![]() It typically requires one to one and a half million dollars in liquidity to open a new cannabis retail shop or three to five million for a manufacturing facility," Chang-Diaz said. that the costs of entry into the industry are too high and that there is a severe lack of access to capital in this industry. "If you talk to advocates, to policy experts, to the Cannabis Control Commission, you will find near-universal agreement. Sonia Chang-Diaz, who chairs the Cannabis Policy Committee for the Senate, said the bill that sailed through her committee without opposition seeks to remedy "long-standing problems with long-identified solutions." Aside from a bill that the House passed in early 2020 with provisions similar to the Senate bill, the Legislature has largely avoided cannabis issues since 2017. ![]() Lawmakers passed up their opportunities to act before voters approved decriminalization in 2008, medical marijuana in 2012 and adult legalization in 2016, but then delayed and rewrote significant portions of the 2016 ballot law legalizing marijuana. The Legislature has long maintained a mostly hands-off approach to marijuana policy. "By clarifying the requirements of the host community agreements, making financial investments to increase social equity and allowing for the full implementation of the cannabis industry through permitting social consumption authorization, I am confident that this legislation aids in the continued growth of a competitive and equitable commercial marijuana industry here in the commonwealth of Massachusetts," Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Michael Rodrigues said as he introduced the bill on the floor. The bill ( S 2801) would put tighter restrictions and enhanced oversight on the host community agreements marijuana businesses are required to enter into with their host communities, make grants and loans available through a new Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund to participants in the Cannabis Control Commission's social equity (SE) program or economic empowerment (EE) priority applicants, and create a method for cities and towns to authorize the on-site cannabis consumption establishments that are already authorized under the CCC's regulations. Wide-ranging marijuana legislation that targets some of the most persistent issues that activists, regulators, businesses and municipalities have said are holding Massachusetts back from realizing the full potential of the 2016 legalization law cleared the Senate unanimously Thursday afternoon with senators pitching it as both an economic development and racial justice bill. ![]() In this 2018 file photo, Peter Bernard, president of the Massachusetts Growers Advocacy Council, places his hand next to one of his mature marijuana plants growing beneath LED lights to show how large the buds are.
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