How Cannabis Control Commission leadership apparently targeted licensees, avoided accountability, and got the chair some disliked fired
The drama between Massachusetts Treasurer Deb Goldberg and Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien has gone on for so long that many have forgotten what it was initially about, if they ever knew at all. Suspecting that even some of the principals in the conflict may not entirely recall its origins, I dove deep into thousands of pages of relevant documents in order to probe what lay beneath these extraordinary events.
Important dates and moments in this saga include: the suspension of O’Brien on Sept. 15, 2023 following a dramatic public meeting that July; her subsequent firing by Goldberg on Sept. 9, 2024; and the Sept. 2, 2025 decision of Suffolk Superior Court Judge Robert Gordon overturning O’Brien’s firing.
Per that firmly worded recent ruling: “The Treasurer’s grounds for misconduct may look like bricks in shape, and edges and surface appearance. But viewed from any perspective other than the Treasurer’s, these bricks are as thin as playing cards. Resting on walls constructed of same, the Treasurer’s case for gross misconduct against O’Brien turns out to be just that: a house of cards.” Judge Gordon added: “the Treasurer’s breathless characterization of O’Brien’s actions as ‘outrageous’ and the like – in the absence of substantial evidence (judge’s emphasis) supporting the same – amount to mere proxies for her legal conclusion.” Goldberg immediately appealed the decision.
Among other documents and interviews conducted on these subjects, this analysis explores records from the closed-door termination hearings held for O’Brien’s case in May and June of 2024. Judge Gordon released about 3,000 pages in total earlier this summer; the administrative record includes full transcripts of all the previously-secret hearings, the aforementioned reports from two investigators contracted through outside CCC counsel (with supervision from the treasurer), and many emails and supporting correspondence.
These files contain too many stories to tell in even the most encyclopedic article. The focus herein is that of the failed case Goldberg built against O’Brien. It is information which was concealed until recently, and I used it to detail the serious challenges the agency faced at the time, circa 2023, and the conflicts between O’Brien and CCC leadership that led to her dismissal.
The first five years of the Cannabis Control Commission
Collins was named the first-ever executive director of the CCC in 2017 by unanimous commission vote. The hiring came on the recommendation of Treasurer Goldberg, with whom Collins had previously worked as assistant treasurer. A social media post by Goldberg to commemorate the appointment offers some insight into his role in that office: “Beginning tomorrow, Shawn Collins won’t be in that back office in 227 as I charge down the hall calling, ‘Shawn oh Shawn where are you?’ as I have so so so many times!”
The five-year anniversary of the CCC in fall of 2022 was celebrated by a triumphant open letter and celebratory quotes in the press. But underneath the cheer, problems were percolating. In one testimony from the O’Brien lawsuit, CCC Commissioner Kimberly Roy said the relationship between Collins and inaugural Chair Steven Hoffman, a business veteran who was previously an executive at management consulting firm Bain & Co., was “cordial” and “professional,” but also marked by “continuous battles… [about] who was running the place and how it was running.”
Hoffman’s perspective on the performance of Collins can be found in the former’s testimony from the aforementioned closed-door hearings. “I thought he was absolutely the right person to be the executive director at the beginning of the Commission,” Hoffman said. “As the Commission got settled and grew, I think that his management challenges got in the way—and his ineptness, in my opinion … Shawn did not like conflict, wanted everybody to like him, and so he wouldn’t make hard decisions about people, about priorities”
Hoffman resigned abruptly in April of 2022, months before his term was to end. His testimony reveals that some time before his departure, he had discussed with then-Commissioner Britte McBride “the possibility of terminating Mr. Collins.”
Shannon O’Brien’s time as chair and trouble in the end of 2022
“Shortly after I became State Treasurer, I helped uncover widespread corruption inside the unpaid check fund.” In testimony during the ordeal with Goldberg, the CCC chair spoke about her prior work in state government that qualified her for the top role at the commission: “Because of poor oversight and a system lacking internal controls, $9 million had been stolen through a scheme led by state employees.” O’Brien recounted uncovering thefts by state lottery employees, and unaccounted liabilities in the Big Dig construction project.
