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 have been held back by burdensome regulations.
Thanks to advocacy from delivery businesses and advocates like you, the CCC is on the verge of passing much-needed reforms — but they need to hear from you!
The Cannabis Control Commission has been collecting public comments and will hold a hybrid public hearing on draft regulations on Monday, Oct. 7 to hear from community members like you.
Speak Out Now!
EON, MCEC, & Delivery Operators’ Public Comments RE: Delivery, Telehealth, & Microbusiness Regulations
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.
Introduction
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 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. Please do not hesitate to reach out to EON anytime if we can be a resource by emailing Policy Co-Chairs Kevin Gilnack (kevin@masseon.com) and Armani White (armani@masseon.com)
Delivery Regulations
Delivery Regulation Advocacy Background
As you may recall, EON and the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts wrote you in December 2023, urging the CCC to implement the following regulatory changes as soon as possible “to unlock the potential of these important license types:
- Remove the two-agent rule to enable licensees to make the best decision for their business and their workers without a one-size-fits-all mandate
- Align license cap limit with other license types by increasing the cap from two to three
- Allow repackaging to unlock additional economic and innovative opportunities while maintaining public health and safety
- Support normalization of the industry, innovation, and potential partnerships by eliminating the unnecessarily burdensome prohibition on delivery to hotels
- Remove the excessively restrictive and burdensome prohibition on delivery to towns that prohibit adult-use retail dispensaries to enable consumer access and economic opportunity
- Most importantly: Help undo the harm that the CCC’s overly restrictive regulations have imposed on applicants and licensees whose participation in the industry the agency sought to promote by resetting the clock on the exclusivity period, extending it to seven years to allow adequate time to address future issues, and aligning it with the forthcoming social consumption exclusivity period.”
Nearly 10 months later, Commissioners and staff should be especially proud of the progress that has been made through the review and revision process of several of these critical delivery regulations, as well as microbusiness and telehealth regulations.
Delivery Regulatory Changes to Retain
Specifically, EON and the members of our MCEC applaud the following enhancements to delivery regulations and strongly urge you to adopt the following changes that:
- Enable delivery operators to staff vehicles with products valued at less than $5,000 with one Marijuana Establishment Agent
- Addition of 935 CMR 500.110(8)(c) requiring that “A Delivery Licensee or a Marijuana Establishment with a Delivery Endorsements transporting Marijuana and Marijuana Products for Consumer delivery shall ensure that all vehicles used for deliveries are staffed with a minimum of one Marijuana Establishment Agent. The Agent or Agents shall remain inside the vehicle at all times that the vehicle contains Marijuana or Marijuana Products, unless completing a Consumer delivery.”
- Revisions to 935 CMR 500.145(1)(h) clarifying that delivery operators with one agent may only carry up to $5,000 worth of products and that vehicles with two agents may carry products valued up to $10,000.
- Revisions to 935 CMR 500.145(6) new subsection (e) clarifying that a Delivery Licensee or Marijuana Establishment with a Delivery Endorsement must ensure each vehicle has at least one staff member,
- Increase delivery and courier licenses an operator license limit
- Revisions to 935 CMR 500.050(1)(b)(6)(c) enabling delivery operators to hold up to 3 delivery operator and 3 marijuana courier licenses, an increase from the previous limit of two combined licenses between the two categories
- Related revisions to 935 CMR 500.050(11) former subsection (f)/new subsection (h) clarifying the increased delivery license limit
- Allow delivery operators to repackage products
- Revisions to 935 CMR 500.002 definition of “Marijuana Delivery Operator or Delivery Operator” enabling delivery operators to “Repackage… Finished Marijuana Products, Marijuana Accessories and Marijuana Branded Goods…”
- Related updates to 935 CMR 500.050(11)(a) clarifying that repackaging is allowed and the addition of 935 CMR 500.050(11)(e) requiring delivery operators to comply with labeling and packaging requirements.
