A Massachusetts legislative committee has proposed legislation that would overhaul the state’s Cannabis Control Commission (CCC), reduce its size, and implement changes long requested by industry stakeholders including doubling the retail license cap.
House members of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy on Wednesday approved the bill through a closed-door poll sent by email. Approval allows the measure to be formally reported to the full House.
The bill would reduce the CCC from a five-member body to three commissioners, all appointed by the governor. The governor would also select the chair, who alone would be responsible for appointing the agency’s executive director. Currently, appointments are shared between the governor, attorney general, and state treasurer.
The restructuring comes after the state’s inspector general described the CCC as a “rudderless agency,” citing its “unclear and self-contradictory” enabling statute as a reason for legislative intervention.
Beyond governance, the bill includes major policy changes affecting the marijuana industry. It would double the cap on the number of retail licenses a single operator can hold from three to six. Limits on cultivation and manufacturing licenses would remain unchanged. Supporters say the change could make it easier for business owners to sell their operations, but opponents warn it could accelerate market consolidation and disadvantage small and equity-owned businesses.
Equity advocates, including Equitable Opportunities Now and the Massachusetts Cannabis Equity Council, have voiced strong opposition. They argue that larger multistate companies are already flooding the market and that expanding retail license limits could make it even harder for smaller players to compete.
The bill would also end the state’s requirement that medical marijuana businesses be vertically integrated. Instead of growing and processing all the marijuana they sell, operators could purchase wholesale products—a change patients and advocates have pushed for since adult-use sales began.
In addition, the proposal would revise terminology used in state law, replacing “medical marijuana treatment center” with “medical marijuana establishment” and introducing a definition for “fully integrated medical marijuana treatment center” to allow existing vertical operators to continue as-is. The CCC would be given authority to create new license types for the medical sector.
