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Massachusetts Considers Cannabis Industry Reforms


By Therin Miller | August 5, 2022


According to the Boston Globe, Massachusetts lawmakers passed a bill package that included a crackdown on local fees charged to cannabis businesses. This calls for a 15% cut of cannabis excise taxes to social equity applicants and enterprises, retooling the expungement process for old cannabis convictions, and approving a pilot program for cannabis cafés. The bill goes through Gov. Charlie Baker's (R) hands, who has shown support for the bill's contents.


State Sen. Sonia Chang-Daz (D), a cannabis measure co-sponsor, stated that the bill "would equalize the playing field" in the state's cannabis business.


Shanel Lindsay, a cannabis attorney and co-founder of the advocacy organization Equitable Opportunities Now, stated that, the law is historic.

"Legislators made history today with this critical — and long-overdue — grant and loan fund," she told the Globe. "This law is essential in addressing the ills of prohibition and over-policing. It will pave the way for families of color to develop employment in their communities and pass down generational wealth."

The bill's prohibition on so-called municipal "impact" payments comes more than a year after former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia was convicted of extorting cannabis firms and cheating investors out of more than $200,000. Correia extorted cannabis firms in return for non-opposition letters, which are needed by state law and sometimes compel the company seeking to operate a business to pay an "impact" fee.


According to a survey published in June by the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, Massachusetts communities have received more than $53 million in "impact" fees from cannabis firms since the start of adult-use sales in 2018.


Only 47 of the 88 towns indicated they had collected fees as part of their local agreements. Cannabis firms responded to the researchers' public records