The Cannabis Regulatory Commission held a public hearing Monday on the long-awaited regulations that the agency hopes to approve later this month, a week before a scheduled legislative oversight hearing.
The public hearing focused on the entire series of regulatory changes. Most notable was the removal of the two-driver rule, which required all cannabis deliveries to be carried out in teams of two for safety reasons. The rules have angered industry officials who say they are unnecessary and costly.
The commission will re-vote in December 2023 to amend the two-driver rule, requiring one driver for delivery vehicles carrying items under $5,000 and one driver for vehicles carrying items valued between $5,000 and up to $10,000. It was decided that two people would be required, but it took less than a year for it to come into effect.
“We've been talking about the two-driver rule since 2020,” Ryan Dominguez, president of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition, said during the hearing. “Now that we've reached the implementation finish line, there are people who feel left behind. These licensees are asking us to go to Congress. When we go to Congress, they say, 'Hey. “Isn't this a change in regulations?” he retorts. Why can't we change this through the CCC?' Our response to them is, we've had good communication with the CCC, the commissioners are showing up…but at the end of the day, we're still not seeing how many of these changes are happening. It means waiting for something to happen. ”
The committee is scheduled to vote on the new regulations on October 22, just one week before Congress holds legislative hearings on October 30 in which industry officials will be invited to testify. be.
Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro criticized state officials for lacking clear leadership and wasting state resources. He called it a “rudderless ship” and told the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy in July that he would put the agency into receivership until Congress changed the law to better define the roles of the committee chair and editor-in-chief. He urged them to pass the bill below. The committee is. In his testimony, Shapiro cited delays in implementing regulatory changes, particularly how long it took the agency to implement changes to the two-driver rule.
David O'Brien, president of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, another cannabis trade association, echoed similar sentiments.
“Frankly from an industry perspective, we feel like we're not getting answers from the committee fast enough, so we feel like we have to go to Congress,” O'Brien said.
Both Mr. Dominguez and Mr. O'Brien's groups have been asked to testify in Congressional hearings.
Dominguez, O'Brien and others emphasized that the industry is changing rapidly and new regulations are needed to meet the needs of consumers and businesses.
Dominguez said the change to allow single-driver cannabis deliveries only applies to deliveries to customers, not deliveries between cannabis facilities. They advocated for the two-driver rule to be abolished in all cases as a matter of regulatory consistency.
Commissioner Kimberly Roy expressed support for changes to the current draft regulations and said she would support any changes the Commission could make before these regulations received final approval. One of the agency's attorneys said it would contact the Secretary of State's office to see if changes could be made within this regulatory cycle without significant delays.
Roy also said the company is open to further changes if necessary.
“We don't feel we should shut down the regulations completely,” Roy told reporters after the public meeting. “We must remain open in some way to accommodate an industry that is still emerging and evolving. We will continue to monitor this fall to ensure our responsiveness and accountability as regulators.” We are also looking ahead to next fall to keep it that way.”
Many who testified at the committee's hearing asked commissioners to extend the period during which only social equity companies can hold delivery licenses. Part of the promise of the exclusivity period was to help social equity companies gain an advantage and make profits, but many believe the two-driver rule prevented such an outcome. states. Many are worried that the exclusivity period will end as soon as these new regulations come into effect.
The Commission plans to review the exclusivity period in the winter of 2024. Otherwise, the exclusivity period will end by April 1, 2025.
“Chairman Hoffman said we were the delivery guinea pigs,” said Chris Febry, co-owner of Doris Delivery, referring to former commissioner Stephen Hoffman. “Thankfully we didn't die during the experiment. We came close to it.”
Febry has been advocating for the two-driver rule to be abolished since 2020.
“In terms of extending the exclusivity period, we hope it's as long as possible,” Febry said. “We need an extension because we almost killed a guinea pig in the experiment. The guinea pig needs time to recover from the damage caused by the two-driver rule.”
Commissioner Nuris Camargo defended how long it took the commission to get to this point.
“I'm not going to apologize for how long the work is going to take or how long it's taken,” Camargo told reporters after the public meeting. “I think we have a responsibility. We're going to continue to do our job here and stay focused on what's important.”