Goldberg appointed O’Brien to chair the CCC on Sept. 1, 2022. In the aforementioned testimony, the latter recalled to the treasurer: “You … told me that you were not happy with how the Commission was being managed. And you indicated that you wanted someone with my skill set to come in and make rapid improvements and change.”
The honeymoon did not last long. In the fall of 2022, the CCC began to attract some less-favorable press. On a Sept. 25, 2022 livestream of “The Young Jurks,” host Mike Crawford revealed that a worker named Lorna McMurrey had died in January earlier that year after falling sick in a Trulieve processing facility. The news had not been public, and none of the active commissioners were aware of the death before Crawford’s report.
Months later, the Boston Globe ran an investigation by Dan Adams on Nov. 15 with the subheadline: “Legalization has kept its basic promises, but festering glitches mean the state is no model.” It quoted former Commissioner Shaleen Title saying, “These no-brainer fixes die without a vote year after year.”
A subsequent federal report addressing the death of McMurrey released on Nov. 17 prompted a wave of national news about the first worker to die in the legal cannabis industry. The resulting case report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded she suffered an anoxic brain death as a result of occupational asthma and “the hazards of ground cannabis dust.”
An employee who worked under Collins during this time told me that the ED and Chief Communications Officer Cedric Sinclair frequently instructed staff that important information be conveyed verbally, saying, “Don’t put anything in writing that you wouldn’t want on the front page of the Boston Globe.” They said that controlling the portrayal of the CCC by the news media was a top priority under Collins. (Sinclair was suspended in December 2023 and then terminated, but filed a claim with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination alleging “discrimination on the basis of race, sex and association with disabled persons, and unlawful retaliation” at the CCC. Eric Casey of the Worcester Business Journal recently reported that Sinclair received a $305,000 settlement from the commission, bringing the total spent on employee disputes at the agency to $1.5 million.)
In the administrative record released by Judge Gordon in the O’Brien case, five different commissioners criticized Collins for his interoffice communication, or lack thereof. Some specifically referenced the McMurrey incident. Comments from the evaluations reveal widespread concerns: “Staff should not be bullying the ED”; “Conflict avoidance has allowed an unhealthy culture to permeate”; “I have found that he sometimes shares comments that increase tension between individuals.”
Regarding Collins’ tenure at the agency, one commissioner wrote: “Staff are becoming increasingly aware of his desire to leave.” Indeed, testimony from the O’Brien court files suggests that Collins openly discussed looking for a new job or starting a business around this time. The ED submitted a letter in February 2023 declaring that he was “pursuing matters related to possible outside employment” with Greener Leaf, a Fall River operator, and recusing himself from all matters related to them.
Complaints about lab testing oversight
In 2023, complaints about the CCC started coming from Massachusetts lawmakers. In response to the many intersecting scandals, state Rep. Dan Donahue, co-chair of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy, filed “An Act relative to data transparency in the cannabis industry” that January, calling for the publication of data from Independent Testing Labs (ITLs). Requests for testing transparency only grew louder and more frequent from there.
That March, MCR Labs President Michael Kahn gave a presentation at NECANN in Boston titled “Cannabis Consumer Confidence: The CCC we have vs. the CCC we need.” At times scathing in tone, Kahn’s talk built on the themes of open data and the need for frequent shelf-testing.
About a week after NECANN 2023, ATOZ Labs in Hopkinton was visited for an unannounced CCC inspection. I discussed these events in a recent phone call with the lab’s founder, Corey Aldoupolis, to hear his recollection of that visit first-hand. He described to me verbal and physical intimidation from the inspectors, who outnumbered his team. Aldoupolis said that he didn’t go public with his account at the time out of fear of retaliation.
