Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker signed legislation on Thursday to amend the state’s marijuana laws, approving the addition of social equity provisions and other changes to cannabis regulations in the Bay State. Baker approved all but one of the provisions of the bill, which is the first overhaul of the state’s cannabis regulations since voters approved recreational pot use in 2016.

Baker said in a statement that he supports “many of the provisions that this bill adopts to improve regulation of the cannabis industry” as well as “the bill’s efforts to expand opportunities for social equity businesses.”

The compromise bill, which was passed by state lawmakers in the early morning hours of August 1, aims to increase diversity in Massachusetts’ cannabis industry by creating a new social equity trust fund. The program will receive 15% of the revenue from the Marijuana Regulation Fund, which is funded by cannabis taxes, application and licensing fees and penalties levied on licensed cannabis companies. Funds in the social equity trust fund will be dedicated to providing grants and loans to prospective cannabis business owners, focusing on communities of color and those harmed by the nation’s failed prohibition policies.

“This law will rebalance the playing field, where so far wealthy corporations have been able buy their way through the licensing process and too many local, small business owners and Black and brown entrepreneurs have been locked out,” said Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, the co-chair of the state legislature’s Cannabis Policy Committee. “The reforms and funding we fought so hard for will be game changers, putting Massachusetts back among the leading states for racial justice in our economic policy on cannabis. I’m so grateful to the many community members and grassroots leaders who came together and held the state’s feet to the fire to make this happen.”

At a meeting of the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) held on Thursday before Baker signed the legislation, commissioner Ava Callender Concepcion encouraged her fellow commissioners to “take a moment today to recognize the significance of this moment and the magnitude of this impact.”

“By no means am I saying that this single piece of legislation will solve every issue that’s facing the cannabis industry, but it is a massive step,” Concepcion said. “This is monumental.”

Cannabis Activists Applaud New Legislation

Shanel Lindsay, a cannabis advocate who campaigned for the 2016 ballot measure that legalized pot in Massachusetts, said that the governor and lawmakers “have made history with this vital — and overdue — grant and loan fund.”

“This bill is an important step forward in undoing the harms of prohibition and over-policing and will provide an important path for families of color to create jobs in their community and generate generational wealth,” said Lindsay, the co-founder of Equitable Opportunities Now.

The bill also gives the CCC the authority to review and approve host community agreements, which cannabis businesses are required to develop with the local jurisdictions where they are located. The agreements will also be limited to the first eight years a business operates, with limits placed on fees required of the companies. Community impact fees will be limited to 3% of a company’s gross receipts and must be “reasonably related” to costs incurred by local governments to implement cannabis legalization and regulation.

Additionally, the legislation allows cannabis companies to be treated as legal businesses under the state tax code, giving them access to standard business deductions denied under federal tax regulations. Sieh Samura, owner and CEO of the Yamba Market dispensary in Cambridge and an advocate for minority representation in cannabis, said that businesses in the industry can face tax burdens of up to 75%.

“It makes the barrier to entry higher and presents a lot of obstacles for entrepreneurs, especially for those with less resources,” he said.

Samura added that the new law will make taxes fairer and provide oversight to the stiff competition for host community agreements while giving funding to help minority entrepreneurs enter the business.

“We’ve got to see the money start flowing, and the earlier it starts flowing, the earlier we’ll see an effect in the bigger market on how many equity businesses there are, how much diversity there is,” Samura said.

Other sections of the bill approved by Baker include provisions to simplify expunging past weed-related convictions and a process for local communities to hold a vote for the approval of cannabis consumption lounges.

Governor Nixes Exploring Medical Pot in Schools

Baker vetoed a provision in the legislation that would have studied the feasibility of allowing students to use cannabis-based therapies in schools. Under that section, the CCC, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Department of Public Health would be directed to study and develop recommendations for “eliminating obstacles and expanding accommodations to possess, administer and consume medical use marijuana and public and private schools” among students who possess valid medical cannabis cards.

In a statement to lawmakers, Baker said that the measure as written “is highly prescriptive — making it clear that the agencies charged with producing the study must identify ways to make medical marijuana widely available within schools, rather than considering whether such an allowance is advisable.”

