Massachusetts’s Social Equity Cannabis Program Is Back On Track After A Year On Pause

*“It’s definitely frustrating to those who were really eager to get into
the industry and looking at this as their pathway into it.”*

*By Bhaamati Borkhetaria, CommonWealth Beacon*

The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission’s (CCC) social equity
program—which has been on pause for a year due to budget constraints—is
back on track for the fall.

Last year, the commission accepted 229 individuals into the cannabis
industry training program for individuals most impacted by the war on
drugs, but said that the agency didn’t have funding from the Legislature to
operate the program as promised. The course is aimed at providing industry
training, technical assistance around regulatory requirements, networking
opportunities and fee waivers for those impacted groups to make it easier
for them to enter the industry as cannabis business owners or employees.

Now, with pressure from advocates to get the program restarted, CCC
leadership says it is now kicking off on September 8 with the current round
of applicants and will accept more applicants starting August 1.

The Legislature capped the agency’s budget at $19.88 million—about $10
million less than the commission’s $30 million budget ask for fiscal year
2026. This kicked off a back-and-forth between the commission’s leadership
and lawmakers over whether the CCC is adequately funded to complete crucial
IT infrastructure updates, hire for important positions and conduct public
awareness campaigns.

Bruce Stebbins, the commission’s acting chair, said to CommonWealth Beacon
after the commission’s public meeting on Thursday that he is excited for
the social equity programming to begin again and that he is appreciative of
the agency’s staff for working within the current budget to keep the
process moving along.

“They’ve understood the constraints of the level [of] funding that we’ve
gotten over the last couple of years, and I think they’ve pivoted
effectively,” said Stebbins. “They’re trying to make changes so that the
program remains open to everybody and everybody has access to the program
material.”

The cohort that was accepted last summer was given access to virtual
training on an online platform called TalentLMS, but didn’t receive the
in-person instruction and networking opportunities that previous cohorts
did. Starting in September, there will be updated courses on the platform
and trainings offered through Zoom. The classes will be virtual in order to
limit costs.

Many accepted individuals have been waiting for the programming to begin in
earnest for over a year, expressing open disappointment with the delays.

“I understand the tensions around the budget and the fact that the
Legislature has kept the commission on a pretty tight string, and that the
commission has had to make tough choices, but it’s definitely frustrating
to those who were really eager to get into the industry and looking at this
as their pathway into it,” said Kevin Gilnack, deputy director of the
cannabis advocacy group Equitable Opportunities Now, who was one of the
applicants accepted in last year’s cohort.

Gilnack—who was once arrested for cannabis possession—said he is eager to
take the business- and cannabis industry-specific classes offered by the
program, so he can figure out if there is a viable path for him to enter
the competitive industry.

Part of the pitch in the successful 2016 ballot measure for cannabis
legalization in Massachusetts included assisting those harmed by the war on
drugs to participate in the legal industry. The subsequent law legalizing
cannabis and creating the CCC, passed by the Legislature in 2017, directs
the commission to ensure full participation—still a somewhat ambiguous
metric—in the industry by those disproportionately harmed by marijuana
prohibition.

The commission often touts its work as a nationwide model, in part because
of its social equity training program.

But the funding issues are not likely to resolve soon. Lawmakers have kept
a critical eye on the turmoil and regulatory delays at the commission in
the past two years. Issues include allegations of bullying at the agency,
failure by the commission to collect over $500,000 in licensing fees and long
delays in major regulatory changes. The House passed a cannabis reform bill
on June 4 that would restructure the commission to a three-member body
appointed solely by the governor as a way of addressing some of the
agency’s leadership issues.

Gilnack’s group is advocating for a bill put forward by state Sen. Liz
Miranda (D) of Boston, who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Racial Equity,
Civil Rights and Inclusion. The bill would automatically set aside funding
from cannabis tax revenue to go towards the social equity program, even if
the Legislature chooses not to fully fund the commission through its
ordinary process and without considering how the commission chooses to
allocate its budget.

“I think the important thing is that we figure out a way to make sure that
future social equity program participants aren’t held back by these funding
challenges,” said Gilnack. “It would be great to see the Legislature
actually set up automatic funding so that regardless of what else is going
on, social equity will remain a priority that actually gets fulfilled every
year.”

*This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
License.*

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After A Year On Pause appeared first on Marijuana Moment.