijuana establishment.' Medical marijuana retail licenses would be available exclusively to social equity applicants for at least the first three years they are available. The House Ways and Means Committee advanced the bill with 23 Democrats in support, no committee members opposed, eight Republicans electing to essentially abstain from the committee vote, and five Boston Democrats taking no action on the committee poll. Asked about the Cannabis Policy Committee's bill last week, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz said he was 'hopeful to do it soon' and that the House would 'make it a priority to kind of get through it as quickly as we can.' Top Senate Democrats haven't expressed the same sense of urgency on the CCC. 'I will talk to senators and the chair of the Cannabis Committee, and we'll see. We'll take a look at whatever the House sends over, of course,' Senate President Karen Spilka said Thursday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mass. legislators push for more forceful action on intoxicating hemp-derived products
A whole range of hemp products including flower and pre-rolls at Healing Hemp, a hemp store in Somerville. (Photo by Bhaamati Borkhetaria/CommonWealth Beacon) BOSTON — State lawmakers session are looking to take hemp-derived intoxicating products – which contain the same active ingredient as cannabis but are not regulated the same way – off shelves in gas stations, convenience stores, and vape shops across Massachusetts. The hemp products, which are generally edible and intoxicating like gummies or candies, have already been declared illegal in the state by several state agencies but continue to pop up in certain stores outside of dispensaries. Most of these products come from out of state. Some business owners who sell the intoxicating products argue that the state agencies haven't settled the matter because hemp is legal federally – through a loophole in the 2018 federal farm bill which legalized hemp. Hemp and cannabis are the same plant, but this law removed hemp from the classification of cannabis as long as it contains less than 0.3% THC – the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis – by volume. Four bills have been filed on Beacon Hill to bring any consumable hemp-derived products like edibles, concentrates, tinctures, oils, and capsules, under the purview of the Cannabis Control Commission or give local boards of health oversight to remove these products from stores other than dispensaries. Hemp products that are sold in dispensaries like CBD gummies are already regulated by the commission. These bills would specifically target intoxicating products being sold outside of dispensaries. '[Hemp products] face no additional tax impositions, no host community agreements, no recall process, no FDA testing requirements, no age limits,' said Rep. Dawne Shand, a Newburyport Democrat, at a Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy hearing on Wednesday. 'The intoxicating hemp industry makes a mockery of cannabis laws.' Shand, a member of the committee, is pushing a bill that would prohibit intoxicating hemp products from being sold without an endorsement from the Cannabis Control Commission. Rep. Michael Soter, a Republican from Bellingham, has two bills that would address hemp-derived products. The fourth bill, presented by James C. Arena-DeRosa, imposes an excise tax on the sale of hemp products in addition to the existing state tax and directs that money to be used to empower local health board to remove certain hemp products from stores. 'I think [hemp] should be up to the control of the Cannabis Control Commission,' said Soter, in an interview before the hearing. 'You've got people who are following the rules … and then you've got some things that are kind of being sold in convenience stores and gas stations. Some of this stuff is really geared towards kids, and that's not a good thing.' Soter emphasized that he wants to be very careful in creating legislation to deal with hemp products because he doesn't want to inadvertently harm businesses that sell non-intoxicating hemp products, like oils or creams that contain CBD and are meant to be applied topically. 'What scares me about regulating this is that sometimes we over-regulate and we put more problems on an industry,' said Soter. 'We've got to walk that fine line. I want to keep us on a straight path of going after what we need to go after and what we don't need to go after and make sure when we do this regulation, we do it correctly.' At the hearing, Jesse Alderman, a lawyer who specializes in cannabis, and Peter Gallagher, the CEO of the cannabis company INSA, brought a bag of intoxicating hemp products that they said they collected from over 20 different gas stations, convenience stores, and vape shops. Many of these products had high concentrations of THC. One of the packages contained 10,000 milligrams of THC. For cannabis, the state allows only 100 milligrams per package and 5 milligrams per serving. They passed the bag around to the legislators, who commented that the products smelled like cannabis. 