A Boston Globe editorial published that month insisted, “Marijuana Consumers deserve to know what they’re smoking (or eating).” But while the calls for increased CCC transparency went unanswered, they were apparently heard by the agency’s enforcement team. Later that same month, an inspection of MCR Labs was alleged to feature similar conduct to what unfolded at ATOZ. A March 26 letter from MCR President Kahn accused the CCC of retaliation for his presentation at NECANN.
I was also active on this front. At the time of these events, Michael Kahn was on the board of my recently-formed Institute of Cannabis Science. And on Dec. 3, 2022, I gave a presentation called “Misinformation in Cannabis Markets” at the Cannabis Science Fair organized by MCR Labs. In a Dec. 18 article that was shared widely at the time, CommonWealth Beacon published my findings showing that mislabeled, even contaminated cannabis was being sold in Massachusetts in dispensaries. After the chair’s suspension, I published an open letter to the treasurer that “Chair O’Brien was one of the most receptive and understanding of the public officials we’ve encountered as we seek to reform cannabis testing, which is why her unexplained suspension concerns us.”
Lab complaint prompted O’Brien to consider terminating Collins
An email to investigators from then-CCC Director of Government Affairs and Policy Matt Giancola recounts that during an April 2023 visit to the CCC’s Boston office, O’Brien mentioned concerns about the letter from MCR Labs. Giancola recalled the chair saying during that meeting “that Commissioners only had the power to hire and fire the Executive Director.”
O’Brien testified that her experience at the CCC changed after that April check-in with the treasurer and her deputy, during which she relayed a comment from then-Senate President Karen Spilka: “With all due respect, you don’t need new legislation, you need a new Executive Director.”
Potential conflicts of interest reported by O’Brien
At one point during her case with the treasurer, O’Brien referred to an incident in which she “filed an appearance of conflict disclosure with [Goldberg]” about Collins in June 2023. It involved a whistleblower complaint against a company whose attorney was friendly with the ED.
O’Brien’s testimony made reference to this incident: “… the gentleman … was a whistle blower, and he had filed a complaint about the fact that Greatest Hits was a retailer that had an illegal cannabis cultivation facility.”
The whistleblower “had attempted to anonymously file a complaint … and had gotten no response from the Investigations Team … I alerted Shawn Collins to this,” O’Brien said in her testimony. She continued: “Shawn Collins, who was and remains good friends with [Greatest Hits stakeholder and lawyer] Nick Adamopoulos, likely had a duty to report any appearance of a conflict for doing anything directly with that licensee. I never received any information, any report from Shawn Collins, giving any indication that he had a close friendship with this person.”
Grant Smith Ellis broke this story on June 20, 2023. Tying Collins to Adamopoulos, among other revelations, the cannabis industry blogger quoted a CCC spokesperson saying, “The Commission received a complaint regarding this licensee and there is now a pending inquiry.” O’Brien texted the story to Collins the next day, with the mention of his connection to Adamopoulos circled.
The O’Brien court documents did not include the actual forms, but email correspondence between the two parties confirms that the treasurer was in possession of multiple appearance of conflict of interest forms filed by O’Brien.
In October 2023, the State Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint regarding Adamopoulos. In an email to Collins, a special investigator with the enforcement division wrote: “We were reviewing a concern regarding your allegedly having a close personal relationship with an attorney whose clients have matters before the Cannabis Control Commission. Relying on what you told us and on any necessary follow-up investigation, we have determined that no further action is required on our part.”*
Family leave and struggles to meet demands
A May 26, 2023 email from Director of Human Resources (who was also acting Chief People Officer at the time) Justin Shrader conveyed to O’Brien that she was the subject of an HR complaint. Other documents reveal that this complaint originated from Commissioner Nurys Camargo and Cedric Sinclair, the comms director, and concerned allegations of racist behavior.