”The voter initiatives that legalized medical marijuana in 2012 and 2016 included strong measures to keep marijuana away from K-12 schools and school children. Both laws explicitly stated that marijuana would in no circumstance be permitted on school grounds,” Baker added. “Because the study proposed in section 26 clearly works against these important and well-established protections and disregards the clear intentions of the voters in legalizing marijuana use, I cannot approve this part of the bill.”

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The Massachusetts House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted on Wednesday to approve a bill amending the state’s weed laws, including significant social equity investments and the addition of cannabis consumption cafes to the state’s roster of regulated pot businesses. Lawmakers in the House voted 153-2 to approve the bill, which is nearly identical to a measure passed by the Massachusetts Senate in April.

House Speaker Ron Mariano issued a statement quoted by the Boston Globe, saying the bill aims “to create a fair and successful cannabis industry, fostering equitable opportunities to those disproportionately impacted by the systemic racism of historic drug policy.”

The bill makes several changes to existing cannabis laws in Massachusetts, where voters approved a ballot measure to legalize cannabis for use by adults in 2016. Since then, recreational pot retailers in the state have sold more than $3 billion in weed products, according to a report from the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission that was released the same day the bill was approved in the House.

Adam Fine, a partner with the cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg, says that the “legislation marks the House of Representatives’ first significant movement on cannabis since adult-use legalization.”

“Components of the bill address some of the concerns that have been identified over the past five years, particularly around social equity, host community agreements and movement towards allowing social consumption sites,” Fine wrote in an email to High Times. “The proposal creates the Social Equity Trust fund for social equity operators and provides a mechanism for money to be raised to help applicants enter the cannabis space.”

New Investments in Social Equity

Under the bill, 20% of the pot taxes collected in the state will be dedicated to investments in cannabis social equity businesses. The share of revenue is higher than the 15% detailed in an earlier version of the bill and double the 10% included in the Senate bill.

The increased funding would be substantial. From July 2021 through April of this year, Massachusetts has collected $124.5 million in recreational cannabis excise taxes. Under the House version of the bill, that amount of revenue would equate to more than $25 million in funding for social equity cannabis businesses in the state.

Under the state’s current social equity program, only 23 of the state’s 253 licensed cannabis businesses are owned by entrepreneurs qualified for the economic empowerment and social equity programs administered by the Cannabis Control Commission. Shanel Lindsay, the co-founder of the advocacy group Equitable Opportunities Now, praised lawmakers in the House for the change and urged senators to retain the higher percentage in a compromise version of the bill.

“Without this funding, our equity goals are just hollow promises,” Lindsay said.

Both versions of the bill require local governments to consider social equity factors when issuing local permits. The House bill also simplifies the expungement process for past weed convictions and arrests by making more offenses eligible for relief. The legislation also directs judges to approve all eligible petitions for expungement, removing much of their discretion to deny requests without explanation.

“We mean it when we say our residents have the right to keep these records from following them around for life,” said state Representative Michael Day.

Massachusetts Bill Reforms Host Community Agreements

Another provision of the legislation would reform the contracts cannabis businesses sign with local governments to obtain local licensing approval known as host community agreements. Cannabis operators and applicants for licenses have argued that community impact fees included in such agreements by local governments exceed the cannabis industry’s negative effects on the community.

Both the Senate and House versions of the bill limit impact fees by requiring local governments to detail any negative impact and set commensurate fees. State regulators would have the authority to reject plans that require excessive payments.

“Without enforcement, we’ve seen some communities push the bounds further than allowed by law, this legislation will make local permitting straightforward and allow more social equity applicants to move through the local process,” said Fine.

The House version ends impact fees once a weed business has been open five years and gives the Cannabis Control Commission 45 days to review local agreements, while the Senate bill allows up to 120 days.

“The municipality literally has the upper hand in these negotiations, and many have used it to a fault,” said state Representative Daniel Donahue. He added that the legislation would help create a “legal, fair, and honest” cannabis industry in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Municipal Association of local governments opposed the change, saying the changes to impact fees were a way for cannabis operators to keep more profit for themselves at the expense of local communities.

