BOSTON — Three of the five members of the state’s new Cannabis Control Commission say they’ve tried the drug they will now regulate.
The other two declidede to say.
Steven Hoffman, the chairman, told reporters when asked last week that he smoked a joint and watched some fireworks on a trip to Colorado in July 2016.
Commissioners Jen Flanagan and Shaleen Title declined to answer the question. Title worked on drafting the ballot question that legalized adult use of marijuana and retail pot sales and is the only member of the commission who voted for legalization when it was on the ballot last year.
Lawmakers this summer rewrote the ballot law, raising the rate of taxation on retail sales of the drug.
The commission is responsible for writing regulations to foster a retail marijuana industry catering to non-medical customers with sales to start by next July. Legalized weed is fairly new terrain in politics and society, and marijuana is still an illegal drug under federal law.
Although use of marijuana is now legal, under state law, for adults 21 and older in the privacy of their own homes, employers can still “enact and enforce workplace policies restricting the consumption of marijuana by employees.”
Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday praised the five people selected to lead commission, which includes his pick of Flanagan and the consensus choices of Doyle and Title.
Monday’s meeting was strictly a primer for the new board on the public meeting law, which the board is required to follow. Jonathan Sclarsic, the director of open government in Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, gave the commissioners a roughly hour-long overview of the statutes intended to provide transparency to decision-making by government boards.
On Tuesday, when the commission meets again, they are set to discuss the appointment of an acting or interim executive director, other needed hires, and the “required elements” for the commission’s mission statement, among other topics.
credit:patriotledger.com