MA Cannabis Commission To Host Forum After Meeting Protests

WORCESTER, MA — The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission will seek to calm concerns about its licensing process for applicants from places where residents have been disproportionately hurt by marijuana law enforcement. Recent Commission meetings have been disrupted by protesters who say they've waiting longer than other applicants for licenses to open cannabis businesses.

The Commission will host an applicant forum next week to get feedback on where in the process potential cannabis business owners are having trouble.

The two most recent Commission meetings on Dec. 19 and Jan. 9 have been interrupted by protesters who applied for licenses through social equity programs. One would-be cannabis business owner in a social equity program, Leah Daniels, said at the Dec. 19 meeting that she's been stuck for over 600 days in the approval process.

"[F]eedback from applicants who feel they don’t have enough information about the status of their applications is both heard and appreciated by Commissioners and staff," the Commission said in a press release about the upcoming forum.

The social equity programs are supposed to provide a path to entrepreneurship for people who have either lived in a city with high drug enforcement or who were jailed for a drug offense.

The applicant forum will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. on Jan. 23 at the Commission headquarters at Union Station, 2 Washington Square, Worcester.