- Increase allowable hours of delivery operation
- Revisions to 935 CMR 500.145(1)(m) updating delivery operator hours of operations to 7 AM – 11 PM from 8 AM – 9 PM
- Allow the use of electronic manifests
- Revisions to 935 CMR 500.105(13)(f) clarifying that a Marijuana Establishment may use either electronic of physical manifests when transporting marijuana products.
Delivery Issues for Further Consideration
Based on the scope of the Commission’s proposed regulatory changes, we believe the following additional enhancements align with your policy goals and could be considered within the scope of the current regulatory review.
Providing greater flexibility for delivery operator hours of operation
We applaud and appreciate Commissioner Camargo for urging the Commission to consider allowing delivery operators to operate until midnight, and we hope you give that proposal further consideration.
For some consumers who work second and third shifts, it may be challenging or impossible to access product from a retail establishment or delivery operator during traditional business hours. An 11 PM cutoff for delivery operators does not reflect the desires of consumers who are accustomed to accessing cannabis deliveries at all hours from the unregulated market – and creates an unnecessary barrier in the regulated industry’s effort to provide safe, regulated products to customers.
We strongly encourage you to increase the allowable hours of operation to midnight for delivery operators and to further engage businesses, consumers, and communities on this topic as we continue to normalize this new industry in our economy.
Providing flexibility to Agents in event of roadside or other emergencies
One operational issue that the Commission may want to further consider related to 935 CMR 500.110(8)(c) and 935 CMR 145(6) new subsection (7) is providing flexibility for a delivery licensee agent to exit the vehicle in the event of an accident, mechanical difficulty, or other emergency, in addition to when completing a Consumer delivery.
While we appreciate and share the Commission’s belief that for the security of workers and the public, a Marijuana Establishment Agent should remain in the delivery vehicle whenever possible besides when completing a delivery, we do not believe an Agent or Establishment should be considered out of compliance in the event that an Agent experiences a roadside emergency or other unexpected and unavoidable incident that requires them to exit the vehicle.
Ensuring electronic manifest regulations reflect operational realities
It is also commendable that the Commission has updated 935 CMR 500.105(13)(f) to allow the use of either physical or electronic manifests by transporters. While new subsection (4)(b) of this section requires that the “electronic manifest at any time during transportation,” subsection (2) requires the manifest be delivered to its destination “by facsimile or email.”
Given the operational realities of using cloud-based electronic systems, the Commission may want to update subsection (2) to require that the manifest be emailed to the destination and/or that the destination must receive a notification that the manifest is available, provided they must be able to “access the electronic manifest at any time during or after transportation.”
Furthermore, to ensure your regulations reflect the operational realities of utilizing an electronic manifest system, we urge you to add language explicitly allowing the use of an electronic signature.
Finally, we urge you to add language clarifying that transporters are not required to wait for a retailer to count every item before they can leave. While transporters are not required by regulations to remain at the destination while inventory is taken – and processes exist for reconciling discrepancies –, some retailers hold delivery teams for over an hour while they take inventory. We urge you to clarify that Marijuana Transporter agents may depart the destination after completing their delivery.
Providing flexibility to Marijuana Transporters
As the Commission reviews its regulations related to the transportation of cannabis, it is important to address impractical regulations that make operations unnecessarily onerous without meaningfully improving public health or safety.
Given that you have proposed changes to other sections of 935 CMR 500/105(13), we wanted to bring your attention to 935 CMR 500.105(13)(d) , which creates an unreasonable burden on transporters by requiring different packages of different shapes and sizes to be locked in individual secure compartments. Given that orders come in a variety of shapes and sizes and how unfeasible it is to separate them and have compartments for all of the different sizes they may come in, we urge you to allow transporters to ensure that all marijuana is securely stored with separate manifests, without being overly prescriptive about the manner.
Suggested language for 935 CMR 500.105(13)(d):
If a Marijuana Establishment, pursuant to a Marijuana Transporter License, or a Marijuana Transporter is transporting Marijuana Products for more than one Marijuana Establishment separate manifests shall be maintained for each Marijuana Establishment.
Support for telehealth, microbusiness, and craft cooperative changes
In addition to expressing our strong support for the Commission’s proposed delivery regulation changes, we write to express our gratitude for and support of your proposed changes to improve patient access and create pathways for small businesses to grow.
