You’ve got a lot of money. “Stop the nonsense, and get to work.
By Bhaamati Borkhetaria, CommonWealth Beacon
As Massachusetts lawmakers work to craft a budget, facing an ever-shrinking pile of money coming from the federal government and rattled by economic uncertainty, the leaders of one of the state’s most troubled agencies—the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC)—are saying that they cannot make crucial improvements without more money from the Legislature. So far, legislators aren’t convinced.
Travis Ahern (CCC’s executive director) says the CCC agency is in need of more funding to upgrade its IT infrastructure. This will help the agency fix some issues, such as failing to collect $550,000 worth of licensing fees.
The Commission has requested that the Legislature allocate over $30 millions for fiscal year 2026. Of this amount, $2 million will be allocated to IT upgrades.
CCC has a very short time to go before the long-awaited deadline of the final budget. All budget proposals by the House, Senate and Governor have capped the Commission’s Budget at $19.88 Million.
Ahern, from his position at CCC describes the approximately $9 million as a roadblock for needed upgrades.
He stated that the investment in IT infrastructure is the most effective way to improve operations at this regulator. “We’re looking for a procurement process to upgrade or replace those systems. But as it stands, this is not feasible, particularly with today’s budget. [how] the FY26 budget looks, we don’t have the funding to do that… When people ask [me] How can I improve my organization without proper planning? [IT] “It’s hard to describe the tools.”
Ahern explained that the consequences of not getting this funding are far more than just updating IT infrastructure. Training initiatives for people with disadvantaged backgrounds, who wish to be involved in the cannabis business, are also threatened.
It was previously reported that the budget deficit led to unfilled jobs, and mandated campaigns and research being put on hold.
Legislators are publicly frustrated with the agency, which has drawn unfavorable attention with allegations of harassment, slow regulatory rollouts, power struggles between commissioners following the suspension of the commission chair over allegations of racial insensitivity and operational failures.
In June 2024, Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro described CCC as a “rudderless vessel”. In June 2024, he urged lawmakers to place the CCC under receivership. He also urged them to reform the leadership of the Commission. In March of this year, he urged the commission to perform an audit on uncollected charges and make improvements to their IT system.
Michael Soter, State Rep. of Bellingham and Republican on the Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy, stated that before any additional money is allocated to the Commission, the Legislature must prove to themselves that they are functional, particularly in an year where the state is expecting a limited growth in revenue.
Soter, a CCC employee, said that the CCC needed to assess what it has been doing and look at where it could make some improvements to raise the funds necessary to keep things running. The CCC should not be throwing money at an issue that has no plan to resolve.
Michael Moore from Millbury has proposed a bill to create an internal audit department within the Commission. He said the Commission should examine how they can spend the budget in a more efficient manner so that money is available for the purchase of a new IT System.
It’s difficult to work with an agency who has had problems. [CCC has] had to then come back and ask for additional money when you’ve seen money squandered,” said Moore. Moore said that money meant to bring in revenue was not collected. The uncollected licensing fees are a prime example of this. [have] had.”
Soter claimed that most legislators were not interested in raising the budget of CCC. He said that when the House budget was introduced, the line item for the CCC was agreed upon.
Soter said, “They have to earn our respect and show that they need it.” “It’s an excuse to say we can’t do this because you’re not giving us more money…You’ve got plenty of money. Start tackling the problem and stop the nonsense.
Ahern has said he’s ready to do the dirty work to improve efficiency at the commission, but he believes that an improved IT infrastructure can give him more data to help implement change.
When people ask, “Do you need more people?” it’s impossible to answer. Have you got too many employees? “Should you change your priorities in the company?” Ahern. If we could more effectively deal with the many things we depend on these IT platforms for then I’d change my approach to managing the organisation, and administering our missions.
Rep. Daniel Donahue from Worcester is one of two chairs of the cannabis policy panel. He affirmed support for budgets as they are and added that the legislators still consider reforms to the agency.
“The requested IT infrastructure improvements are better suited to the resources made available through IT bonds,” said Donahue in an emailed statement, referring to bond bills targeting IT upgrades.
Bruce Stebbins, Acting Chairman of the Cannabis Policy Commission, wrote a letter in December 2024 to the chairmen of the Legislative Cannabis Policy Committee, explaining that both inflation and the commission’s duties have grown year-over-year, while the budget for the agency has stayed mostly flat, at $19 millions.
Stebbins’ letter stated: “Despite the fact that the cannabis sector has grown significantly and taxes have increased steadily, our budget as a commission hasn’t increased in proportion, thus limiting the ability of meeting regulatory needs and those of the marijuana industry.”
Ahern, who is disappointed about the lack of extra funding for the agency, will work to secure other funds and collaborate with state agencies such as the Executive Office of Technology Services and Security in order to upgrade the IT system.
He wants to move the agency as far away from last year’s scandal-plagued state as possible.
Ahern, when asked what his goals for the CCC are, said: “I’d love to see us become a dull regulatory agency where people do not think of us.” We don’t wish to appear in the media unless there is an exciting story about the cannabis industry. We want to be in the news cycle. “We want to become a story that is not newsworthy.”
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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Photograph by M. A. N. U. E. L.
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