For the second time in less than a month, a Cannabis Control Commission meeting has been interrupted by applicants who say the economic empowerment program is moving too slow and does not, in fact, offer priority to applicants.

“No approvals until economic empowerment approvals,” a group chanted in unison less than five minutes after the meeting started at 11 a.m.

The meeting was adjourned seconds after the chants started.

Chants got louder as commission members left the room.

“We have to do our business in public and it’s unfortunate that that’s being made challenging,” Commission Chairman Steven Hoffman said after the meeting adjourned.

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

When the commission held its first meeting in Worcester on Dec. 19, Leah Daniels, who is trying to open Alchemy League in the economic empowerment program, stood up and demanded action from the commission in a passionate speech, noting that she’s been in the application process for more than 600 days.

The agenda for Thursday’s meeting contained items from the adjourned Dec. 19 meeting, including staff recommendations for 31 provisional licenses. A motion at the start of the meeting approved all of those licenses.

“I feel badly for the 31 people that were affected by this,” Hoffman said. "That being said, I also understand the frustrations that people feel about the process. We have been responsive to those frustrations in terms of changes to our regulations, prioritization, categories of licenses are available exclusively to economic empowerment and social equity applicants ... we’ve been trying to do things and we’ve made changes, we’ve listened.

Daniels was present Thursday among the group chanting. She sat in a chair while others walked around the room.

“This is insanity,” Daniels said after the meeting, adding that she feels economic empowerment applicants have been targeted for additional discrimination. “It’s a very sad day.”

When the meeting adjourned last month, Hoffman promised the dozens in the room that there would be a meeting scheduled to hear concerns from economic empowerment applicants regarding the process.

In comments following the meeting, Hoffman told reporters that an applicant forum has been scheduled from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Jan. 23. The hope for that meeting is to collaborate and discuss ways to make the process better, Hoffman said.

“We’re trying very hard to listen and be responsive but we also have to do our work,” Hoffman said. “We’re trying to accomplish both objectives.”

Daniels said she does not want another hearing.

“I want actions,” she said. “I want a license to do business. Why is it taking 610 days?”

On Dec. 19, Daniels criticized what she called the commission’s “ridiculous, non-transparent, rigid, convoluted process” and said that her application was being scrutinized. She said her application has been in a suitability review for more than 60 days.

“I’m watching people go through this process in 120 days as a general applicant,” Daniels said Thursday.

Hoffman has said he will not speak about the merits of specific applicants but said that Daniels is aware of the process and that the commission has been responsive to her questions.

Daniels, however, said she was supposed to receive an update about her business Wednesday and did not hear anything.

Gerald Nwosu, an attorney and venture capitalist from California who is hoping to start a marijuana business in the social equity program, was one of the loudest voices during the disruption.

“I’m using my freedom of speech,” he said, adding that he was solely at the meeting to support Daniels’ and her application. Daniels and her group said they do not know Nwosu and do not condone the way he conducted himself during the meeting.

Hoffman said his intent is to find a balance to get the commission’s work done but to also listen.

“There’s a limit to what we can do and I’m not saying we cannot do things better and we’re committed to do things as well as we can and listen to input and make adjustments but we can develop and promulgate regulations, we can run a licensing process,” Hoffman said, then adding that cities and towns first need to approve host community agreements and then funding is needed.

Slow rollout has been a criticism of the state’s marijuana program for years. It took two years for retail stores to open after voters in 2016 approved recreational marijuana.

While many applicants may agree that the application process has moved too slowly, some economic empowerment applicants, like Daniels, now say they wish they submitted a general application rather than economic empowerment.

“I have no problem with people coming. I do have a problem with them disrupting our meetings because we can’t get out work done but I recognize and understand their point of view," Hoffman said. “We are committed to continue to listen to them but I urge them to think about the other parts of state government that need to be involved in the solution and talk to them as well.”

At the start of Thursday’s meeting, Hoffman requested that the commission be allowed to do its business.

“I respectfully request from the public attending this meeting that we are allowed to do our business and our business today is to discuss and vote on 31 license applications,” he said.