Months of suspense are over. State cannabis regulators have picked their next executive director, voting Monday to begin the process of bringing back a former head of its government affairs operation to lead the entire agency into a new chapter. This comes after the formal firing of former Commissioner Shannon O’Brien, and ongoing legal actions between her and her ‘boss’ — State Treasurer Goldberg.
The Cannabis Control Commission voted 3-0 Monday to begin contract negotiations with David Lakeman, who has been leading the Cannabis Division at the Illinois Department of Agriculture since he left the CCC in 2020. Before settling on Lakeman as their preferred candidate late Monday afternoon, commissioners interviewed him and three other finalists in public at their Worcester headquarters.
Lakeman will have much to do, including determining to the satisfaction of the public and cannabis businesses like those in Franklin, why so many mandatory fees appear not to have been properly collected by the Commission.
“I see Mr. Lakeman as someone who is well-versed in the Massachusetts cannabis industry, but also built an agency in Illinois. I have in my notes 102 employees that he managed and a $28.4 million budget, some really innovative things around a testing lab and around badging and around IT and technical support out in his industry. And I believe we’re at a point … I think stakeholders want to see us move at a quicker pace and want to see us get things accomplished,” Commissioner Kimberly Roy said. “And government sometimes moves at its own pace, but having an individual that has already accomplished some of the things we’re trying to accomplish here for the industry, I think would be extraordinarily helpful.”
When the CCC launched its search for the second full-fledged executive director in its seven-year history this spring, commissioners said they were looking for a “visionary leader” and a “tough, strategic thinker” who can lead the agency that has been under a harsh spotlight for more than a year as the legal marijuana industry it oversees matures and prepares for potential shifts at the federal level.
Lakeman, the current director of the Cannabis Division at the Illinois Department of Agriculture, was the CCC’s first point-person on Beacon Hill. He said he was the sixth employee hired by the agency, and worked as its director of government affairs from 2018 until 2020. Before his CCC stint, Lakeman was a legislative analyst at the Massachusetts Municipal Association and served on the Cannabis Advisory Board, a role in which he was responsible for writing parts of the CCC’s regulations. [Read More @ Franklin Observer]