The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission is poised to vote later this month on regulations that would finally put into motion policy changes they agreed to last year, and which struggling cannabis delivery businesses say would make a big difference to their bottom lines.
The commission voted in December to change a rule that requires two employees to travel in cannabis delivery cars. The rule was created for security, the idea being that it could be risky to leave a truck carrying a large quantity of marijuana and cash unattended while a driver got out to make deliveries.
But the small businesses that have delivery licenses — many of which are owned by Black, brown or low-income people, populations disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs who the state is now trying to create new economic opportunities for — say the two-driver rule means they have to pay two people to do a job one person can do, and it limits the number of deliveries they can make at once, simultaneously inflating labor costs and decreasing output.
Commissioners and staff met with police officers and public safety officials to discuss the impacts of getting rid of the two-driver rule, Commissioner Kimberly Roy said. Commissioner Nurys Camargo said it was a matter of finding a solution that would ensure "folks will be safe and successful in their businesses," as delivery companies have struggled to stay afloat.
"We are the guinea pigs of delivery. Thankfully, we didn't die in the experiment. We've been close to it," said Chris Fevry, the CEO of Dris/Your Green Package.
After hearing businesses' pleas that the current system is unprofitable and unsustainable, the CCC voted 3-1 in December to change the two-driver rule. Almost a year later, however, that change never actually occurred.
Commissioners plan to vote on a batch of regulations that include the reform to the two-driver rule on Oct. 22.
Tuesday's meeting was a final public hearing on the draft regulations, and about a dozen business owners stressed how important the change will be and how direly needed it has been for years.
"This is something myself and countless other people have been advocating for since the summer of 2020. Four years. We started when I was about to turn 27. I'm 31 now. That's like a whole high school experience; four years just talking about the same thing over and over and over again," said Devin Alexander of Quincy, who owns Rolling Releaf delivery service based in Newton.
Asked by the News Service about the almost 11 months between the initial vote last year to change the two-driver rule and the final vote at the end of October, Commissioner Kimberly Roy said "promulgation of regulations do not happen overnight."
"There are a number of steps we need to take, from a red line version to public testimony, filing with the Secretary of State's office, going back, and we're going to have to do a final round of edits, publicly, if you will, and then then officially promulgating and filing. So it is a little bit of a laborious task, because there are a number of steps required by law, and you know, today is a crucial component of that, hearing directly from folks, from licensees, from stakeholders. We heard from medical patients today, so it's critically important for us to hear directly from people out in the community," she said. "So it does take a while, it doesn't happen overnight."
The regulations as they're currently written allow delivery licensees the option of delivering marijuana directly to consumers with just one driver so long as the total retail value of the products inside the vehicle doesn't exceed $5,000. Two agents would still be required to staff vehicles transporting products above that amount up to the $10,000 delivery maximum.
The regulations do not, however, change the two-driver rule for business-to-business transportation of marijuana products — an inconsistency that caught the commissioner's attention Tuesday.
A number of business owners brought up the issue during their testimony.
"The two driver rule can have a really major positive financial impact on our industry if the commission were just to mirror the same language changes that is implementing for deliveries to consumers and apply them to the business to business deliveries within the marijuana transport section of the regulations, you can help all licensees in a time when the whole industry is struggling. So this includes our independent testing labs that are transporting very small amounts of cannabis, as well as our independent product manufacturers who have limited resources and have to use that second driver when it's not actually making deliveries," said Ryan Dominguez, executive director of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition.
Dominguez said he collected delivery data from each of its 70-plus members, and found that in over 20,000 deliveries between 2020 and 2024, there were no incidents of theft, diversion or robbery with business to business deliveries.
Roy was interested in the testimony during the hearing, saying that she was open to talking to the CCC's legal counsel to change the regulations to include all delivery types.
The commission's legal team is going to check whether it's within the scope of the regulation package they are planning to vote on by late October, Roy said, though changing it at this point could cause delays.
Asked whether she would be open to considering the changes, even if it would delay the whole regulation reform package, Commissioner Nurys Camargo said she has to "sleep on that."
"I'm definitely for making the one agent in the car optional across the board. I think it makes sense. We've heard from testing labs that sometimes, you know, they have very small testing badges in the car, and they're using two agents," Carmargo said. "However, if it delays the current batch of regs, I'm going to have to sleep on that and think about it, because I don't want this batch of regs to delay more than its timeline right now."
She added that the commission is hoping to vote on another batch of regulation reforms before the end of the year, and could make the change then.
