{"id":5424,"date":"2016-01-23T23:37:56","date_gmt":"2016-01-23T23:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/?p=46385"},"modified":"2016-01-23T23:37:56","modified_gmt":"2016-01-23T23:37:56","slug":"medical-marijuana-lobbyist-forms-group-opposing-legalization-in-massachusetts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/medical-marijuana-lobbyist-forms-group-opposing-legalization-in-massachusetts\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Marijuana Lobbyist Forms Group Opposing Legalization in Massachusetts"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/medical-marijuana-lobbyist-forms-group-opposing-legalization-in-massachusetts\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>A lobbyist for Boston&#8217;s only medical cannabis\u00a0dispensary has formed a campaign committee to oppose broader marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ocpf.us\/Filers\/Index?q=95428\">public records<\/a>\u00a0filed with the state Office of Campaign &amp; Political Finance on Wednesday, the purpose of the new group, Safe Cannabis Massachusetts, is\u00a0&#8220;opposition to the ballot initiative to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol&#8221;that\u00a0is\u00a0expected\u00a0to\u00a0be voted on this November.<\/p>\n<p>The one-page document is signed by\u00a0Daniel Delaney, a political consultant who represents <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patriotcare.org\/\">Patriot Care<\/a>, the operator of what is likely to\u00a0be\u00a0the only place to legally buy marijuana in Boston for the foreseeable future unless the state&#8217;s voters approve the\u00a0broader legalization measure.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-46415\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-Shot-2016-01-21-at-8.01.35-PM-1024x651.png?a8203f\" alt=\"Safe Cannabis Massachusetts\" width=\"615\" height=\"391\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In order to get a dispensary license from the state, would-be operators in the current application round need\u00a0to have a letter of support (or non-opposition) issued by municipal officials from the city or town they wish to do business in. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is a strong opponent of marijuana law reform, and is unlikely to allow any such letters to be issued on behalf of applicants\u00a0in his\u00a0city.<\/p>\n<p>Patriot Care won its\u00a0license to operate during the state&#8217;s first application round, when no such local letters were required.\u00a0During a subsequent contentious effort to earn a use permit from the zoning board, the company\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/metro\/2015\/07\/07\/downtown-medical-marijuana-dispensary-location-still-limbo\/Lkut7q9jHR4otrdwWnOfuI\/story.html\">pledged<\/a> that it would never switch to selling marijuana for recreational use, even if it became legal to do so in Massachusetts. The permit was later approved.<\/p>\n<p>Patriot Care itself is a subsidiary of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.col-care.com\/\">Columbia Care<\/a>, which operates medical cannabis facilities\u00a0in Arizona, Illinois, Washington, D.C. and other markets. This month it opened New York City&#8217;s first medical marijuana dispensary in Union Square.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-46402\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Screen-Shot-2016-01-22-at-12.35.26-PM-1024x529.png?a8203f\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2016-01-22 at 12.35.26 PM\" width=\"768\" height=\"397\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">Delaney, who is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/daniel-delaney-6959291\">former official<\/a> with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, did not respond to Marijuana.com&#8217;s request for an interview about why he is opposing the legalization measure, though he\u00a0<\/span><a style=\"line-height: 1.5\" href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/2016\/01\/21\/medical-marijuana-lobbyist-oppose-pot-legalization-push\/yvBgn9oFpFsPSss43eGBaL\/story.html\">told Boston.com<\/a><span style=\"line-height: 1.5\">\u00a0that, &#8220;I don\u2019t necessarily have a problem with [recreational legalization]. I don\u2019t like this model.&#8221; He called the formation of the campaign committee &#8220;separate&#8221; from his representation\u00a0of Patriot Care and other medical cannabis companies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But officials with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.regulatemassachusetts.org\/\">Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol<\/a>, which is in the process of qualifying the legalization measure for November&#8217;s ballot, don&#8217;t buy it.\u00a0\u201cThis is just a blatant attempt by Patriot to maintain whatever profits they can make for however long they can,\u201d said campaign spokesman Jim Borghesani, according to Boston.com.<\/p>\n<p>Mason Tvert, communications director for the <a href=\"http:\/\/mpp.org\">Marijuana Policy Project<\/a>, which has organized successful efforts to pass legalization\u00a0initiatives in several states and is overseeing the Massachusetts campaign, agreed.\u00a0&#8220;It\u2019s kind of ironic that Patriot Care is fighting freedom in Massachusetts,&#8221; he told Marijuana.com in an email. &#8220;Perhaps they should change their name to Red Coat Care.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Delaney&#8217;s new organization\u00a0is currently reporting no donations and zero funds on hand. The next filing deadline isn&#8217;t until September, so it won&#8217;t necessarily be publicly known who is funding the opposition committee\u00a0until much closer to Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>Other medical cannabis industry players in Massachusetts have made contributions\u00a0in support of the broader legalization effort.<\/p>\n<p>Marijuana law reformers whose work has\u00a0led to the emergence\u00a0of\u00a0legal markets have not taken kindly to what they see as profiteering by greedy industry types.<\/p>\n<p>Many longtime activists, for example, opposed last year&#8217;s legalization initiative in Ohio because it proposed an\u00a0oligopolistic model for commercial cannabis cultivation controlled\u00a0by ten corporations owned by the very investors who funded the ballot initiative campaign.<\/p>\n<p>And last March, Rob Kampia, the\u00a0Marijuana Policy Project&#8217;s executive director, <a href=\"https:\/\/mjbizdaily.com\/mpp-director-threatens-arizona-cannabis-dispensaries-legalization-rift\/\">threatened<\/a>\u00a0Arizona medical cannabis dispensary operator Gina Berman with &#8220;a series of actions to harm your business&#8221; after she broke off from MPP&#8217;s legalization effort in the state and launched a competing measure that would not allow people to grow their own marijuana at home. &#8220;I\u2019m already budgeting $10,000 (as of Friday) to pay people for 1,000 hours of time to distribute literature outside of your front door, and the literature will not portray you in a kind way,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;We will not target any other dispensaries; we will only target you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The tactics in that case apparently worked; Berman is again working with\u00a0MPP to pass its legalization measure this November.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear how movement forces will react if it is confirmed that Patriot Care or other medical cannabis industry interests are funding Delaney&#8217;s new\u00a0committee in Massachusetts, but local activist\u00a0Shaleen Title, who co-drafted the pending legalization measure, predicted it wouldn&#8217;t work out well for the companies&#8217; profits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Marijuana regulation campaigns have been standing up to greedy corporate interests for decades and winning. It doesn&#8217;t make a big difference if the prohibitionist happens to be in the medical marijuana business,&#8221; she told Marijuana.com in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Voters are smart and informed on marijuana issues and they will see right through you if you&#8217;re using the issue to grasp for profits,&#8221; she said of the experience in Ohio. &#8220;I&#8217;d caution anyone thinking about doing so to look what happened to ResponsibleOhio and ultimately what happened to the reputations of the folks involved. If you&#8217;re worried about your bottom line, trying to fool voters on marijuana is a bad move.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lobbyist for Boston&#8217;s only medical cannabis\u00a0dispensary has formed a campaign committee to oppose broader marijuana legalization. According to public records\u00a0filed with the state Office of Campaign &#38; Political Finance on Wednesday, the purpose of the new group, Safe Cannabis Massachusetts, is\u00a0&#8220;opposition to the ballot initiative to regulate and tax marijuana like alcohol&#8221;that\u00a0is\u00a0expected\u00a0to\u00a0be voted on [&#8230;] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5062,2417,9,2418,1,3,738],"tags":[5063,2419,2420,3311],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5424"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}