One thing just about everyone involved in Massachusetts’ burgeoning marijuana industry can agree on is that the process has been slow.

But is the process moving at an even more sluggish pace for certain applicants? It depends on who you ask.

More than three years after recreational marijuana was legalized, there are a few dozen retail stores open, as well as cultivation and product manufacturing businesses. Last year, shops reported $420 million in sales. But none of those locations are part of the Cannabis Control Commission’s economic empowerment or social equity programs.

Among the certified economic empowerment applicants is Leah Daniels, who decided to try and find out why on her own terms.

About a month ago, the 51-year-old veteran, who is seeking to open the retail store Alchemy League in Holyoke, laid out her case in an impassioned monologue before the commission, interrupting a scheduled meeting that commissioners adjourned, leaving 31 provisional licenses on the table.

At the next meeting on Jan. 9, the protest continued as those 31 licenses were approved. Daniels and others halted the meeting, chanting “no approvals until economic empowerment approvals.”

“All this is doing is costing me more time and money and it’s not affording me an opportunity to open doors. It’s hindering agreements that I’ve already worked out and worked through for next locations, cultivation, etc.,” Daniels said in a recent interview. “That’s only hindering me by waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting.”

So what exactly is holding up economic empowerment applications? While some applicants criticize the slow speed by the commission, others say the real obstacle is in obtaining a host community agreement with a municipality. For others, the challenge is funding. And some, even, say there are no problems with the economic empowerment program at all.

Alchemy League’s case

Daniels applied for the economic empowerment program during the only time it was available, a two-week period in April 2018. She submitted all four packets required by the commission even though she did not have a host community agreement yet, as she wanted to be ready. That’s when months of questions started, according to Daniels.

She received questions about investors -- she is funding Alchemy League on her own -- and a request for more information about her diversity plan. It took months to get through those questions, Daniels said.

After that, Daniels said the commission wanted to specify that she was applying to open a recreational shop and not a medical business.

“They made me go back through my entire business plan to take out one word, one word out of my entire business plan: medical,” said Daniels, adding that it was another change that took months.

During the process, Daniels switched her location from Boston to Holyoke. That meant the commission had to re-open her application for review.

Just because an applicant has submitted all four packets does not necessarily mean an application is complete. In general, the commission will review an application and give applicants a chance to amend or fix items before the application goes before the commission for a vote.

The process went on so long that Daniels’ background check expired. She paid for another background check and the commission had all the information in October, she said. November passed and then came December when Daniels found out she was in a suitability review. The commission says all license applications are reviewed for suitability issues before the commission takes a vote.

“I have never, in 51 years of living, been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor. So why I was in any kind of presumptive suitability review based on my background check is beyond me,” Daniels said. “So finally on the 19th I had no recourse, nobody would answer any questions, nobody would tell me where we were in the process, nobody would tell me whether I was in a suitability review, I decided to address the commission while they were all present because apparently, you can’t get anyone.”

The commission wanted to determine if any of the incidents on Daniels’ record involved a firearm, according to Daniels and documents. Daniels does have court cases, including assault charges, dating back 10 to 20 years but does not have any convictions on her record. She said she is licensed to own a firearm, and received her license to carry while her economic empowerment application has been pending.

“I’m an economic empowerment applicant. I’m coming from a disenfranchised and targeted community, yes, ma’am, I have had allegations,” Daniels said. “I did exactly what I was supposed to do legally, hired an attorney, was present for trials and all charges and allegations were dismissed. All of them.”

After the two interruptions, Daniels -- along with another economic empowerment applicant -- received her provisional license on Jan. 16.

Daniels claimed her application had been processing for more than 610 days. However, two items she needed to obtain the license -- a host community agreement and holding a community outreach meeting -- were not complete until last summer.

As of this month, the commission has received 24 applications from economic empowerment priority applicants in which all four required packets have been submitted, according to commission documents.

A total of 10 economic empowerment and social equity applicants have received provisional licenses as of the commission’s Jan. 16 meeting.

Despite finally being able to move to the next step in the process, the day felt bittersweet for Daniels and her team, according to Julie Mejia, the chief strategy officer for Alchemy League

“It’s a bittersweet day in the capacity that its hard for us to be excited and be celebrating when there’s so much injustice going around. Other members of the community are losing their homes and savings,” said Mejia. “We just want the commission to do their job and to do it properly so people are getting in the process and getting up and running and not losing everything they’ve worked so hard for.”

The Cannabis Control Commission maintains that all applicants are treated equally.

Economic Empowerment

The economic empowerment program was created to offer a prioritized review and licensing for applicants seeking retail, manufacturing or cultivation licenses in communities disproportionately impacted by high rates of incarceration and arrest for marijuana offenses.

The Cannabis Control Commission has certified more than 120 applicants for priority status as economic empowerment applicants.

Applicants who qualify for the social equity program, who represent communities of disproportionate impact by the war on drugs, receive training and technical assistance from the Commission.

Two more license types, social consumption and delivery, were approved last year. While those licenses aren’t off the ground yet, they are exclusively available to economic empowerment and social equity applicants for the first two years.

The commission gives priority review ahead of the general licensing pool to economic empowerment applicants and to registered marijuana dispensaries, or RMDs, per state law. Regulations require that economic empowerment applicants and RMDs are reviewed on an alternating basis.

The commission has also expedited the review of other applicants after feedback received in the last year. Those applicants include social equity program participants, outdoor cultivators, craft cooperatives, microbusinesses, certified minority business enterprises, certified women business enterprises and certified veteran business enterprises.

Applications for independent testing labs are also expedited for the purposes of promoting public health and safety, according to the commission.

On Thursday, applicants have been invited to a Cannabis Control Commission forum to discuss experiences with the licensing process and start a conversation on solutions.

