Dear Acting Chair Stebbins, Commissioners, and Commission Staff,
Thank you again for your ongoing commitment to encouraging equitable economic opportunity through full participation in the cannabis industry.
We are particularly grateful for your efforts to advance critical changes that will strengthen the health of the delivery operator and marijuana courier subsectors of the industry – a subsector that is exclusively open to social equity businesses and that has been held back for far too long as the exclusivity period continues to pass by.
We further appreciate your efforts to reform microbusiness regulations and telehealth.
These three topics have been under consideration for a considerable amount of time, and we were proud to support these changes while recommending opportunities to further strengthen them.
I am writing to express concern that ongoing deliberations regarding changes to the third-party transporter and Independent Testing Lab (ITL) should not cause any further delay in advancing these critical and overdue changes for equity businesses, microbusinesses, and patients.
ITLs typically carry very small quantities of cannabis and allowing them to do so with one driver would not substantially impact competitiveness in other areas of the industry, so Equitable Opportunities Now supports making a change to allow ITLs to transport up to $5,000 worth of cannabis with one driver.
For a variety of reasons summarized below and due the lack of time for discussion and consensus building, Equitable Opportunities Now remains neutral on the question of whether to change driver rules for third-party transporters, but we have heard universal agreement from our stakeholders that delivery and other rule changes should not be delayed while this is debated beyond your Oct. 30 public meeting.
The following is a summary of feedback that we have heard from members of the social equity business owners who comprise our advisory committee, the Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council:
- Third-party transporters have a significantly higher risk profile as they typically transport about ten times as much product in a trip, moving up to millions of dollars of product per week.
- While itineraries are protected, a committed bad actor could follow trucks from warehouses and have a much higher incentive to target these deliveries compared to delivery operators and couriers, who typically carry significantly smaller volumes of product.
- Enabling less than $5,000 of cannabis to be transported from business to business in vehicles with 1 driver could destabilize the third-party transporter industry by encouraging Marijuana Establishments to begin doing their own transport, and this potential impact and other potential unintended consequences need more discussion and evaluation.
- There is an argument that having a second driver doesn’t change the safety of the situation regardless given that the driver(s) must comply and not intervene in any criminal situation, but that is not what we are considering in this discussion.
- The rule change allowing delivery operators and marijuana couriers to transport up to $5,000 of cannabis with one driver has helped reduce the risk profile of those businesses by emphasizing the relatively low quantity that they can transport, including $5,000 with one driver and up to $10,000 with two drivers.
- For a rule change to have a similar effect on third-party transporters, they would also need to be limited to a maximum of $10,000 in cannabis products per trip. Given the volume of cannabis that third-party transporters carry, this rule change would reduce the efficiency of operators or could lead to potential fraud and abuse by creating an incentive for third-party transporters to misrepresent the value of the products they are carrying in METRC.
Some feel that businesses should have the flexibility to decide how to staff their vehicles in all cases or that the CCC should just strictly enforce a $10,000 limit on third-party transporters in exchange for the rule change, but the our stakeholders feel that we are too far from reaching a consensus, particularly given the potential for unintended consequences that could actually harm the very operators you are seeking to help.
While we are hopeful that you can resolve these complex issues during your Oct. 30 public meeting, we implore you to advance needed and long-considered, regulatory changes for social equity businesses, microbusinesses, and patients without further delay.
Thank you,
Shanel Lindsay, Co-Founder, Equitable Opportunities Now
Kevin Gilnack, Policy Co-Chair, Equitable Opportunities Now
Armani White, Policy Co-Chair, Equitable Opportunities Now
About Equitable Opportunities Now
EON is committed to advancing equitable ownership and employment opportunities for Black and Brown communities targeted by the War on Drugs through education, advocacy, and programming. We empower people of color and those harmed by prohibition to participate and succeed in the regulated Massachusetts cannabis market. Learn more at www.masseon.com.
About the Mass. Cannabis Equity Council
The Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council (MCEC) is an advisory committee of cannabis social equity business leaders that provides strategic guidance on EON’s programming and policy initiatives.
MCEC Founding Members:
- Shanel Lindsay and Kevin Gilnack, Equitable Opportunities Now (Advisory)
- Tristan Thomas, Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (Advisory)
- Devin Alexander, Rolling Releaf
- Ross Bradshaw, New Dia
- Jaison Cramer, Greenerside Farms
- Kobie Evans, Pure Oasis
- Chris Fevry, Dris Brands
- Nike John, The Heritage Club
- Brian Keith, Rooted In
- Drudys Ledbetter, Zèb Boutique
- Laury Lucien, Cami Flower
- Kim Napoli, Esq., Underground Legacy Social Club LLC
- Ruben Seyde, Delivered, Inc.
- Mario Signore, Green Flash Delivery
- Jeff Similien, Lowkey
- Phil Smith, Freshly Baked
- Gabe Vieira, Zyp Run
- Armani White, Firehouse
- Ruben Seyde, Delivered, Inc.