Accord Would Give Governor Healey Control Of Downsized Cannabis Control Commission

The current Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission will be dissolved and downsized from five members to three, all to be appointed by the governor, under marijuana industry reform legislation expected to pass both chambers of the Legislature this week.

The compromise (H 5350), which was finalized Monday by the four Democrats on the conference committee that has since January been hashing out differences between the House and Senate bills, would also allow cannabis retailers to hold up to six store licenses, doubling the current cap.

The bill eliminates the requirement that medical marijuana businesses be vertically integrated, meaning they will no longer be required to grow and process all the marijuana they sell. It also raises the amount of marijuana a person can legally possess from one to two ounces.

Negotiators did not go along with the House plan to tackle intoxicating hemp-based products that largely fall into a gray area of the law and between the regulatory cracks. Representatives had voted to ban their sale without a license and to establish a new framework to regulate and tax them, but the conference committee hewed closer to the Senate-backed plan to study the issue further. The compromise bill directs the CCC to make recommendations for regulation.

"This legislation recognizes that our cannabis industry has matured and that our regulatory framework must evolve along with it. The bill strengthens oversight and accountability by restructuring the Cannabis Control Commission, streamlining its leadership, and clarifying roles and responsibilities so the agency can operate more efficiently and transparently," Sen. Adam Gómez, the lead Senate negotiator, said as the conferees signed the agreement at the UMass Center in Springfield. "We also make important improvements to public accountability by creating a new portal for reporting illegal conduct, requiring updated reporting on public health impacts and tax policy, and studying workplace safety standards."

Gómez and lead House negotiator Rep. Daniel Donahue said their branches intend to take up the conference report this week. It cannot be amended.

Frustration with a slow pace of regulatory changes, headline-grabbing internal conflicts at the CCC, and a plea from the inspector general for the Legislature to intervene at the "rudderless agency" combined over the last two years to get lawmakers thinking more seriously about changes for the CCC, an agency created after voters in 2016 approved legal non-medical marijuana.

The CCC has developed a reputation among lawmakers -- who were unanimous last year in voting to reorganize the agency -- as an ineffective regulator and as an organization beset with personnel conflicts and scandals.

From September 2023 until September 2025, Chairwoman Shannon O'Brien was exiled from the commission after Treasurer Deborah Goldberg suspended and then fired her based in part on clashes with the former executive director, who had previously worked for the treasurer. A Superior Court judge ruled last year that Goldberg acted unlawfully, and ordered O'Brien reinstated to her position with back pay. O'Brien's return revealed fresh clashes with Executive Director Travis Ahern, who was hired by other commissioners during O'Brien's absence.

The conference committee bill to be voted on this week will dissolve the existing membership of the CCC as soon as Gov. Maura Healey signs it, if she does. The conference committee attached a preamble declaring the bill "an emergency law," so the compromise language that calls for all existing CCC terms to "terminate on the effective date of this act" would take effect the day it is signed. The conference report gives the governor 30 days to make new appointments.

The CCC roster currently includes O'Brien and commissioners Bruce Stebbins, Kimberly Roy and Carrie Benedon. The CCC has a full business meeting scheduled for 10:15 a.m. Tuesday.

"Regardless of what happens with this new piece of legislation, I am committed to continuing my efforts to make needed changes to the cannabis industry to protect public health and safety and to helps struggling cannabis businesses who are following the law become profitable," O'Brien said in a statement Monday afternoon. "Over the next several weeks we will be shining a bright light on testing fraud in the cannabis industry and making data more transparent which could uncover inversion and possible criminal activity."

Under the compromise announced Monday, all three commissioners would be appointed by the governor and the chairperson would serve coterminously with the governor. One must have a background in social justice, and the other two commissioners must have backgrounds in public health, public safety, social justice, consumer regulations, or the production and distribution of marijuana products. No more than two commissioners could have the same political affiliation, and two commissioners would constitute a quorum.

Cut out of the process are the treasurer and attorney general, who each had an individual appointment and a say in two joint appointments since the CCC launched in 2017.

The bill would designate the CCC chair as the person responsible for personnel and administrative matters at the agency and makes explicit that the executive director is to report directly to the chairperson.

The conference committee report includes sections that seek to arrange a smooth transfer of the CCC's employees, property, work and more from the current iteration (which was statutorily housed in Chapter 10 of the General Laws) to the new version of the commission (which will exist alongside other major commissions in Chapter 6). It specifies that all petitions, requests, investigations and other proceedings appropriately and duly before the current CCC prior to the effective date "shall continue unabated and remain in force."

There is similar language to ensure that the CCC's property, contracts, leases, rules and regulations transfer automatically to the new commissioner. Employees are expected to transfer without interruption of service, seniority, compensation or collective bargaining rights.

The conference committee bill also makes clear that the executive director, Ahern, "shall continue in their role with all the powers and duties authorized in statute or delegated by the commissioners and in place at the time of transfer" until or unless the newly-appointed chair takes other action.

The conference committee bill also addresses a number of cannabis industry issues that don't get the same attention as the CCC drama.

It creates a "delinquent list" for licensees that fail to pay debts to other operators within 60 days, blocking those companies from buying new products or transferring ownership until their debts are cleared. It also gives the CCC the ability to newly allow retailers to advertise sales, discounts and customer loyalty programs inside their stores and via opt-in emails. And restrictions on the sale of cannabis seeds would be lifted with a clarification that seeds do not fall under the state's definition of marijuana.