As recreational marijuana sales near, panel faces 'balancing acts'

Posted Friday, October 13, 2017 10:24 pm

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PITTSFIELD — The head of the state's cannabis board laid down a marker Friday.

When stores open in Massachusetts for recreational weed sales next July, they will have enough products to meet demand, and not run out, as happened this summer in Nevada.

"If they don't, I would agree that's a failure of the commission," Steven J. Hoffman said of store inventory.

Between now and then, Hoffman's Cannabis Control Commission faces an uphill climb to prepare regulations, test them in a round of public hearings this winter and, come April, start taking license applications for growers, processors, testing facilities and retail outlets.

The panel must take the law passed by the Legislature this summer and translate it into practice. That includes determining what lawmakers meant when they required that the new cannabis landscape aid "disproportionately affected communities" — a reference to places that saw higher arrests and incarceration rates for past marijuana offenses.

"Having things open July 1 is a little challenging," Hoffman said Friday in a meeting with the editorial board of The Eagle before convening a hearing at Berkshire Community College on his panel's work.

Hoffman, 64, is a former Bain Capital partner and venture capitalist from Lincoln who holds a five-year appointment to the position as the commission's chairman.

To get products on shelves by July, the commission will rely on existing nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries choosing to open for-profit sections of their stores. Because cannabis remains banned on the federal level, marijuana cannot be shipped across state lines.

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Since the state will require "seed to sale" tracking of products, a system already in use in the medical market, that's the only way inventory can be ready by July. It takes several months to bring a plant to harvest and through the curing process.

Though applications will be accepted as of April 1, no licenses will be awarded until June 1 — one month from the planned debut of recreational sales.

A tracking system for the recreational market, which Hoffman said represents the largest part of his budget, will attempt to keep out illicit growers.

"My hope is that we eliminate the black market to the extent possible," he said.

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Among many complicating factors, Hoffman notes, one is that cities and towns are taking their own steps to push back the start of adult-use sales. That will depress state tax revenues from weed sales.

"It's not the role of the commission to advise cities or towns on what to do," he said. "We are not in an advocacy role."

Hoffman said the first questions he got after being appointed by the state treasurer concerned his support for last November's ballot measure (he voted no) and his use of marijuana (he bought a joint in a Colorado recreational outlet on a recent visit to that state).

He indicated he is determined to get the system up and running.

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Hoffman's panel is shopping for an executive director for the commission and other staff help. It is pressing to resolve questions quickly, he said, such as the matter of identifying communities "disproportionately affected" by cannabis prosecutions.

Hoffman said he hopes to check that one off his list in a month.

People speaking at the recent hearings highlighted concerns about cannabis products that might entice and reach children.

"Edibles is a very important and challenging aspect." he said.

The panel must help provide access to cannabis outlets, he said, while not risking public safety.

And it must make sure big players in the industry do not crowd out smaller craft businesses.

"We have all these balancing acts," he said. "It's going to be a really complicated exercise."

Reach staff writer Larry Parnass at 413-496-6214 or @larryparnass.