The forum is from 1 to 5 p.m. at Union Station in Worcester. Applicants who want to sign up to receive priority in the speaking order can do so online.

The licensing process

Some economic empowerment applicants don’t see a problem with the program or the work of the commission.

Ulysses Youngblood, an economic empowerment applicant seeking to open Major Bloom in Worcester and Attleboro, said he doesn’t feel the commission or licensing process has slowed down business.

“In fact, it’s kind of the opposite,” he said. “When we submitted our application they got back to us really quickly on what we needed.”

Funding has been one of the toughest parts of moving forward, Youngblood said.

“It’s persistence,” Youngblood said of the process. “It’s about being creative as we progress.”

Jeffrey Pepi of Tree Beard Inc. is an economic empowerment applicant hoping to open Old Soul Gardens in New Bedford.

For Pepi, the Cannabis Control Commission process has been smooth. Obtaining a host community agreement took more than two years.

“They are doing their best to handle this complicated integration process,” Pepi said of the commission. “Yes, big companies got the advantage on us and had over a year to set themselves up and keep things from filtering down, but we have prevailed against the odds.”

The hardest and most costly challenge, according to Pepi, has been maintaining site control through the licensing process, especially without the backing of any banks.

While having the economic empowerment status sped up the application process, the program offered no assistance, Pepi said. Tree Beard had to do everything on its own, he said.

The incentive for bigger companies to invest

For others, a lack of access to capital has been a roadblock.

There was no incentive for big marijuana companies to invest in prospective businesses by economic empowerment applicants, said Michael Latulippe, the registered qualifying patient advisor to the Cannabis Control Commission.

“Where are these small businesses supposed to get money to operate these small marijuana businesses unless they’re independently wealthy,” said Latulippe, who is also an economic empowerment applicant.

And being wealthy is not the reality for many of the applicants.

"They’re going broke, essentially, because no larger operators need to work with them, and no social equity fund or loan program exists at the state level or municipal level to help them start their businesses,” Latulippe said.

Priority status

Members of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, or MassCann, said that the commission was giving RMDs with locations not previously registered with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health -- which previously administrated the Massachusetts Medical Use of Marijuana Program -- that had never served registered qualified patients has been getting priority status instead of expedited review.

That was to the detriment of economic empowerment applicants, according to a letter sent to the state attorney general’s office.

“The Economic Empowerment program and the process that was designed for the EE applicants to gain priority has been diluted and this action has effectively delayed the advent of Economic Empowerment for the workers that would ultimately benefit from this important program,” the letter read. “By allowing locations that have not been previously registered with the MA Department of Public Health to gain priority status rather than expedited review, we are potentially harming Economic Empowerment under the Adult-Use statute.”

In October, Commissioner Kay Doyle proposed a change in the way the commission reviews priority RMD applicants. With the new policy, some RMDs that would have gotten priority review are now treated as general applicants.

The policy change means there are fewer RMD priority applicants for commission staff to review on an alternating basis with economic empowerment applicants.

During Doyle’s discussion at that October meeting, officials said 27% of the RMD applications, or 58 applications, examined by staff that had been prioritized would under the new policy be considered general applicants.

Some economic empowerment applicants were upset those RMDs had not been treated as general applicants all along.

Host community agreements

Cannabis Control Commission Chairman Steven Hoffman has noted that the commission can only act on applications after a prospective business has jumped through municipal hurdles, like receiving a host community agreement.

Sieh “Chief” Samura, an economic empowerment applicant who is still trying to secure a host community agreement for his business in Cambridge, said that in the last days of 2019, a small group of economic empowerment and social equity applicants came together as business allies trying to create a trade group.

The group, working under the name J.P. Coburn Network Association, said it does not condone the interruptions of Cannabis Control Commission meetings. But, the group does feel that there is not support for economic empowerment and social equity applicants, Samura said.

“I don’t work for the CCC so I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on there, but we can all be assured it’s not the transparent process that they promised us,” Samura said. “As people who are looking to get licensed, we’re in a very vulnerable position. We’re business people and we’re not looking to upset anyone or make anyone look bad, we just want to do our business.”

Samura said the group wants the commission to drop the host community agreement requirement. The group is also seeking an explanation as to why the commission has “delayed approval and/or adequate response” to submitted economic equality applications and the immediate prioritization of those licenses.

For Kobie Evans, of Pure Oasis, one of the economic empowerment applicants to receive a provisional license, the frustration of the process lies more with the challenge of obtaining a host community agreement.

Once a company has its agreement, the Cannabis Control Commission process is straightforward, according to Evans, who hopes Pure Oasis will be on the agenda for a final license next month.

In general, applicants are looking for help, Evans said.

“They only have certain kinds of outlets to go to, if not ask for, demand, help ... Unfortunately, that kind of falls at the feet of the Cannabis Control Commission,” he said. “I think that people just want the CCC to be more vocal about the seeming injustice that’s happening.”

Evans said he believes people who are “connected” are getting the lion’s share of host community agreements.

Those agreements are under the scrutiny of federal authorities. Alleged bribes in the state’s marijuana business were illuminated in September when former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia was arrested by federal authorities, who accuse him of extorting prospective marijuana business owners for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Vanessa Jean-Baptise, an economic empowerment applicant who is trying to open Legal Greens in Brockton, struggled to obtain a host community agreement to start.

Following the death of Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter, Jean-Baptiste was able to receive an agreement when Moises Rodrigues was appointed to the position.

Since then, it’s been smooth sailing, said Jean-Baptiste.

But, Jean-Baptiste said she feels bad for the economic empowerment applicants who are in limbo.

“I’m not too far away from where they’re at,” she said. “I’m just wondering if I’m going to be in the same boat as them.”