Collins welcomed a child on June 3, and used two of his 12 weeks of paternity leave immediately thereafter. O’Brien testified that Collins told her that he would take the remainder of his allowed leave beginning on Sept. 1. An email from Collins to Shrader, the human resources director, also noted the ED’s plan to take the bulk of his leave beginning in September.
At this time, Collins was serving as the agency’s ED, and had also designated himself the acting general counsel. His taking on these vast responsibilities during such a busy personal time appears to have caused riffs. Commissioner Roy testified that during the summer of 2023, Collins missed seven consecutive weekly one-on-one meetings without notice or explanation, and was absent from other CCC meetings.
Last month, state Auditor Diana DiZoglio released a report that covers the time of these events. Written dryly enough to repulse the curious, it shares details which are crucial to evaluating happenings addressed above. DiZoglio criticizes dual appointments, such as Collins working as ED and GC simultaneously, as inappropriate consolidations of authority.
One of the auditor’s findings specifically notes how during his final year and a half at the agency, Collins held the unitary authority to extend licenses up to 120 days without standards or documentation of the selection process. These “informal/administrative extensions” were “inconsistently administered” by Collins, sometimes in response to a verbal request or upon his own initiative. The CCC also failed to collect prorated fees in many of these circumstances, essentially making for free extensions awarded arbitrarily. Meanwhile, Collins was eyeing opportunities in the private sector.
Another finding concerns slow and improperly-conducted investigations. According to the auditor’s report: “In all five fines assessed by CCC during the audit period, key procedural steps … were significantly delayed.” Delayed investigations “put customers at potential risk … of purchasing and consuming contaminated or expired marijuana products.”
O’Brien faced pressure to replace Collins
The crucial turning point that propelled O’Brien toward her ouster came on July 18, 2023. That day, the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy held a hearing on Beacon Hill during which Sen. Moore, a frequent critic of the CCC, presented a bill to install an internal audit unit within the commission. Michael Kahn of MCR Labs was among those who spoke, telling lawmakers: “CCC staff, in my opinion, retaliated by opening an investigation into our laboratory. The investigation was then cited by the CCC as an excuse to prevent us from engaging with commissioners regarding consumer safety.”
Later that day, there was a contentious meeting between O’Brien and Collins. Part of it was documented by then-Director of Government Affairs and Policy Matt Giancola. His notes from that ensemble, about planning the agenda for the following month’s public meeting, reveal how O’Brien was pressuring Collins about that day’s legislative session, the Greatest Hits situation that Grant Smith Ellis was asking about, and slow investigations. Per Giancola, there was: “Back-and-forth discussion about O’Brien’s demand for an update on Trulieve, which the CCC had been investigating for a year and a half”; and talk about “Whistleblowers, which is a reference to Greatest Hits”; while “MCR Labs and the investigation of alleged retaliation was mentioned more than once.” Giancola wrote that O’Brien said, “I look like an idiot … when you see people talk about us lacking accountability or transparency,” referring to the wrath of Kahn before the legislative committee.
O’Brien dismissed Giancola and continued the discussion in private. She testified that she used this closed-door talk to convey her many complaints about Collins and urge him to announce his resignation.
After this meeting, Collins sent an email to himself, with the subject “Note to File: Meeting with Chair.” It accused O’Brien of attacking Collins for his two weeks of leave in June, and characterized her threat to terminate him for cause as bullying. The email did not mention pressure from hearings, Trulieve, MCR, or undisclosed relationships.
Accusations start to fly—over parental leave
On July 19, 2023, the day after the Beacon Hill hearing and subsequent scrap, O’Brien received a message from a colleague (not Collins) who was on paternity leave saying he was coming into the office that day to complete a report. They exchanged a few more emails which cc’d other staff over the next several hours.