'If it smells like it, looks like it, I think it is it,' said Adam Gomez, the Senate chair of the cannabis committee. Gallagher said that they tested these products and that over 90% of them would qualify as cannabis products because they contained well over 0.3% of THC. About a third of the products wouldn't have passed the regulatory testing required on cannabis products because of the presence of microbes, pesticides, heavy metals, and residual solvents. None of the establishments where he purchased the hemp products checked for identification to enforce age limits, he added. 'This really looks a lot like what we saw in 2019 with the vape crisis where illegal, unregulated, untested vape cartridges [were] being sold with cutting agents in them and [that] ultimately led to people harming themselves,' said Gallagher. 'A lot of consumers today don't understand that what's being purchased in these gas stations, convenience stores, vape shops or even online is different and potentially more damaging than what you're able to purchase in the regulated dispensaries.' In Massachusetts, several state agencies issued guidance in May 2024 that said that these types of products are illegal. The Alcohol Beverage Control Commission warned its licensees that their licenses could be suspended or revoked if they were caught selling hemp-derived products. Soon after, many of these products were taken out of liquor stores, smoke shops, restaurants, and many other places that were selling them. But the crackdown on these products has remained uneven because the enforcement on these products has largely remained in the hands of local boards of health, which are already overburdened and don't have the resources to go from store to store. Last session, legislators decided not to intervene on the issue of hemp-derived products, but representatives of local boards of health said that they are unable to get these products out of stores and out of the hands of children without more resources allocated to them for this issue. John Nathan, the CEO of a company called Bay State Extracts, which produces hemp-derived compounds like CBD, said that the legislation proposed at the hearing would be redundant because these products – as per the guidance from the state agencies – are already illegal. He also expressed concern about the Cannabis Control Commission's ability to actually regulate hemp products effectively. The commission has had internal conflict, allegations of misconduct, and a slow-moving regulatory process that has frustrated many within the cannabis industry. 'The CCC has barely enforced their existing hemp regulations and guidance is as it stands,' said Nathan. 'The cannabis industry is in turmoil. There's over saturation, struggles for bill payments, layoffs, competitive and low-paying job market, what seems like monthly closures. I feel effort should be directed towards supporting the existing market and coordinating to fix these issues, rather than disrupting the supply chain in an effort to make something already illegal illegal again.' This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Massachusetts marijuana businesses set sales record over Patriots' Day weekend
CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) – Marijuana business sales in Massachusetts skyrocketed over the Patriots' Day long weekend, which included the annual 4/20 cannabis holiday. How to prevent energy bills from spiking as the weather gets warmer According to the Cannabis Control Commission, operations statewide grossed nearly $15 million between April 19 and 21. April 19 was the highest-grossing day of the 2025 weekend at $6.3 million, which is on par with the same date in 2024. On April 21, the day of the 129th Boston Marathon, retailers saw similar sales as the previous year. 'The Commission recognizes the importance of the 4/20 cannabis holiday for our retailers and delivery businesses,' Acting Chair Bruce Stebbins said. 'This year was unique with 4/20 falling on Easter and being part of a longer Patriots' Day holiday weekend. Collectively, we were happy to see a new gross sales record for the Patriots' Day holiday weekend and congratulate our licensees for making the most out of the sales opportunities.' The Cannabis Control Commission said that the Massachusetts adult-use cannabis industry has grossed over $7.7 billion since 2018, generating more than $1.4 billion in state and local tax revenue. This adult-use tax revenue is used to support various programs statewide, such as addiction recovery services, community college programming, and re-entry grants. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Boston Globe
18-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
A candidate for mayor in Somerville is hosting a cannabis-infused fundraiser
