Politics
Massachusetts’s Top Marijuana Regulator Discusses Future Of State’s Legal Industry
“I want to make sure that we roll out social consumption safely and with a compliant implementation.”
The acting chair of the Cannabis Control Commission, Bruce Stebbins, is looking at another five years on the board of an agency that is currently two members short and has seen many leadership challenges in just the past two years.
On August 13, Stebbins was reappointed to the commission by Governor Maura Healey (D), Attorney General Andrea Campbell (D), and Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg (D), who all gave him a vote of confidence for his leadership ability. Under the law, commissioners serve five-year terms and are capped at two terms.
The state agency has experienced ongoing dysfunction since Goldberg suspended former Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien in September 2023. In the year following, the commission did not have a designated chair, and the commissioners haggled over who would take the position temporarily in public meetings.
Goldberg eventually fired O’Brien and appointed Stebbins as the acting chair. (O’Brien is fighting Goldberg’s decision in court so in the meantime, the treasurer hasn’t appointed a permanent replacement for O’Brien.) The agency was without an executive director for over a year after Shawn Collins quit in November 2023. The agency hired Travis Ahern to take on the post starting in March of this year.
Both Ahern and Stebbins have said that the Legislature has not provided the Cannabis Control Commission–which has seen regulatory delays, allegations of harassment, uncollected fees–with adequate funding to meet its oversight and operational needs. Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro, the state’s inspector general, has called the agency a “rudderless ship.”
Nurys Camargo left the commission in May, leaving the board with two vacancies. Ava Callender Concepcion–whose position is appointed by the attorney general–is approaching the end of her term in January 2026. Kimberly Roy still has nearly a year before her term ends in July 2026. Neither Concepcion nor Roy have been reappointed yet.
CommonWealth Beacon spoke with Stebbins about his experience on the commission and what his vision is for the next five years. The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
COMMONWEALTH BEACON: Why have you decided to take on this role as a commissioner again?
BRUCE STEBBINS: I’ve enjoyed working with this new industry. It’s exciting. It’s dynamic. It’s entrepreneurial. Being an effective regulator in a climate like that is a challenge I’m really interested in tackling. I’ve really enjoyed working with this team of professionals. As you know, we’ve added some new faces since even the beginning of this year, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with all of them.
CWB: There have been many criticisms leveled at the CCC–that CCC has been slow at passing regulations like the two-driver rule change, which removed the requirement that any cannabis delivery be made with two drivers in the vehicle, or that it’s taken a while for social consumption to get off the ground. Is there something the CCC and potentially you could have done better?
STEBBINS: We did hear the criticisms of why it took so long to change the two-agent rule, why we’re still working on social consumption.
I would push back a little bit and say, you know, it’s not just hearing one set of voices or one side of the argument. I think what the commission has really done well and effectively is [try] to engage a really broad range of stakeholders. With the two-agent rule, we heard a lot from delivery licensees, but I think for myself and for my colleagues, it was important to hear from the public safety community and [get] a little bit of experience under our belt and to see how the [regulations] are actually working before we decide to change it.
That kind of thoughtful approach, I think, leads to better decision making. I also think it leads to confidence that folks can have in this agency and how we’re regulating.
CWB: Are there things that the CCC could have done better in the past five years from your perspective?
STEBBINS: We are an agency that is maturing. We are far from being a startup agency that we were even four or five years ago. We are keeping up with a bigger marketplace and currently still having our budget flatlined over the last couple years [by the Legislature].
We continue to learn. We continue to strive to be a better agency. Folks may look at us and say, ‘Well, you took too long to do this.’ I’d like to keep thinking that we did it in a thoughtful, diligent way when we’ve made some of these big changes.
CWB: There have been allegations of harassment at the CCC. Now that you are a leader there, what changes are you making to create a better work environment?
STEBBINS: I’ve heard those criticisms. I think if all of us continue to bring an approach of being collaborative and respectful in the workplace, and appreciate people’s differing opinions and points of view, we continue to be a place that people want to come and work despite some of those criticisms.
When we post a job, we get hundreds of resumes. So people are still anxious to come and work for us. But I think as long as I take this responsibility myself and extend it to other leaders within the commission, we can continue to work towards a collaborative, respectful workplace. Some of those issues that came up in the past will certainly be behind us.
CWB: What have you learned from being the acting chair for the past year?
STEBBINS: I continue to learn a lot. I think even prior to being appointed acting chair there was still a lot to learn about the industry.
The one major difference for me is that as chair, you get to set the agenda. I set the meeting agenda, but I don’t necessarily set the policy agenda. And that’s something I continue to do with my colleagues. I look forward to having that continued collaboration with my colleagues to address new issues and also at the same time to welcome opportunities for our team to put issues forward. Because many of them are out there inspecting and doing regulatory work with our licensees every day, and they’re living and breathing our regulations every day. We want to look to them to be a resource as to what we should consider changing or fixing. That’s a big responsibility as chair.
CWB: If the treasurer were to name you permanent chair, would you accept that role?
STEBBINS: If I’m offered the permanent role, I’ll accept it, and at the same time, we’ll just continue to do the good work that we’re doing.
CWB: What’s your vision for the next five years, and what do you hope the CCC can accomplish?
STEBBINS: Some of what I’ve shared with you is what I hope we can continue–the collaborative workspace, how do we address challenges before they pop up, and how do we address opportunities that we might see.
I want to make sure that we roll out social consumption safely and with a compliant implementation. I’ve talked with my colleagues, and our team is collaborating to see what in our regulations needs to be kind of modernized and updated.
Knowing that we’re seven to eight years in now, we should be looking at the regulations that the inaugural set of commissioners stood up and seeing if they’re still required, how they’re functioning and operating. We’re looking to modernize our regulations–are things still needed? Where can we also offer some clarity both to the industry and for our inspectors?
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