That evening, within 20 minutes of each other, both Shrader, the acting chief people officer, and Collins pounced on O’Brien with suggestions that she was violating this person’s right to parental leave. From Collins: “[counsel] is on approved and protected parental leave … I hope we respect that legal obligation on behalf of the agency.” From Shrader: “it is essential that we don’t make any requests for work-related matters. … it would be inappropriate to intrude on this special bonding period.”
O’Brien responded in an email to Collins that evening: “You and I had discussed that Mike was going to finish one project, so now I feel stupid with Justin [Shrader] implying I am violating a policy.”
The non-announcement prior to the storm
On July 24, 2023, O’Brien was notified of a request for public records from Greatest Hits lawyer Nick Adamopoulos. Adamopoulos requested her communications with the whistleblower, Grant Smith Ellis, and Sen. Moore; and for records of any human resources complaints against the chair. She testified: “I don’t know how he would know there were HR complaints against me, but apparently, he suspected.”
Collins was unreachable by CCC employees. In a later email he wrote: “I was seen in the Emergency Room … Monday (July 24, 2023) for what appears to have been an anxiety attack.”
According to O’Brien’s testimony, she did not know about his hospital visit. Collins missed a scheduled meeting with her that week and did not return calls or communicate with the chair until he arrived on the morning of July 27 for the first of two days of public meetings centered on regulatory writing.
O’Brien testified: “We had already postponed our—our deadlines to complete this [regulatory writing] by a couple of months, and were going to be lucky to get this done by November 9th. So, he’s finally in the office in the moments before the meeting on July 27th when we’re supposed to start doing this writing.”
In their ensuing conversation, the chair suggested that Collins announce his plans to resign. O’Brien testified that he agreed but said that he would also move up the start of his parental leave from September to that Monday, July 31.
At the end of the July 27 public meeting, O’Brien and Collins had the following exchange:
O’Brien: Mr. executive director, do you have any comments you’d like to make?
Collins: No.
O’Brien: Are you making any announcements today?
Collins: No.
O’Brien: When are you going to be making your announcement?
Collins: After I’ve been able to have discussions with my colleagues.
No announcement regarding Collins’ tenure at the CCC was made that day.
O’Brien’s awkward announcement
On the next day, July 28, Collins emailed Shrader “to share my serious concerns with respect to the hostile, toxic, and coercive behavior I have experienced from Commissioner Chairwoman Shannon O’Brien.”
In the communications Collins attributed his panic and health problems to the bullying he alleged from O’Brien. Echoing his performance evaluations from earlier that year, he wrote that the chair had “become increasingly hostile toward me with respect to what she describes as insubordination of others, and her perception of my lack of management.” Collins added: “I now actively question whether it is appropriate for me to use the remaining 10 weeks of parental leave and what consequence I may suffer if I do.”
In a response confirming receipt of the email, Shrader wrote: “I fear that the Chair will try to have me terminated once the new CPO [Chief People Officer] arrives.”
Immediately after his email to Shrader, Collins exchanged some messages in Teams with Commissioner Camargo. She wrote: “if you are making [a] decision or announcements today, you should tell your staff first before it goes public.” Collins responded that he was “still steaming.”
The second of the CCC’s regulatory writing public meetings occurred on July 28, and Collins wasn’t present. O’Brien testified: “I didn’t know what to do. On the 27th, Shawn did not announce anything to the other Commissioners. Here it was, the 28th. I knew I was going to be gone for two—two, three days, and I didn’t know what would happen on Monday.”
After a confusing soliloquy, O’Brien announced: “I had a conversation with the executive director yesterday who again indicated to me that he was about to announce [his departure] yesterday. … He further indicated to me that he planned on taking his family leave beginning on Monday.”
Those watching on the stream and in the gallery in Worcester sat in shock and confusion. No clarification or official announcement regarding the ED’s departure or leave was made, leaving everyone from direct stakeholders to the public, which was now watching the CCC more closely, scratching their heads.
