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Massachusetts legislature approves marijuana law reforms

David McNew
/
Getty Images
Massachusetts voters legalized recreational marijuana use in 2016. The following year, the legislature rewrote the law. In 2022, the legislature approved several key changes to the statute.

Industry wins long-sought changes on local fees

The Massachusetts legislature has made some significant changes to the law governing the state’s burgeoning multi-billion dollar marijuana industry.

A bill approved Monday in the hours before the end of formal sessions targets local fees demanded of marijuana businesses, creates a fund to help people who were victims of the war on drugs break into the legitimate cannabis industry, and advances the licensing of so-called “cannabis cafes.”

WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill spoke with David O’Brien, President and CEO of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.