{"id":39669,"date":"2019-11-21T16:00:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-22T00:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/11\/21\/massachusetts-sold-393-million-worth-of-legal-pot-in-first-year\/"},"modified":"2019-11-23T00:38:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-23T08:38:45","slug":"massachusetts-sold-393-million-worth-of-legal-pot-in-first-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2019\/11\/21\/massachusetts-sold-393-million-worth-of-legal-pot-in-first-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Massachusetts Sold $393 Million Worth of Legal Pot in First Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

In the first year of legal cannabis sales, Massachusetts\u2019s retailers brought in a total of $393.7 million in gross revenue, according to new numbers from the state. The state\u2019s Cannabis Control Commission<\/a> (CCC) noted the first year also helped establish benchmarks that will enable the Commonwealth to measure its progress toward strengthening a safe, effective and equitable legal cannabis industry.<\/p>\n

For comparison, Colorado\u2019s first year of legal cannabis sales in 2014 clocked in<\/a> at a value of about $684 million, despite the fact that Colorado has about 1 million less residents than Massachusetts. However, state representatives were still positive about the numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarijuana retailers and consumers should be
\ncommended for participating in an extremely smooth rollout of the legal
\nadult-use cannabis industry in Massachusetts for the first year,\u201d Commission
\nChairman Steven J. Hoffman said in a statement. \u201cHundreds of millions of
\ndollars in sales are one measure of success, but I am even prouder of the way
\nin which marijuana establishments have worked with the commission to gain and
\npreserve compliance with our regulations and patrons continue to inform
\nthemselves about the law and their responsibilities when they visit Massachusetts
\nstores.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioners Britte McBride and Jennifer
\nFlanagan also released a statement that focused on the public safety success Massachusetts
\nsaw in the last year. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that as the industry evolves, the commission will uphold our mission statement to build a world-class agency that honors the will of the voters and continue to address the public health and safety of all citizens,\u201d Flanagan said. <\/p>\n

Perhaps the most widely recognized name on the commission, Shaleen Title<\/a> has been one of the main regulators in the nation talking about and attempting to build cannabis policy that addresses the impact the War on Drugs has had on communities of color. <\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past year, the commission has been
\npersistent in its efforts to set and implement nation-leading policies that
\nsupport full participation in the adult-use cannabis marketplace by communities
\nthat have been harmed by the War on Drugs,\u201d Title said. \u201cI hope the voters who
\nsupported legalization in Massachusetts recognize the progress we are making
\nand continue to work with us to achieve the industry they envisioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Title also made waves this week separately when, in an interview with CBS<\/a>, she addressed municipal corruption in the state\u2019s cannabis industry. She said that cannabis corruption is \u201cnot in every city or town, but I think the environment is ripe for it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The CCC also released a lot of data that gives a snapshot of the market. Currently, it has licensed 33 retailers now open across the state. The CCC also has another 54 provisional licenses in the pipeline. When all those stores are open, it will nearly triple the access to legal cannabis in Massachusetts. <\/p>\n

The commission said in total they have issued
\nlicenses to 227 \u201cmarijuana establishments,\u201d \u201cincluding cultivators, product manufacturers,
\nmicrobusinesses, and more.\u201d <\/p>\n

Five of those permits went to people
\nparticipating in the Certified Economic Empowerment program, to provide an
\neconomic leg up to those companies composed of people from disproportionately
\npoliced areas, which means about 2% of the state\u2019s industry is in the hands of
\npeople taking part in that program. Another of Massachusetts\u2019s equity programs,
\nthe Social Equity Program, said that it certified that 140 people qualify for
\nthe program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of nearly 140 individuals who
\nwere certified for the program are currently participating in the commission\u2019s
\n14-course entrepreneur track through April,\u201d the state said. \u201cOne Social Equity
\nProgram participant is currently operating a licensed retail Marijuana
\nEstablishment.\u201d <\/p>\n

The state has licensed 71 cultivation
\nfacilities, five of them outdoors. Legal operators in Massachusetts now have a
\ncombined 2.1 million square feet of canopy. <\/p>\n

As of Nov. 7, 6,700 people are currently employed in the Massachusetts cannabis industry. Two-thirds of that workforce is male and 73.4% identify as white. (According to the U.S. Census<\/a>, about 80% of the state\u2019s population is white.)<\/p>\n

This week, the Boston city council voted to overhaul the city\u2019s licensing process to address the disparity in the race gap of who actually owns the local dispensaries in town. The AP reported<\/a> that the proposal by Councilor Kim Janey also requires the city to make sure at least half of its marijuana licenses go to companies from communities affected by the War on Drugs.<\/p>\n

TELL
\nUS,<\/strong> what do you think cannabis tax dollars should go
\ntowards?<\/p>\n

The post Massachusetts Sold $393 Million Worth of Legal Pot in First Year<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\n
\nRead More: Massachusetts Sold 3 Million Worth of Legal Pot in First Year<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first year of legal cannabis sales, Massachusetts\u2019s retailers brought in a total of $393.7 million in gross revenue, according to new numbers from the state. The state\u2019s Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) noted the first year also helped establish benchmarks that will enable the Commonwealth to measure its progressContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,390,687,25,81,1032],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39670,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39669\/revisions\/39670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}