Public Comment Period Now Open for Model Municipal Equity By-law or Ordinance

Cannabis Control Commission to seek feedback through April 25, 2024

Today, the Cannabis Control Commission (Commission) opened a two-week public comment period for constituents to weigh in on the new “Model Municipal Equity By-law or Ordinance” (Model) template. Responses to the draft should be emailed to Commission@CCCMass.com with a subject line of “Public Comment: Model Municipal Equity By-law or Ordinance” no later than Thursday, April 25, 2024, at 5 p.m.

The Model is intended is to support municipalities with clear policies and procedures to encourage full participation in the regulated marijuana industry by communities that were disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement. The creation of this template was incorporated into the Commission’s recent regulatory revisions that were promulgated in accordance with the Commonwealth’s 2022 cannabis equity reform law. The final document will be an essential tool for the agency to ensure cities and towns enact minimum acceptable equity standards in order to license Marijuana Establishments and Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers and thereby operate as Host Communities in the legal marketplace.

Under state law, the Commission is now required to establish certain policies for cities and towns to adopt for their engagements with license applicants and licensees, including specific categories of businesses. Such license applicants and licensees include Social Equity Program Participants, Economic Empowerment Priority Applicants, and a new category of Social Equity Businesses (SEB), defined as entities made up of majority ownership of individuals who are Social Equity Program Participants (SEP), Economic Empowerment Priority Applicants, both, and those who would otherwise qualify for the SEP Program.

Among the actions Host Communities can take to meet the Commission’s minimum municipal equity standards, they can adopt the Model template, which highlights a number of provisions in the draft, including:

• Transparency of Applications and Applicants;
• Procedures and Policies for HCA Negotiations;
• Municipal Equity Plans; and
• Equity Standards for HCAs.

Aside from adopting the Commission’s Model, other compliant actions can include adoption of an ordinance or by-law to exclusively permit SEBs for at least three (3) years or creating a local approval process for equity applicants that is administered on a 1:1 basis.

More information about how cities and towns can comply with the Commission’s municipal equity regulations will be available in a forthcoming draft Guidance on Municipal Equity and Industry Participation that will be discussed during the Commission’s April 11, 2024, public meeting.

Any feedback to this draft Model should be submitted to the Commission as soon as possible, and not later than April 25, 2024. Those received by the deadline will be reviewed by the Commission and may be incorporated as changes for the final version that will be considered at a forthcoming public meeting.

Please be advised that the Commission may publish submissions it receives or produce them in response to a request made under the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c. 66, § 10, or any other compulsory legal processes.