“We are asking these bodies to step up and ask the attorney general for an opinion that will officially settle the question of whether the governor has the authority to restrict retail cannabis sales to Massachusetts residents.”
Other than presumably having more time to get stoned while at home due to social distancing, it’s been a tough couple of weeks for cannabis users in Mass. In addition to the creeping prohibitionism in media coverage at the national level—you may have seen the outrageous cannabis and COVID propaganda piece on CNN that seeded thousands of comparably flimsy aggregated stories—Commonwealth consumers as well as dispensary owners have felt significant heat lately. As we noted earlier this month:
Mass Governor Charlie Baker’s March 23 order for non-essential businesses to cease in-person operations allowed package stores to remain open, but temporarily stopped recreational cannabis sales. Across the board, the state has been slow to extend a helping hand to pot shops. Though medical sales are allowed to continue, the rec ban has already negatively impacted businesses as well as patients and consumers. In one industry-specific hardship, cannabis companies are among the few types of operations that are explicitly excluded from a Department of Revenue tax relief program “for Certain Business Taxpayers Affected by the COVID-19 State of Emergency.”
The absurdity of Baker’s position has been noted by seemingly every news outlet, from Boston.com to WGBH, while in an opinion shot in Commonwealth magazine, a dispensary owner called “Baker’s reasoning on marijuana … incomprehensible.” Still, the governor does not appear willing to budge, telling companies (and users, essentially), “Making those sites available to anybody from the entire northeast would cut completely against the entire strategy we’re trying to pursue here in Massachusetts to keep people safe. … And that’s why they’re not an essential business.”
With that position being clear, and all other states with legal cannabis allowing adult-use sales, one group of shop owners is suing the state for its decision, while a unified front of various activists, which came out two weeks ago asking for reopenings, is now also calling on Attorney General Maura Healey to issue a formal opinion “regarding Baker’s authority to restrict cannabis sales to [Massachusetts] residents.” Inspired by a legal memo from March written by the Boston law firm Foley Hoag which “found that the governor possesses the authority to restrict sales in such a manner, similar to how the state restricts medical cannabis sales to residents,” the advocacy group “made the request in the hope that Baker will include adult-use cannabis retail stores in any business re-openings announced on May 4, the current extension date for [the governor’s] stay-home guidance.”
“We are asking these bodies to step up and ask the attorney general for an opinion that will officially settle the question of whether the governor has the authority to restrict retail cannabis sales to Massachusetts residents,” Jim Borghesani, director of communications for the 2016 legalization campaign and a cannabis industry consultant, wrote in a press release sent out this morning. “We are confident that he does, and we are hopeful that he will make Massachusetts consistent with all other legal-cannabis states as soon as possible.”
Borghesani’s email added: “Baker based his decision to close adult-use sales upon his fear that out-of-state residents would come to Massachusetts to purchase legal cannabis. When asked by a reporter on March 31 if he would restrict sales to state residents, Baker replied that he ‘didn’t know’ if such an action was legal.”
“If the governor and his staff refuse to clarify this issue then the responsibility falls upon other state leaders to do so,” Stephen Mandile, an Iraq War veteran, consumer advocate, and Uxbridge selectman added. “I hope the House or Senate or Governor’s Council [any of which can spur the AG to weigh in] recognize that thousands of their constituents want access to legal cannabis, just as they have access to alcohol. Massachusetts should not be the equal access outlier.”
“Many of the small business applicants for retail licenses are economic empowerment or social equity designees who have been disproportionately impacted by prohibition,” Will Luzier said. A 2016 legalization campaign manager, Luzier added that extending the cannabis sales ban while allowing alcohol sales would particularly hurt businesses representing communities hurt by the decades-long war on drugs.
“The voters of Massachusetts expressed the need to address these disparities,” he noted. “Governor Baker halting the progress of these small businesses spits in the face of these efforts and the will of the voters.”
This article is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism’s Pandemic Democracy Project. Contact pdp@binjonline.org for more information.
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