Analysis of “112 public comments submitted to the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy … reveals overwhelming opposition to proposals that would change license ownership limits.”
In early June, the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill that could majorly impact various aspects of the commonwealth’s cannabis industry—from the structure of the Cannabis Control Commission, to the fate of licensees that fail to pay their invoices. One of the most contested aspects of the measure involves increasing the number of licenses that one owner can hold, which detractors contend would facilitate an unfair increase in market share for large companies.
With the aforementioned Act Modernizing the Commonwealth’s Cannabis Laws currently before the Massachusetts Senate, critics of its passage used the leadup to a hearing held by the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy this week to bolster their stance. The opposition has been led by the group Equitable Opportunities Now (EON) and its Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council (MCEC) spinoff, which together analyzed the prior hearings held by the committee in an effort to juxtapose the testimonies legislators heard with the bill they ultimately produced.
“The Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy April 9 hearing focused on eight bills to change cannabis ownership limits and a selection of other bills,” the EON report notes. “While both sides were pretty evenly matched at the hearing with 10 speakers in favor and 11 opposed, five social equity business leaders spoke in opposition compared to just one who spoke in favor and the overwhelming majority of written comments were in opposition by a more than 5:1 ratio.”
The analysis included a “review of 112 public comments submitted” to the joint committee, which EON argues “reveals overwhelming opposition to proposals that would change Massachusetts’ cannabis license ownership limits.”
“Local, independent small-business leaders know that expanding market share for the largest operators undermines the promise of legalization for the rest of the industry,” Equitable Opportunities Now (EON) Co-Founder and Executive Director Shanel Lindsay said in a statement. “We hope the Senate hears the voices of those it set out to empower.”
In its report, EON calls attention to how “the omnibus cannabis bill … would allow the largest, most profitable businesses to have: Six adult use retail dispensaries (double the current limit of 3); Ownership of up to 35% of an unlimited number of dispensaries (currently limited to less than 10%); Three medical dispensaries; Ability to deliver medical cannabis to patients; Three adult use manufacturing licenses; Three medical manufacturing licenses; Three adult use cultivation licenses; Three medical cultivation licenses.”
“Entrepreneurs with the fewest resources took time away from running their businesses to make their voices heard, and they almost unanimously oppose changes to ownership limits,” EON Deputy Director Kevin Gilnack said. “Unfortunately, the voices of the biggest, most politically connected businesses and their lobbyists drowned out local small businesses.”
Pure Oasis Owner Kobie Evans, an MCEC founding member, added in the EON statement: “Massachusetts made a promise to build a cannabis industry rooted in equity, competition, and community empowerment. … Removing ownership limits now would break that promise and reward those who already hold the most power, at the expense of equity entrepreneurs and local businesses that are just beginning to take root.”
Cap expansion proponents say the industry is in an impossibly tough place, and that companies need the option of an exit plan via selling to a larger company that’s looking to expand its footprint in the state.
For their part, EON and MCEC members also submitted testimony in support of the following bills, the first two of which the group wrote with legislative allies: An Act delivering a fair share of cannabis revenue to communities harmed by the war on drugs (H. 184 and S. 87 sponsored by Rep. Chynah Tyler and Sen. Liz Miranda); An Act expanding access to legal, regulated cannabis delivery (H. 145 and S. 89 sponsored by Rep. Mike Connolly and Sen. Liz Miranda); An Act to remove HCA real estate barriers to equitable participation in the cannabis industry (H. 185 sponsored by Rep. Chynah Tyler); An Act prohibiting employment discrimination based on legal use of cannabis (S. 98 sponsored by Sen. Jacob R. Oliveira); An Act relative to cannabis use by first responders (S.76 sponsored by Sen. Julian Cyr).
