Legislature Leaves CCC To Its Own Devices

With the end of the formal legislative session having come and gone, it appears that the Massachusetts legislature will not answer calls to step in to manage the affairs of the state's Cannabis Control Commission ("CCC"), which, according to some officials on Beacon Hill, is an agency in disarray. As was widely reported in June, a letter from the Commonwealth's Inspector General, Jeffrey Shapiro, addressed to Senate President Karen Spilka and other leaders of the House and Senate, underscored several critical concerns about the agency's management. In turn, it implored the legislature to act immediately. Highlighting recent "turmoil" in the upper reaches of the agency, most notably the suspension of former Chair Shannon O'Brien by the Treasurer of the Commonwealth and the CCC's decision to relieve the acting executive director of her day-to-day responsibilities, the Inspector General called on the legislature to appoint a receiver with express powers "(1) to carry out