Advocates, lawmakers and former regulators urged a legislative committee on Tuesday to provide more oversight of required contracts between municipalities and marijuana businesses, arguing that the system continues to be exploited by some cities and towns, which creates a barrier for small and minority owned businesses to get started in the industry.
The issue of host community agreements has been one fraught with tension as people in the industry have argued for years that negotiations are often one-sided, with the municipalities controlling all the leverage.
The result, according to testimony given to the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy, are agreements that often violate the limits put on how much cities and towns can charge marijuana businesses for traffic, public safety and other impacts they have on a community.
Cannabis community host agreements being exploited by some Massachusetts cities and towns, advocates say
Updated May 12, 2021;
By Matt Murphy | State House News Service
Advocates, lawmakers and former regulators urged a legislative committee on Tuesday to provide more oversight of required contracts between municipalities and marijuana businesses, arguing that the system continues to be exploited by some cities and towns, which creates a barrier for small and minority owned businesses to get started in the industry.
The issue of host community agreements has been one fraught with tension as people in the industry have argued for years that negotiations are often “one-sided,” with the municipalities controlling all the leverage.
Cities and towns have been abusing marijuana money, a gateway drug to corruption
Pot shop licensing shouldnât be an insiderâs game.
By The Editorial BoardUpdated May 11, 2021, 5:39 p.m.
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Plants in a grow room at Ermônt medical marijuana dispensary in Quincy, March 2017.NYT
The jury may still be out on Jasiel Correia, the disgraced former mayor of Fall River, whose trial on marijuana-related corruption charges wrapped up this week. But the verdict on the stateâs new marijuana law is clear. The portions of the law that allow cities and towns to demand payouts from would-be marijuana businesses creates an open invitation for abuse, criminal or otherwise, and the Legislature needs to rein them in.
Massachusetts sets marijuana sales records around 4/20 holiday
Recreational sector surpasses $1.5 billion in total sales
By Dan Adams Globe Staff,Updated May 5, 2021, 10:47 a.m.
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After a slow start, the Massachusetts marijuana industry is starting to pick up momentum.
Recreational cannabis stores in the state have now sold more than $1.5 billion of pot products since their debut in November 2018, according to new data released by the Cannabis Control Commission, passing the milestone just before the traditional â4/20â³ stoner holiday observed on April 20.
The sector also set an all-time single-day sales record on April 17, the Saturday before 4/20, when the roughly 140 pot shops in Massachusetts sold more than $5.04 million worth of cannabis buds, edibles, vapes, and other products. That surpassed the previous high-water mark of nearly $4.77 million set on April 2, the Friday before Easter.
For someone looking to extort marijuana vendors vying for prime business opportunities, becoming a mayor in Massachusetts could be the thing to do.
Absolute power over the local marijuana market, prosecutors now allege, presented itself as a possible cash cow to Jasiel Correia II, who was the youngest person to win the mayorship in the city of Fall River s history.
Correia is charged with 24 federal crimes that include alleged extortion of more than $600,000 from marijuana vendors seeking to set up shop in Fall River between 2016 and 2018 a pay-to-play scheme.
Correia alone possessed the power to issue non-opposition letters and sign host community agreements based upon locally established processes for granting approval to marijuana companies, as state law allows. Non-opposition letters pave the way for a marijuana business to locate in a particular town or city, while host community agreements are required between the business and municipality prior to state licensi