He believes he is the first candidate for public office in Massachusetts to do so. Hopefully, he said, he isn't the last. 'There's a stigma certainly around smoking cannabis, but also edibles. There's this idea that anyone who does it is unserious, unmotivated, not a leader,' Burnley said. 'These are really outdated ideas, and I think it's important for us to show that just because you smoke marijuana or take an edible, it doesn't mean that you lack any of the intelligence or determination necessary to help lead communities.' The event is also designed to make a statement about what he believes is the slow pace of the state's rollout of licensed social consumption sites, which have yet to open several years after legal cannabis became the law of the land. Related : Advertisement He wants the state's Cannabis Control Commission to move more quickly to make licenses for those establishments available, he said. And he wants Somerville officials to prepare for the moment when licenses are available, so the city can be 'first in line' to open a cannabis-friendly café or other venue where people can buy and pop THC snacks or beverages, legally. Advertisement The commission has been drafting regulations for Somerville's Sam Kanter (right), owns a company called Dinner at Mary's, which serves cannabis-infused dishes like Chicken "Pot" Pie at private events. Once regulators allow it, she wants to open a cannabis café. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Even as they operate in a legal gray area, proprietors offering THC-laden meals at private events have become part of the cultural fabric among cannabis users, and aren't all that hard to find. Other events, like Cannabis edibles have also had a role in political fundraising in the past, albeit a lot more quietly, people involved in legalization efforts said, with under-the-radar fundraisers that included food infused with pot. But for a candidate to come out publicly and invite potential voters to THC-laden meal is new for the state, experts said. 'I've never heard of someone doing that before,' said Marc Shepard, co-founder and president of NECANN, which organizes conventions for the cannabis industry. He said he wishes it was more widely accepted, given how widespread a practice it is for political fundraisers to be held in places where alcohol is served. 'It's beyond ridiculous,' Shepard said, 'that nine years later we're having a discussion about the legality or rightness of someone holding an event where cannabis is being served. It flies in the face of what was passed in 2016.' Somerville is no stranger to cannabis-infused events, or to cannabis-event entrepreneurs. Advertisement One is Sam Kanter, who lives in the city and owns companies that host them called High Road Experiences and Dinner at Mary's, and is responsible for the buzz in the items on offer at Sunday's fundraiser. Related : Kanter said her businesses rely on a 'gifting' model. Although she can't sell cannabis products for use on-site, paying guests at events are instead free to help themselves to cannabis products. Regulators mostly leave her alone for now, she said, and she's never had an event get shut down by police. She said she plans to open a yoga studio and café in Somerville where, once regulations allow it, she hopes to operate as a fully licensed social consumption site where she can sell cannabis herself. 'We've been hosting these events for quite some time, and we're really excited to be able to do it in the regulated space. That's the goal,' Kanter said. 'In the meantime we're just trying to show what social consumption can do and ideally make sure that people understand it and want to support it.' While social consumption entrepreneurs in Massachusetts await licenses from regulators, they've found ways to operate in the meantime. The Summit Lounge in Worcester functions as a private club, where members are free to light up or imbibe cannabis in a bar-like setting. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff The Summit Lounge in Worcester is a private cannabis smoking/consumption club, which allows it to operate despite the fact that the state has not yet begun issuing licenses to cannabis cafés. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff What this means for the future of the political fundraiser remains to be seen. Mason Tvert, a cannabis consultant and longtime evangelist for cannabis legalization, said he could see campaigns hosting more THC-laced meals in the future. Cannabis has gained more social acceptance alongside its new ubiquity in the public square, a trend he thinks would continue if and when it is legalized at the federal level. With time, more people of voting age will have grown up in a time when cannabis sales have been legal, and for whom the chance to pop an edible in the company of a local politician is enticing. Advertisement 'As it becomes more legal and more widely accepted, we're sure to see candidates or businesses or organizations take steps to reach out to that audience,' he said. 'There are some people who might be attracted to an open bar. Some might be attracted to a cannabis-infused meal.' Willie Burnley Jr. smoked a joint this week. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Spencer Buell can be reached at
