Equitable Opportunities Now
The City of Boston’s Office of Economic Opportunity & Inclusion (OEOI) and the Boston Cannabis Board (BCB) are seeking public comments from October 8, 2024, through October 29, 2024, on cannabis license transferability. These comments will help guide our decisions as we explore updates to the transferability policies and regulations.
Equitable Opportunities Now’s (EON) board and staff; our network of grassroots activists, consumers, patients, entrepreneurs, and workers; the social equity business leaders in our Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council (MCEC); and the undersigned delivery operators commend you for your ongoing efforts to enhance your regulations. Given both the industry and regulatory framework are still young and evolving, we deeply appreciate your openness to engaging stakeholders and reviewing regulations that can better balance flexibility, access, profitability, health, safety, and equity.
We hope that you find the following public comments regarding your proposed regulatory changes helpful and welcome the opportunity to discuss them further.
Cannabis delivery licenses are exclusively available to people from communities harmed by the war on drugs. But these local small businesses owned by Black, Brown, low-income, and previously arrested people […]
More than a dozen cultivation, manufacturing, and dispensary owners, along with BECMA and EON, are raising concerns about repeated reports that owners of Ascend Wellness — a large, multistate operator founded and headquartered in Massachusetts — have violated the Commonwealth’s ownership limits.
Equitable Opportunities Now submitted the following letter to Massachusetts legislators expressing our deep appreciation for their support, highlighting widely-supported bills, opposing changes to license caps, and opposing putting the Cannabis Control Commission into receivership…
Last week, MSO lobbyists and a few politically connected operators tried to change the rules so that the biggest, most profitable companies could get even ore of the Commonwealth’s cannabis industry.
MSO lobbyists are no match for the power of your voice. Thanks to supporters like you who spoke up to protect competition and equity in the Massachusetts cannabis industry, the proposal was defeated — for now.
Please tell your legislators and Gov. Healey to oppose any effort to rush a major change in cannabis industry rules through at the end of session without even having a hearing!
There is an effort playing out TODAY in Massachusetts to weaken one of the strongest protections for cannabis equity businesses in the Commonwealth — potentially devaluing their licenses and starting a race to the bottom for the benefit of MSOs and a handful of operators.
The amendment could be debated today or tomorrow, so please use the instructions below to email your State Representative ASAP — then follow up with a call!
We sent the following letter to House leaders on behalf of our EON and our Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council, an advisory committee of Economic Empowerment and Social Equity Program owners, stressing our objection to the license cap amendment and in support of several that would positively impact the entire industry.
A debate over the cap on weed permits has sparked worries about broken promises to entrepreneurs of color and fears of a marijuana monopoly