The full Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments over whether or not the state’s Land Court, which oversees zoning, permitting, and housing matters, had the authority to halt a municipal cannabis licensing process.
The city argued both that the Land Court was wrong to overturn the special permit denial and that it also improperly exerted authority over the town when the Land Court allowed an injunction against Taunton.
“With inflation being whatever it is on everything else, that discretionary income basically goes to zero for many people. But we know that cannabis consumers do not just stop consuming cannabis. They look for another alternative resource at a lower price,” said Mazin.
“The War on Drugs did real harm to real people. We now have an opportunity not to fix that…but to acknowledge it and help put resources in place to help people in a real sincere way.”
Theory Wellness, which owns the Hi5 brand of drinks and edibles, claimed that Beacon Compassion, a prospective cannabis retail operator, copied their brand when they named their three proposed storefronts HiFive.
There are about nine New York municipalities along the Massachusetts border, none of which opted out of the new adult use market, unlike the 57% of New York municipalities that voted to bar retail adult use sales.
“There certainly is a trend in the industry overall for lab shopping, or finding a lab that will give you the results that you want. Is there a good incentive for honesty in the industry? No, not directly”
As of March 10, six courier license holders had received commence operation certificates. There are also currently six microbusiness licenses with commence operation orders, though they do not all necessarily have delivery endorsements.
“With my activist background. It’s easy for people to think that I don’t have any business sense. Or there has got to be some smart money entity behind this guy, he’s not capable.”
The state has 141 medical licenses, as of the Feb. 10 CCC meeting, between provisional, final licenses and commence operation orders, all of which require an annual $50,000 fee, creating a $7 Million windfall for the state.
