THE CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSION held a public hearing Monday on long-awaited regulations that the agency hopes to approve later this month, a week before a legislative oversight hearing is scheduled.
The public hearing focused on a whole suite of regulatory changes – the most popular one being the removal of the two-driver rule, which requires all deliveries of cannabis to be handled by teams of two people for security reasons. The rule has angered industry officials, who say it is unnecessary and costly.
The commission voted back in December 2023 to modify the two-driver rule – requiring one driver for delivery vehicles carrying less than $5,000 of product and two drivers for vehicles between $5,000 and the maximum $10,000 – but the implementation has taken just short of a year.
“We’ve been talking about the two-driver rule since 2020,” said Ryan Dominguez, the head of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition at the public hearing. “Now that we’ve gotten to the finish line of implementing, there are people who feel left out. Those licensees are asking us to go to the Legislature. When we go to the Legislature, they respond back to us and say ‘hey, isn’t this a regulatory change? Why can’t we get this changed through the CCC?’ Our response to them is that we have good communications with the CCC, the commissioners are showing up…but at the end of the day we are still waiting for some of these changes to happen.”
The commission is expected to vote on the new regulations on October 22 – just a week before the Legislature is set to hold a legislative hearing on October 30 where industry stakeholders will be invited to testify.
Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro has criticized the state agency for not having clear leadership and for wasting state resources. He called it a “rudderless ship” and urged the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy in July to pass legislation putting the agency under receivership until the Legislature is able to change the law to make it clearer what the roles of the chair and the executive editor of the commission are. In his testimony, Shapiro cited the delays in the implementation of regulatory changes, particularly how long it was taking the agency to implement the two-driver rule change.
David O’Brien, head of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, another group of cannabis operators, echoed the same sentiment.
“Speaking frankly from the industry’s perspective, they feel like they have to go to the Legislature because they feel like they are not getting answers fast enough from the commission,” said O’Brien.
Both Dominguez’s and O’Brien’s groups have been asked to testify at the legislative hearing.
Dominguez, O’Brien, and others emphasized that the industry is changing rapidly and needs new regulations to meet the needs of consumers and operators.
Dominguez said the change to allow marijuana delivery with one driver applies only to customer delivery and not to delivery between marijuana establishments. He and others advocated for the removal of the two-driver rule in all cases as a matter of regulatory consistency.
Commissioner Kimberly Roy expressed support for the change in the current draft regulations and said that she would support it if the commission was able to make that change before these regulations win final approval. One of the agency’s attorneys said he would contact the Secretary of State’s office to find out whether the change would be possible in this regulatory cycle without a significant delay.
Roy also said that she is open to further changes as they are needed.
“I feel that regulations should never fully be closed,” said Roy to the press following the public meeting. “We should always keep them open in some capacity to respond to an industry that’s still emerging and evolving. While keeping an eye on this fall, we’re looking at the next fall, to make sure that we keep being responsive and responsible as regulators.”
Many who testified at the commission’s public hearing pushed the commissioners to extend the period during which only social equity companies can own a delivery license. Part of the promise of the exclusivity period was to help social equity companies get a leg up and become profitable but many say that the two-driver rule has prevented such an outcome. Many are worried that the exclusivity period will run out just as these new regulations come into place.
The commission is set to review the exclusivity period during the winter of 2024. Otherwise, the exclusivity period will expire by April 1, 2025.
“Chairman Hoffman said we were the guinea pigs of delivery,” said Chris Fevry, the co-owner of Dris Delivery, referencing the past chair of the commission, Steven Hoffman. “Thankfully we didn’t die in the experiment. We’ve been close to it.”
Fevry has been advocating for the removal of the two-driver rule since 2020.
“In terms of extending the exclusivity period, I hope it’s as long as possible,” said Fevry. “An extension is necessary because you almost killed the guinea pig in the experiment. The guinea pig needs time to recover from the damage that was done by the two-driver rule.”
Commissioner Nurys Camargo defended how long it’s taken for the commission to get to this point.
“I’m not going to apologize for how long stuff could be taking, or has taken,” said Camargo to the press following the public meeting. “I think we have been responsible. We’re going to continue to do our work here and stay focused on what matters.”
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