Specifically, we wish to express our deep support for regulatory changes that:
- Enable patients to request telehealth appointments with certifying physicians
- Additions to 935 CMR 500.002 definition of “Clinical Visit” to allow a “Clinical Visit for an initial Certificate of Registration” to take place “via a telehealth visit that includes a synchronous face-to-face encounter” upon request of the patient.
- Provide pathways for business growth to microbusinesses
- Revisions to 935 CMR 500.002 definition of “Microbusiness” to remove a restriction that “Microbusiness that is a Marijuana Product Manufacturer may purchase no more than 2,000 pounds of Marijuana per year from other Marijuana Establishments for the purpose of Marijuana Product manufacturing by the Licensee” and enable Micro Businesses to pursue additional licenses as they grow.
- Minor edit to 935 CMR 500.005(b)(1)(a) clarifying that application fees are waived for “Microbusiness applicants” and the insertion of 935 CMR 500.005(b)(4) clarifying that Microbusinesses shall receive a 50% discount for annual license fees.
- Addition of 935 CMR 500.050(1)(b)(7) clarifying that microbusiness cultivation and manufacturing licenses count toward the total limit of each respective type of license.
- Updates to 935 CMR 500.050(5) clarifying wholesaler purchase limits for microbusinesses engaged in manufacturing and that anyone having control of an existing marijuana establishment that isn’t a Social Equity Program participant or Economic Empowerment applicant is not eligible for a microbusiness license.
- Clarify that Craft Cooperatives may apply for additional licenses
- Addition of 935 CMR 500.050(1)(b)(8) clarifying that Craft Cooperative licensees are limited to 1 license with a total canopy of 100,000 square feet and that Craft Cooperative licensees may apply for additional licenses.
Remaining opportunities for regulatory enhancements
While we are tremendously grateful for the progress reflected in the regulatory changes detailed above, we recognize that there is more work to do in the ongoing, iterative process to continue improving the Commission’s regulations to encourage full participation – and success – in the cannabis industry while protecting public health and safety.
Specifically, we recognize that the Commission will soon need to decide on the current delivery exclusivity period. Given how restricted delivery operators have been during the period between the start of the exclusivity period and the implementation of the regulations currently under review, we urge you to take quick action to extend the exclusivity period for a period no less than the time between the start of the period and the effective date of these forthcoming regulations.
We further urge you to continue your engagement with stakeholders to determine how and when to consider removing the exclusivity period in the future, and the conditions that must be met for doing so.
Finally, we strongly encourage you to prioritize consideration of other opportunities to enable delivery operators to succeed, including:
- Delivery to “No Towns”
- Delivery to hotels and other tourist accommodations
Conclusion
Thank you again for all of your work in gathering feedback from stakeholders, craft thoughtful regulatory changes, and consider this feedback.
We look forward to continuing to partner with you to foster equitable economic opportunity in this industry and enhance the Commonwealth’s regulation of this industry.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be a partner or resource by contacting EON Policy Co-Chairs Kevin Gilnack (kevin@masseon.com) and Armani White (armani@masseon.com).
Thank you,
- Shanel Lindsay, Equitable Opportunities Now
- Devin Alexander, Rolling ReLeaf
- Alyssa Benalfew-Ramos, BECMA
- Edson Charles, Gas Bus
- Ryan Cohen, KindRun Delivery
- Richard DeCotis, Gas Bus LLC
- Christopher Fevry, Dris Brands
- Kevin Gilnack, Equitable Opportunities Now
- Rhonda LaFlamme, Bracts & Pistils
- Drudy Ledbetter, Zèb Boutique
- Brian Keith, Rooted In, Newbury St
- Duane Edward Osborn, Green Flash Delivery
- Sebastian Pollack, Little Dog Delivery
- Mario Signore, Green Flash Delivery
- Gabe Salazar, We Can Deliver Boston
- Phil Smith, Freshly Baked
- Ruben Seyde, Delivered, Inc.
- Tristan Thomas, BECMA
- Armani White, Firehouse & 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