Talking Joints Memo | Our First Interview With The New Cannabis Control Commission Executive Director

Two days before Christmas, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission formally announced that Travis Ahern had “accepted the agency’s offer to serve as its next executive director starting in 2025.” The hire came following a yearlong national search and some uncertainty after another candidate was selected then declined the post, but now it’s finally done—and Ahern, who up until this opportunity was working as the town administrator in Holliston, is hard at work in Worcester.

I’ll reserve any analysis or judgment at this juncture other than to say that Ahern is a sharp guy who doesn’t seem to have a chip on his shoulder or hold prohibitionist grudges. He’s a bureaucrat and bean counter in the truest most respectable sense, a micro-manager in a good way as I see it. The kind of government careerist who takes pride in things running efficiently above all else, he may be just what the struggling agency needs right now.

I’m sure that I will have a lot more to say soon as the commission gets back into action, but for now I’ll give the floor to Ahern. I asked the new ED about the power structure and partitions at the CCC, as well as transparency and some specific issues like social consumption and lab testing. Below you’ll find my questions and comments in bold, followed by Ahern’s responses. I edited the transcript for clarity, but this is essentially the full exchange …

Chris Farone: In the past, even vocally between the former executive director and commissioners at meetings, there have been questions about who is in charge [of the Cannabis Control Commission—the commissioners, or the ED and other hired leaders]. I know there’s a new job description, the one that you applied for, and it was painstakingly developed, but what is your interpretation of who is in charge and really what the job is in that macro sense?

Incoming Executive Director Travis Ahern: The job description is one thing. I think the other one is the governance charter. So I pulled that from their previous meeting before I went to the interview in October and went through it. And I think that that really is going to highlight your general question, which is … the executive director is setting everybody else up for success in their roles.

The commissioners are going to focus on overarching policy decisions. A lot of the forward-looking long-term planning aspects of the organization need to be going through the commission, and day to day, [the executive director will work with] staff and commissioners alike that are subject matter experts [so they are] in the right position to be successful … opportunities are created … [and] people don’t become siloed.

For example, licensing and permitting enforcement has a very significant job to do. It needs to be done efficiently for end users, for businesses to keep moving through the process. And yet they really need to be working and benefiting from the expertise and research from legal. So the executive director role is really ensuring that all those people have what they need, creating opportunities for them to work collaboratively, and then bringing in external [collaborators] as well. The Cannabis Advisory Board (CAB) is a great example of [external collaborators working closely with the agency] … so I think the executive director’s role is to really make sure that all of those pieces are talking to each other for the benefit of the organization.

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The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission announced on Dec. 23 that Travis Ahern has accepted the agency’s offer to serve as its next Executive Director starting in 2025.

Read more of Talking Joints Memo’s interview with the incoming Executive Director here: https://talkingjointsmemo.com/our-first-interview-with-the-new-cannabis-control-commission-executive-director/