Marijuana retailers file suit to void delivery rules in Massachusetts

Making good on a warning issued months ago, the organization that represents most of the state’s marijuana retailers is suing the Cannabis Control Commission to invalidate the new regulations that create a separate category of businesses allowed to deliver non-medical marijuana directly to consumers.

The Commonwealth Dispensary Association opposed the commission’s regulations while they were in development last year and last week filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court asking a judge to void the regulations. The group and its attorneys from Foley Hoag argue that the new delivery-only license types violate the state’s marijuana law, which they say gives the retailers the right to deliver cannabis under their existing licenses.

“Simply, the CCC overstepped its authority and disregarded state law, radically upending the established rules that hundreds of small businesses and their host communities operated in accordance with since 2016,” the CDA said in a statement.

The CCC declined to comment on the ongoing legal matter, but Chairman Steven Hoffman was adamant late last year that the commission was on solid legal ground if the CDA carried out its threat to sue to overturn the commission’s 3-1 vote to adopt the new industry rules. [Read more at Daily Hampshire Gazette]