Corruption. Inside turmoil. Lack of accountability. Hackery. Now it seems staffers on the beleaguered Hashish Management Fee are getting a severe case of the munchies.
The Herald has been spotlighting the free-spending methods of Massachusetts state authorities over the previous couple of weeks, and information present the comparatively new CCC is working like some other state company in Massachusetts.
The CCC paid for tens of hundreds of {dollars} in journey, meals and catering expenditures over the past yr, together with quick meals joints like Jimmy John’s and Panera, in keeping with information obtained from the Herald’s public information request.
The troubled CCC – in control of growing and imposing laws over the pot trade – was additionally spotlighted in a damning report from the state Auditor final week, displaying mismanagement, violation of state laws and procedural inequities.
It could be time for Massachusetts to rethink its whole hashish trade regulation.
A number of years after legalizing leisure hashish, what’s Massachusetts left with apart from a whole lot of hundreds of thousands in tax income and a lingering air of pot on the streets that wasn’t there earlier than?
Talking of odors, the CCC shelled out $2,530 to a cigar retailer on “lab tools used for enforcement,” in keeping with the CCC, $893 to Panera, $844 to Vincent’s Pizza and a complete of almost $300 to Jimmy John’s sub retailer, in keeping with information.
The company additionally paid for separate prices of $3,304 and $2,926 from Luciano’s Banquet for “workers improvement occasions,” in keeping with a CCC spokesman.
The CCC additionally paid $2,369 to lease out The Vault Operate Corridor in Lawrence, in keeping with a report of prices on the company’s “P-card.” The corridor was utilized by the Fee’s Fairness Programming and Neighborhood Outreach Growth Division for “constituent coaching,” in keeping with a CCC spokesperson.
“Steeped in magnificence and appeal, The Vault’s lavish interiors evoke a way of timeless magnificence,” the Vault’s web site says. “From meticulously crafted particulars to bespoke furnishings, each ingredient has been curated to supply an environment of refined opulence.”
Is that this what the regulation meant?
“The Fee workout routines tight fiscal controls over P-Card use and purchases on the whole,” a Fee spokesperson stated. “Fee coverage requires buy requests to be authorised by an worker’s supervisor and the Chief Monetary and Accounting Officer. All purchases above $10,000 have to be authorised by the manager director.”
Beneath state regulation, the CCC will get its annual funds from the Marijuana Regulation Fund, which generates income from licensing charges, fines and tax income.
However Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s audit revealed a severe sample of mismanagement.
“Our audit recognized numerous points that undermine and negatively impression the Hashish Management Fee’s mission to equitably and successfully oversee the hashish trade in Massachusetts,” DiZoglio stated.
And the CCC oversees severe cash. Along with the hundreds of thousands in gross sales, the fee has been shelling out $500,000 “social fairness” grants, like one to a Haverhill dispensary lately.
However the hashish trade has been struggling recently, with too many pot retailers opening and never sufficient regulation to maintain up.
As well as, the legalization of marijuana has opened up an entire new degree of corruption in Massachusetts state authorities.
Sheriff Steve Tompkins was indicted lately for allegedly attempting to extort a Boston hashish government by demanding a $50,000 “pre-equity curiosity” within the hashish firm proper earlier than it went public with an IPO, in keeping with U.S. Legal professional Leah Foley’s workplace.
But, the pot board simply retains rolling.
Nancy Lane/Boston Herald, File
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald, File)
