The House side of the Cannabis Policy Committee unanimously advanced legislation Wednesday to downsize and restructure the embattled Cannabis Control Commission and to address a handful of industry pressure points like retail license limits, restrictions on medical marijuana businesses, and the emergence of intoxicating hemp products.
All 11 representatives on the committee backed Chairman Daniel Donahue's recommendation for a favorable report on the 46-page bill Wednesday. It next heads to the House Ways and Means Committee. House Speaker Ronald Mariano earlier this year said a bill to deal with issues at the CCC was an early-session priority.
Frustration with the slow pace of CCC regulatory changes, headline-grabbing internal conflicts and a plea from the Inspector General for the Legislature to intervene at the "rudderless agency" and revisit its "unclear and self-contradictory" 2017 enabling statute combined last summer to compel the committee to weigh a response.
The Worcester Democrat said the bill came about as a result of "listening to the industry, CCC, experts about the challenges that the CCC has been chasing over the past couple years, and some of the ways that we think we can help industry and also reform the commission to be more nimble and more effective in its regulation of the market."
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