From the arrest of Sheriff Tompkins, to lab testing catastrophe, to store closures, you don’t need a tinfoil hat to connect the dots
A frequent thought of mine goes something like this: It’s my freaking job to cover cannabis in Massachusetts, and I can barely keep up. So how the hell does anybody else have a chance of staying on top of things?
That’s been especially true these past few months. From the court-ordered return of Shannon O’Brien to the Cannabis Control Commission, to a public health advisory for more than 7,000 products, it’s like following the Trump administration. Nothing but an ongoing parade of lawsuits, shattered dreams, and the occasional battlefield win overshadowed by mayhem.
To further complicate cannabis matters, many if not all of the concurrent crises are related. Some more than others, but the links between various stories are real, even if they aren’t visible to most onlookers and fail to show up in the sensational tabloid coverage of Mass grass by wack prohibitionist evening news hairdos. Unlike them, we know where the dots connect. …
The arrest of Suffolk County Sheriff Tompkins
As Talking Joints Memo was among the first to suggest then confirm after the arrest of Steven Tompkins in August, the unnamed cannabis company at the center of this scandal—the Suffolk County sheriff’s alleged shakedown victim—is none other than Ascend Wellness Holdings, a New York-based multi-state operator with strong Mass ties and a footprint here that includes a flagship store in North Station.
Ascend is a leader on multiple fronts, from statewide sales of its Ozone and Simply Herb lines, to the company’s outside brand partnerships. The MSO is also active on the political front, with a co-founder who has polled and consulted for several notable officials, as well as an active role pushing for controversial legislation to allow any single owner or entity to have six adult-use retail dispensaries (double the current limit of three) and ownership of up to 35% of an unlimited number of dispensaries (currently limited to less than 10%)—plus three medical dispensaries, the ability to deliver medical cannabis to patients, and multiple manufacturing, medical manufacturing, and cultivation licenses.
The push to raise the license cap
In April, proposed dispensary license cap tweaks were the main point of contention during a hearing of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy. Around the same time, the group Equitable Opportunities Now sent a letter to House Speaker Ron Mariano “on behalf of nearly 60 cannabis business owners, social equity applicants, advocates, and community leaders … express[ing] deep concern and disappointment over proposals to weaken Massachusetts’ cannabis license ownership limits—one of the most important safeguards for equitable industry participation.”
Following the hearing, members of the House of Representatives ignored those pleas and caved to the predominately large out-of-state forces pushing for cap expansion (the bill is still before the state Senate). Those powers include Ascend, which dispatched a small delegation to testify in April. The company’s VP of social equity suggested that raising the cap would enable them to assist more local social equity businesses through investments and training programs, while also helping companies like Ascend find more stability.
Testing lab lawsuits, fraud, and the massive public health advisory
Would you be surprised to learn that products from some of the same cannabis businesses that are itching to raise the license cap—including Ascend—also showed up in a recent massive CCC public health and safety advisory? This first major enforcement action against an Independent Testing Lab (Assured Testing Laboratories) identified 7,183 false Total Yeast and Mold samples, and 544 instances of the lab passing samples after they failed their initial test.
It’s unclear if or how exactly bigger companies that can afford to pay large fines will cheat in the future with increasing CCC scrutiny over lab testing. It’s unlikely to be with Assured, though; the lab had its suspension lifted, but with especially strict (and costly) guardrails put in place. Meanwhile, seemingly intersecting all CCC and testing-related industry scandals, MCR Labs is still suing several other ITLs for alleged “violations” of the state’s cannabis law, “intentional interference with advantageous business relations,” and “unjust enrichment.”
The O’Brien legal melodrama
Back when she was first suspended from her chair position at the CCC by Treasurer Deb Goldberg in September 2023, more than a few industry stakeholders noted that Shannon O’Brien had been one of the few people at the commission willing to hear their complaints about lab testing, and certainly the highest ranking person there with open ears. You mostly have to read between the lines of the 3,000-plus pages produced for public perusal via her lawsuit against Goldberg to see the connection between those concerns and her dismissal, which was recently reversed by a superior court judge. But there are definitely indications that they are connected, making her return to the commission that much more worth watching.
If there’s someone who’s inclined to draw lines between these dots and innumerable others, it’s Grant Smith Ellis. In a recent interview that I did with the curmudgeonly blogger, he said, “I think the CCC is reforming … under incredible pressure from Beacon Hill and from the federal government, especially the [Department of Justice] in Boston. … We’re talking federal crimes before it all comes crashing down. … This is just the beginning. It’s going to be apoplectic.” Literally days later, feds announced the indictment of Tompkins.
Closures and the struggling industry
With dozens of company closures across the commonwealth just this year, including the crater of Ayr Wellness leaving the state and more than 150 employees behind without jobs, it would be naive to suggest that the fate, rate, and state of cannabis stakeholders isn’t the towering industry issue, above, beyond, and perhaps even resulting from those aforementioned. Individuals on every rung of the supply chain are impacted by so much scandal and madness, but none are damaged worse than the workers, owners, and managers who operate between the regulators and consumers daily.
For their sake and the sanity of those of us who simply want to smoke weed and see licensees succeed, I hope this really is all interwoven, and that the recent positive momentum at the commission hits the connecting node.