A few hours after O’Brien’s announcement, Acting Chief People Officer Shrader sent an urgent email to Collins’ direct reports, members of the treasurer’s team, and other top Mass officials with the subject, “Notice of Cannabis Control Commission Staff Concerns.” It characterized O’Brien’s utterance in the public meeting as “HIGHLY inappropriate,” concluding, “I implore you to join me in addressing this matter urgently.”
O’Brien met with the treasurer on July 31. The chair recounted in her testimony: “[Goldberg] said that I had lost the confidence of the Commission, and I should have a conversation with my husband.” O’Brien alleged that the only subject of that meeting was Collins and how “Treasurer Goldberg was very upset at how she felt I had harmed Shawn.”
Judge Gordon’s ruling last Tuesday found that “Collins had no right to define the terms of his departure.” Because Collins had given O’Brien “just two business days’ notice that he was moving up the start of his leave date,” her actions in the meeting “cannot be considered ‘outrageous’ or ‘extreme’.” The judge further found that O’Brien violated no laws or regulations.
Collins files a complaint against O’Brien
Also on July 31, Collins emailed a formal complaint to Shrader. The next day, Shrader informed Collins that the CCC’s legal counsel would “search for an outside investigator to review and investigate the allegations you have presented regarding Chairperson Shannon O’Brien.”
An Aug. 31 demand letter from Collins’ lawyer outlined complaints of “Defamation,” “[Family and Medical Leave Act] Discrimination and Retaliation,” “Unlawful Invasion of Privacy,” and “Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress.” Complaining that O’Brien’s “egregious malfeasance,” including “how she belittles, harasses, and defames him,” “rises to the level of gross misconduct,” it also demanded the chair’s removal.
The letter proposed: “We imagine that it is in the Commission’s interest as well to avoid publicizing Chair O’Brien’s misconduct. Should that be the case, we invite a conversation to discuss the terms of Mr. Collins’ separation from the Commission.”
The recent auditor’s report shows what ended up happening. Notably, the CCC failed to follow a documented, transparent process for employee settlement agreements. DiZoglio found special fault with the agency’s use of non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements, and also highlighted a settlement in 2023 for $92,969.75 to be disbursed via payroll. A footnote links to the demand letter from Collins’ attorney, explaining that the settlement was for “defamation,” “interference with rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, retaliation for family medical leave, invasion of privacy, subjection to intentional infliction of emotional distress.” The auditor wrote in her findings: “CCC did not have a designated hearing officer throughout the entire audit period.”
On Nov. 16, 2023, the CCC announced plans for Collins to depart the agency effective Dec. 4.
Investigations shrouded behind “privilege”
Through the CCC’s external counsel, the treasurer oversaw two independently-contracted HR investigations into O’Brien’s conduct. During the closed-door termination hearings, Goldberg’s team consistently argued that communications relevant to the investigations between the investigators, the external counsel, and top CCC staff were protected under the CCC’s attorney-client privilege. These claims were consistently countered by the hearing officer, and later by Judge Gordon.
As a result of those arguments over privilege, the administrative record contains a number of emails with their texts fully redacted. One such sequence, between Enforcement Counsel Andrew Carter, Shrader, the external counsel, and one investigator has the subject lines “Privileged and Confidential.” Although most of the contents are redacted, the sequence concludes with an agreement between Carter and Shrader about how they will describe key events to the investigator.
One investigator examined by O’Brien’s attorney in the termination hearings said that she “found Collins not credible on several matters.” For example, “he had conflated two different conversations” and “undermined his credibility” regarding accusations of interference with parental leave. Despite these findings in the treasurer’s investigation, Collins received his settlement payment and NDA.
O’Brien was suspended on Sept. 15, 2023. On Oct. 4, the treasurer issued a letter to O’Brien outlining reasons for her suspension and announced the plan to hold a closed-door termination hearing. Although the investigation into O’Brien’s interference with parental rights was not yet concluded, the treasurer concluded: “These public statements had the effect of interfering with Mr. Collins’ leave rights.”
