On Nov.
Meanwhile, the recreational marijuana industry today employs over 18,000 Massachusetts workers and has generated $2.2 billion in revenue, with municipalities and the state together netting a healthy 20 percent cut of the action .
Still, legalization here is falling short of its potential in several ways, according to interviews with dozens of experts.
“These no-brainer fixes die without a vote year after year,” said Shaleen Title, an attorney who served on the state’s oversight body, the Cannabis Control Commission, and founded a drug policy think tank.
A single, stark scene from 2019 probably defines, for some, the story of legalization in Massachusetts: then-Fall River Mayor Jasiel F.
But US prosecutors and an array of other experts point to it as a symptom of the problematic approval system, in which municipal officials have extensive power to pick which prospective marijuana operators get what’s called a “host community agreement.” With that approval, they can move on to the state licensing process.
State law caps impact fees at 3 percent of a marijuana facility’s revenue and says the money must go toward offsetting costs “reasonably related” to its operation.
Municipal gatekeeping is also an impediment: Unlike the state, cities and towns aren’t obligated to consider equity when awarding pot licenses, and only a small handful do.
Bills that would steer a portion of marijuana tax revenue into a loan fund for equity applicants and require municipalities to at least consider equity have yet to pass.
On the other hand, substantial evidence links heavy marijuana use to negative cognitive effects in teenagers and young adults whose brains are still developing.
“With everything we know now, it’s naive to think about cannabis in a one-size-fits-all way,” said Dr.
Legalization does not appear so far to have markedly boosted pot usage by the young, as some had feared.
Still, critics say too little attention has been paid to rising marijuana use among young adults.
But Massachusetts State Police statistics released to the Globe don’t reflect any dramatic change since pot stores opened: Of the 8,498 arrests and criminal summonses issued by troopers for operating under the influence from Jan.
“Instead of using an unregulated product with God knows what in it, my patients are now getting marijuana that’s been tested and tracked from seed to sale,” said Dr.
Nonetheless, many consumers still prefer the illicit market: In 2020, analytics firm BDSA estimated, a whopping 68 percent of Massachusetts marijuana sales occurred underground.
The problem turned out to be relatively short-lived, however, as more stores opened and absorbed the demand.