Advocates, lawmakers and former regulators urged a legislative committee on Tuesday to provide more oversight of required contracts between municipalities and marijuana businesses, arguing that the system continues to be exploited by some cities and towns, which creates a barrier for small and minority owned businesses to get started in the industry.
The issue of host community agreements has been one fraught with tension as people in the industry have argued for years that negotiations are often one-sided, with the municipalities controlling all the leverage.
The result, according to testimony given to the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy, are agreements that often violate the limits put on how much cities and towns can charge marijuana businesses for traffic, public safety and other impacts they have on a community.
Cannabis community host agreements being exploited by some Massachusetts cities and towns, advocates say
Updated May 12, 2021;
By Matt Murphy | State House News Service
Advocates, lawmakers and former regulators urged a legislative committee on Tuesday to provide more oversight of required contracts between municipalities and marijuana businesses, arguing that the system continues to be exploited by some cities and towns, which creates a barrier for small and minority owned businesses to get started in the industry.
The issue of host community agreements has been one fraught with tension as people in the industry have argued for years that negotiations are often “one-sided,” with the municipalities controlling all the leverage.
By WHAV Staff |
May 4, 2021
Stem s Caroline Pineau consults with Attorney Thomas MacMillan during a City Council meeting in 2019. (WHAV News file photograph.)
The City of Haverhill and Stem, a downtown marijuana retailer, exchanged new legal claims yesterday in Essex County Superior Court with the city asking that most claims against it be dismissed and Stem asking for “emergency relief.”
In its filing, Haverhill argues Stem, 124 Washington St., must pay “community impact” fees, not necessarily because of state law, but because the adult-use marijuana business agreed to do so in a contract; that it is too early to document “impacts” Stem may have caused especially in light of the health pandemic; Stem has not been financially harmed, but rather appears to have earned $13 million since opening; and not enough time has passed to verify and negotiate community impact costs.
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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Hello and happy Monday!
I’m Lisa Kashinsky, the new author of Massachusetts Playbook. Some of you may recognize my byline from the Boston Herald, The Eagle-Tribune, Wicked Local and the Patriot Ledger. You also may have seen me on Beacon Hill or on the campaign trail in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
For someone looking to extort marijuana vendors vying for prime business opportunities, becoming a mayor in Massachusetts could be the thing to do.
Absolute power over the local marijuana market, prosecutors now allege, presented itself as a possible cash cow to Jasiel Correia II, who was the youngest person to win the mayorship in the city of Fall River s history.
Correia is charged with 24 federal crimes that include alleged extortion of more than $600,000 from marijuana vendors seeking to set up shop in Fall River between 2016 and 2018 a pay-to-play scheme.
Correia alone possessed the power to issue non-opposition letters and sign host community agreements based upon locally established processes for granting approval to marijuana companies, as state law allows. Non-opposition letters pave the way for a marijuana business to locate in a particular town or city, while host community agreements are required between the business and municipality prior to state licensi