Another investigator also testified in the hearings, discussing the “team” that worked on HR investigations at that time. It included the CCC’s external counsel, the then-COO and acting ED, Shrader, and “at various times” Carter. She continued, “Justin Shrader served as the conduit to coordinate interview dates and times with prospective witnesses.”
“Ethics concerns and angry emails”
Carter and Collins exchanged a sequence of redacted emails from Friday, Sept. 1 through Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023 with the subject “Ethics Concerns.” The next day, Collins sent an email to Carter with the subject: “Legal Department – Update and Acting Deputy General Counsel.” Its contents were also redacted as “privileged.” Soon after, Carter was announced as the new acting GC.
An exchange of angry emails between Collins and Roy on Sept. 5 and 6 shows how strongly the latter objected to Carter’s promotion. Collins wrote that Carter would serve as acting deputy general counsel until the commission hired a permanent GC. As Collins was the acting GC at the moment and about to take his leave, this was effectively a two-level promotion of Carter, to a position that would include duties of general counsel.
O’Brien and Collins out
A Friday, Sept. 8, 2023 email from Director of Human Resources Shrader informed commissioners that Collins would begin the remainder of his parental leave that coming Monday, Sept. 11.
Three days later, a letter of suspension from the Office of Treasurer ordered O’Brien to turn in her commission laptop and cell phone. It provided no explanation for the suspension.
With Collins and O’Brien gone, and the pecking order already a debated topic at the CCC, aggravation, confusion, and infighting took hold.
One day before her suspension, on Sept. 13, O’Brien appointed Commissioner Roy to step in if the chair was absent or suspended. A subsequent report from Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro found that this designation was performed lawfully, and that Roy should have remained in that position.
Just five days later, in the Sept. 18 public meeting for regulatory drafting, newly-appointed Acting General Counsel Carter interjected at about the four-minute mark, saying the body couldn’t proceed because “we have no chair.” Quoting an interpretation of the law that was later contested by the IG, Carter told commissioners they could vote on a new acting chair. After arguments that wound up making headlines, Commissioner Ava Callender Concepción was voted into the seat by her colleagues, 3:1, Roy against.
Where are they now?
Collins left the CCC in December 2023 and founded the Homegrown Consulting Group with Nick Adamopoulos, the Greatest Hits lawyer, in March 2024. Their website lists “cannabis & hemp,” “alcohol,” “health care,” and “artificial intelligence” as areas of focus. The group is also registered for lobbying in Massachusetts, and booked its first client, the Commonwealth Beverage Coalition, for “Matters regarding hemp-infused beverages.”
The former ED did not respond to questions for this article. It’s unclear when he began to share his anxieties about O’Brien with Goldberg, his former boss, but extensive evidence suggests the treasurer took his side without conducting due diligence. There was also more in play than just the fight over O’Brien’s position as chair; for example, the settlement that Collins received. The controversial promotion of Carter to acting GC ensured that he would review the ED’s settlement on behalf of the CCC.
In the wake of O’Brien’s suspension and subsequent firing in September 2024, the treasurer has attempted to shape the public narrative about the chair’s departure. Meanwhile, Goldberg’s restrictive closed-door termination hearings and aggressive pursuit of privileges concealed her own involvement in questionable investigations and potential conflicts of interest.
O’Brien’s alleged racist comments have dominated much of the news coverage surrounding this situation these past few years. But the decision of Judge Gordon has a much different focus—namely, the treasurer’s pursuit of her case against the chair despite a lack of substantial evidence. By appealing the ruling, Goldberg has extended her blanket of concealment for now, but there is already enough proof of what actually happened in the public record, and it is likely more is still to be released.
*This information was not included in the original version of this article. We regret the omission. -TJM Editors
This article has not been endorsed by the Board of Directors of the Institute of Cannabis Science.
