Sam Drysdale | SHNS

The Massachusetts cannabis industry has reached a “tipping point,” Senate President Karen Spilka said Thursday, brushing aside suggestions that her chamber’s overhaul of how the state oversees marijuana is a response to turmoil within the Cannabis Control Commission.

“Well, it’s been around for a number of years,” Spilka said when asked whether the Senate’s emerging reform bill represents a “hard reset” for the CCC. “The whole cannabis industry has gone through, I believe, a lot of changes, and it’s at a tipping point. And I think that some reform is due.”

The Ashland Democrat framed the Senate’s overhaul as based on a routine review of a maturing industry rather than a reaction to the CCC’s well-publicized infighting and leadership struggles.

“Sometimes the Legislature does a big bill on a topic or an issue, and then they pack it away and don’t take it up again,” she said. “I’m a firm believer in looking at things periodically after a number of years, and it just seems that now is the time to take a look at it again.”

A cannabis bill (S 2722) advanced by the Ways and Means Committee on a 16–0 vote Thursday would reshape the five-member CCC into a three-member body, shifting appointment power away from Treasurer Deb Goldberg and toward the governor and attorney general. Under the Senate plan, the governor would appoint two members, including the chair, and the attorney general would appoint the third.

Goldberg has appointed several CCC members since the agency’s creation in 2017 and appointed, suspended and then fired CCC Chair Shannon O’Brien. O’Brien, a former state treasurer and Democratic nominee for governor, was reinstated in October after a court ruled Goldberg lacked authority to remove her.

Asked whether removing Goldberg from the appointment process reflected dissatisfaction with her performance, Spilka said, “Not at all. I believe that there’s other ways to structure, when we have looked at other organizations and other agencies. So we’re looking at that too.”

Asked about O’Brien’s leadership, Spilka noted she only recently returned to her role at the CCC.

“I know she just came back,” the Senate president said. “I hope she does a good job. I think hopefully, there’s a lot going on, and as long as they keep moving forward and fulfill the laws, I think that will be critical.”

While both chambers’ bills would double the legal possession limit to two ounces and loosen medical marijuana rules, the Senate version diverges from the House on hemp regulation. The House bill, approved in June, would ban unlicensed sales of intoxicating hemp-derived products, require all hemp beverages to be registered with the CCC, and restrict their sale to stores licensed by the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.

Spilka said senators intentionally left those sections out, opting instead to create a study commission. She said federal lawmakers are considering making hemp products illegal.

“It’s a very complicated, very complex area that is not fully understood,” she said. “We believe in the Senate that this might be a time to take a really good look at it … so we know the lay of the federal land and we know the issue better before we start passing laws about it.”

The Senate plans to take up the cannabis reform bill on Wednesday, Nov. 19.