“It gives us an opportunity to help them understand this emerging market,” Turnbull, who worked for the Joint Committee on Tourism and Cultural Development, a handful of lawmakers and later as executive director of single-payer advocacy group Mass-Care, said.
The outreach from Tree House to the candidates comes at a crucial time for the once-illegal industry in Massachusetts.
And yet business owners and advocates are more vocal than ever about the problems they see in the state’s cannabis sector — overly-aggressive host community agreements, high tax rates, license types that seem economically unviable, and limited progress towards the state cannabis law’s explicit social equity mandate.
These are businesses that people don’t necessarily want to touch because it feels politically volatile to be talking with marijuana,” Ritchie, who worked for Rep.
In the coming weeks, Turnbull and Ritchie will host whichever gubernatorial candidates are willing and able to stop by for a tour of the facility, discussion about the issues that businesses like Tree House Craft Cannabis face and an opportunity to make a statement if desired.
Though details are still being worked out, the Senate chair of the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy and a Democratic candidate for governor, Sen.
She said that as governor she “will continue to pursue the cannabis policies I’ve fought for over the last 5 years,” specifically pointing to her support for a Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund, host community agreement reform and ensuring that entrepreneurs from communities harmed by prohibition can participate in the newly legal industry.
Republican candidate Geoff Diehl’s campaign said that he respects the will of the voters in legalizing marijuana in 2016 but feels that law enforcement needs a mechanism to deal with impaired driving.
and am excited to learn more about how local dispensaries are making a difference for MA communities, and hear more about how we can better support small businesses like this one,” Allen said in response to a News Service inquiry last week.
And one of the things that happened with gay marriage — which Ture and I both worked in the State House for and that was sort of a foundational part of our personal experience — you meet people where they’re at and you grow allies to get there,” Ritchie, a former organizing director of MassEquality, said.
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