“The key issues for cities and towns include making certain that the final version of legislation doesn’t interfere with existing host community agreements, and making sure that communities can collect adequate community impact fees going forward,” said Geoff Beckwith, the associate director of the group.

Beckwith added that reducing or eliminating the impact fees “could be a disincentive for additional communities to accept cannabis establishments.”

Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association president David O’Brien praised the changes to the state’s cannabis laws included in the legislation.

“By providing start-up capital, empowering the [cannabis commission] with proper oversight of greedy municipalities, and allowing cannabis operators to deduct normal business expenses,” O’Brien said, “entrepreneurs now will be able to pursue their dreams of starting a small business with fewer barriers in their way.”

Before the legislation can become law, a conference committee will have to rectify the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. Both bodies would then have to vote in favor of a final bill before sending it to Governor Charlie Baker for approval.

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Highlighting the death of a state trooper who was killed by a motorist who had THC detected in their blood, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker is renewing his effort to combat stoned driving.

Baker, a Republican serving his second term as governor of the Commonwealth, announced Wednesday that his administration has refiled legislation that would “update road safety laws by implementing uniform standards and promoting proven strategies to reduce motor vehicle crashes, and will implement recommendations made by the Special Commission on Operating Under the Influence and Impaired Driving,” his office said in a press release.

“This legislation aims to make the Commonwealth’s roads safer and save lives, and we are grateful to the Clardy family for offering their family’s name and support for this legislation, which will help us avoid impaired driving incidents in the future,” Baker said in a statement. “This bill will provide law enforcement officers with more rigorous drug detection training and will strengthen the legal process by authorizing the courts to acknowledge that the active ingredient in marijuana can and does impair motorists. The bill draws on thoughtful recommendations from a broad cross-section of stakeholders, and we look forward to working with our legislative colleagues to pass this bill and make our roads safer.”

The Baker administration said it has refiled the bill as “Trooper Thomas Clardy Law,” named for the late Massachusetts State Trooper Thomas L. Clardy, who in March of 2016 “was conducting a traffic stop on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Charlton when his parked cruiser was hit by a speeding motorist who swerved across three lanes of traffic,” and was later found to have THC in his blood.

Local television station WCVB reported that Clardy’s widow, Reisa Clardy, attended Baker’s announcement of the bill at Worcester District Court on Wednesday. 

“Our family has been profoundly impacted by the tragic loss of my loving husband. Our children lost their hero, a man who had love for his family and an unquenchable love for life,” Reisa Clardy said in a prepared statement released by Baker’s office. “We wholeheartedly support the implementation of these critical measures to improve public safety in the hope of sparing other families from our sorrow and preventing the heartbreak caused by a driver’s decision to get behind the wheel when under the influence of drugs.”

Recreational cannabis use has been legal in Massachusetts since 2016, a year after Baker first took office. 

Clardy Law is not the first time the Republican governor has taken aim at drug-impaired driving. As his office noted, the legislation was first filed in 2019, and is “based on recommendations issued by a Special Commission on Operating Under the Influence and Impaired Driving, which was created as part of the 2017 law legalizing adult-use marijuana, to develop a series of recommendations to mitigate the negative impacts of increased marijuana use in Massachusetts, including the anticipated increase of impaired driving.”

The commission provided a host of recommendations, which appear in the latest bill, including the following: “adopting implied consent laws to suspend the driver’s licenses of arrested motorists who refuse to cooperate in chemical testing for drugs, as existing law has long required for arrested motorists who refuse breath testing for alcohol”; “[a]dopting a statute authorizing courts to take judicial notice that ingesting THC, the active chemical in marijuana, can and does impair motorists”; “[p]rohibiting drivers from having loose or unsealed packages of marijuana in the driver’s compartment of a vehicle, under the same provision of the motor vehicle code that has long prohibited driving with open containers of alcohol; and “[e]mpowering police officers to seek electronic search warrants for evidence of chemical intoxication, as is the practice in over thirty other states.” 

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