Copyright The Boston Globe
O’Brien was reinstated last month after Suffolk Superior Court Judge Robert B. Gordon ruled that she had been wrongly fired by state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg. Goldberg, who appoints the agency’s chair, alleged O’Brien had bullied colleagues and made racially insensitive remarks. Gordon said that while she may have made “concededly ill-considered remarks,” her behavior didn’t meet the legal bar for “gross misconduct” required to dismiss her. “I’m thrilled to be back,” O’Brien said in her first interview since returning to the commission. “There’s a lot of work to do.” In an hourlong conversation, she didn’t seek to relitigate the past. O’Brien instead wanted to talk about an agenda focused on tightening up the agency’s internal controls, cutting costs for cannabis companies, expanding access for consumers, and setting consistent product safety standards. But one of the first steps she took was to ask the state attorney general’s office to weigh in on whether votes taken during her involuntary absence were valid — a move that sparked concern she might try to undo prior commission decisions such as license approvals. O’Brien sought to dispel the speculation, telling me that the move was simply an effort to ensure that past commission business remains legally valid. She contends there wasn’t a proper transfer of authority to an acting chair when she was suspended by Goldberg in 2023 and then fired a year later. “I’m just buttoning things up, dotting the I’s, crossing the T’s, and making sure that we’re not open to potential lawsuits,” she said. O’Brien, a former state treasurer who lost the 2002 governor’s race to Mitt Romney, said she’s “thrilled” to have the opportunity to finish the job she started in 2022. She sounds determined to show up her critics. While O’Brien was fighting Goldberg in court, Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro and Auditor Diana DiZoglio released reports that found widespread mismanagement at the CCC. The agency failed to collect millions in license and extension fees, permitted procedural inequities that created an appearance of favoritism, and lacked strong internal controls and oversight, according to the state watchdogs. O’Brien, whose one year as boss overlapped partly with the periods covered by the reports, said her first obligation is to fix the shortcomings identified by Shapiro and DiZoglio. Their recommendations are many but boil down to this: For the CCC to serve the industry and consumers, it must run a tighter ship with better systems for collecting fees and fines, reviewing agreements between cannabis businesses, and holding staff and leadership accountable. Just as important, the watchdogs told the agency that it needs to clarify the roles of the chair, commissioners, and executive director — gray areas not spelled out in CCC founding law. O’Brien also has priorities of her own. Cutting red tape. She’s putting together a task force to explore ways to reduce regulatory and operating costs for cannabis businesses. Last year commissioners voted to do away with a rule requiring delivery companies to have two drivers in the vehicle on every run. Now, O’Brien would like to streamline the training courses that cannabis company employees must attend. Lowering costs is critical because federal restrictions on banking and business deductions “make it very, very hard for this billion-dollar industry to be profitable,” she said. Approving social consumption regulations. After many delays, the CCC in July okayed draft rules for pot cafes and other public locations for cannabis use. Once a final vote is taken, the rules would create three new license types — for existing marijuana vendors, for non-cannabis businesses partnering with a licensed operator, and for temporary events. For the first five years, social consumption will be restricted to disadvantaged businesses in the commission’s equity programs, giving them a headstart on tapping new revenue streams beyond dispensary sales, delivery, and cultivation. Establishing independent testing lab standards. Massachusetts still lacks uniform testing standards, leading to wide discrepancies in lab results for potency and contamination. Turnover among testing experts has left consumers and businesses uncertain about product quality and safety. One issue O’Brien declined to discuss, saying she needed to do more research, is whether she’d consider curbing oversupply. Some states have slowed production by limiting new cultivation licenses or reducing growing space. “It’s on the table, but I’m just not comfortable answering that right now,” she said. Massachusetts built one of the nation’s largest cannabis markets. The state has invested heavily to help small and disadvantaged businesses gain a foothold. But the nearly decadelong experiment in recreational pot ushered in by voters has been hampered by uneven regulation. O’Brien’s term as CCC chair ends in August 2027. That gives her less than two years to prove that winning her job back was more than a personal victory — and that she can finally make the commission something more than a bad weed joke.
