Politics

A newly available report sheds further light on former Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien’s rocky departure.

By Abby Patkin

February 19, 2025 | 2:37 PM

2 minutes to read

Shannon O’Brien, the state’s former top cannabis regulator, would “bully, humiliate, and abuse her colleagues” and “cavalierly” made racially insensitive remarks prior to her suspension and eventual firing last year, state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg alleged in a newly available report. 

Goldberg outlined her reasons for terminating O’Brien in an 80-page document filed in court last week, shedding further light on the former Cannabis Control Commission chair’s prolonged and rocky departure.

Citing two outside investigations and about 19 hours of meetings with O’Brien and her lawyers, the partially redacted report builds on previously disclosed allegations that O’Brien made race-based and “culturally insensitive” comments during her tenure, including referring to Asian people as “yellow.” (Per the report, O’Brien maintained she was quoting an unidentified “African American real estate developer.”)

The report further alleges O’Brien had a “habit of asking successful Black women if they know other successful Black women.” 

“Some might call it a ‘micro-aggression’; I find it unacceptable,” Goldberg wrote.

O’Brien also allegedly made pointed comments about former CCC Executive Director Shawn Collins’s parental leave and publicly announced his plans to resign before he was ready to share the news, depriving him of “a graceful exit from the Commission.” While Collins’s name is redacted from the report, previous court filings and Goldberg’s description of O’Brien’s comments confirm his role.

Goldberg fired O’Brien last September after a yearlong suspension, accusing her of gross misconduct and alleging she “has demonstrated through her actions that she is unable to discharge the powers and duties of a commissioner.” O’Brien is contesting her termination in Suffolk Superior Court, asserting in her complaint that she is “a no nonsense, blunt person” who intended to make meaningful change at the CCC.

A former state treasurer and one-time Democratic nominee for governor, she was tapped to lead the commission in 2022.

“I understand that it can be challenging to change a government agency, but Chair O’Brien cannot use the excuse of being a ‘change agent’ to bully, humiliate, and abuse her colleagues, much less to interfere with their leave rights,” Goldberg wrote in her report. “Nor can she shrug off objectively racially insensitive conduct as the ‘weaponization of HR claims’ against her.”

In a statement provided to The Boston Globe, Joe Baerlein, O’Brien’s spokesperson, alleged Goldberg filed an incomplete version of events and said the newly available report contains “partisan and unproven findings.” 

Goldberg filed a motion last week to impound other unredacted records in the case, and Baerlein accused her of “making a mockery of the public’s right to know,” according to the Globe. Baerlein did not respond to a request for comment. 

O’Brien filed a formal opposition to Goldberg’s impound request, urging the court to release the entire, unredacted administrative record. On Friday, Judge Robert Gordon issued a scheduling order laying out a monthslong process to determine how much of the record should be withheld or made public.

Baerlein told the Globe O’Brien “looks forward to her day in court and the opportunity to finally and publicly clear her good name.”