A legal battle between the Massachusetts state treasurer and the suspended head of the state’s marijuana regulatory agency has left the state’s weed program in shambles.
According to CommonWealth Beacon, State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg suspended Shannon O’Brien as chair of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission last September for allegedly making racially insensitive comments. O’Brien allegedly referred to Asian culture using a slur and presumed that a fellow commissioner knew a lawmaker because they are the same race.
O’Brien is currently fighting the suspension in court, where a judge will have to decide if the charges against her are serious enough to warrant her termination from her position.
Meanwhile, Goldberg has not filled the vacant position, and it appears the state’s cannabis program is suffering from lack of leadership. Commission employees have reportedly been quitting and policy initiatives have been placed on hold. During a recent commissioner meeting, it reportedly took more than an hour for participants to agree on who should serve as acting chair.
Goldberg is also facing criticism over her decision to continue her legal battle with O’Brien, which has reportedly cost the state $750,000 in legal fees that have been paid with taxpayer money.
California bill to ease weed taxes goes to governor
California lawmakers have approved a bill that could ease the tax burden on small marijuana businesses.
The bill would exclude state taxes that weed businesses pay from municipalities’ calculations for local cannabis taxes instead of using businesses’ gross receipts to calculate taxes.
In a letter from California NORML, advocates asked California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign the bill into law to prevent “double taxation at the local level.”
“Cannabis is already heavily overtaxed relative to comparable goods in California,” wrote the organization. “Compounding taxes simply leads to an artificially inflated purchase price and incentivizes consumers to purchase cannabis from the unlicensed, untested and untaxed market.”
The letter includes a graph that shows a single cannabis pre-roll has an excise tax of 80 to 90 cents in California, whereas 12 ounces of beer is only taxed 2 cents and a tobacco cigarette is only taxed 14 cents in the state.
Missouri recalls more weed
Missouri cannabis regulators have once again recalled more marijuana products, totaling three recalls in one month, involving nearly 175,000 products.
According to Missouri Independent, the latest recall — the third such recall issued by regulators in August — targeted 37,000 products made by manufacturer Blue Sky Health & Wellness LLC. According to authorities, the products weren’t properly recorded in the state’s track-and-trace system, and their compliance couldn’t be verified.The state posted a list of the recalled products on the health department’s website. Authorities said there have been no reports of adverse reactions to the products.