The former chair of the state’s Cannabis Control Commission is criticizing this year’s major overhauls of the commission, saying it’s now “less efficient.”
The comments from Shannon O’Brien come nearly a month after she filed a new lawsuit against the state, the commission and state Treasurer Deb Goldberg. She’s seeking compensation under the state’s whistleblower laws for alleged retaliation after she raised issues about the commission.
In 2023, O’Brien was suspended, with Goldberg citing allegations of workplace misconduct. She was later fired. Last year, a judge ordered her reinstated, finding the evidence against her was thin. But this spring, state leaders pushed through a major law reforming the CCC, and Gov. Maura Healey appointed all-new commissioners — leaving O’Brien off the board for good.
Under the new law, there are three members of the commission, not five.
But O’Brien worries about how far those reforms will go to solve what she sees as persistent problems.
“I think it has frankly made the commission a less efficient body,” she said on GBH’s Boston Public Radio. “I’m hoping that the new chair — whom I’ve met with and I have a lot of admiration for — they still haven’t done what they need to do. [Which] is make a top-to-bottom review of the people who are creating the problems.”
O’Brien alleges the issue is not with the commissioners, but with the CCC’s senior staff. In a statement, the commission said that it could not comment on legal or personnel matters.
O’Brien doesn’t believe the necessary work has been done to strengthen the commission and its regulation of the sprawling cannabis industry.
A report from the state’s inspector general last year found that cannabis licensees were treated inequitably under limited policies and “inconsistent administration of procedures.”
“The [state] auditor and the [inspector general] have confirmed the anecdotal stories that I heard from licensees: If you’re friends with someone who’s a big person at the Cannabis Commission, you get your case buried,” O’Brien said. “If you’re not ... you get chased and they bring false claims against you.”
She believes there’s a way forward for people to start having confidence in the commission. But she doesn’t see the necessary work being done now.
“If the commission will double down and say, ‘We are going to be held accountable, we are going to be looking at the big data which could expose where the bad operators are,’ you have all the confidence in the world,” she said. “I think the new chair is going to try to do that, and I’m hoping he will.”
O’Brien also said that her lawsuit isn’t about political payback over her termination, but about holding people accountable for their actions.
“If I really wanted to be political, I could have run for treasurer myself,” she said, referencing the state job that O’Brien once held more than 20 years ago.
“What this is about is taking the very, very sound, very, very sharp decision that Judge [Robert] Gordon rendered, saying, ‘You cannot do this to an independent authority,’” O’Brien added. “Someone that you have said, ‘Go in, fix the problem,’ and then you go after the person who is exposing all of these things happening.”
In reinstating O’Brien last year, Gordon also ordered that she receive back pay and benefits dating back to the start of her initial termination.
“Most of that [back pay] went to my lawyers,” O’Brien said Friday. “It’s not just about the money ... but it’s also the message that it sends.”
In the latest suit, O’Brien is seeking damages to be determined by a jury, for reputational, professional, emotional, physical and economic injuries she says weren’t addressed in her previous case. She is also seeking compensation equal to three times the lost wages, benefits and other compensation under the state’s Whistleblower Act.
Andrew Napolitano, a spokesperson for Goldberg, said the office cannot comment on the specifics of pending litigation.
“However, we are confident that the allegations set forth in the complaint are baseless,” he wrote. “Shannon O’Brien is once again attempting to rehash issues that have already been investigated or litigated, further wasting taxpayer dollars. This latest complaint is about generating headlines, not presenting the facts. We are focused on the work of our office. It is time to move on.”
The first hearing date has not yet been set in O’Brien’s case against the commission.
