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Interim Cannabis Commission chair wants 'safe, equitable industry' in Massachusetts

Marijuana for sale at INSA in Easthampton, Massachusetts.
Nancy Eve Cohen
/
NEPM
Marijuana for sale at INSA in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

Sarah Kim, the interim chair of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, said she is thankful to be entrusted with this responsibility. Kim is a deputy treasurer and general counsel in the state's treasurer's office and was sworn in on Monday,

"I am so thrilled to be part of this agency’s work, to ensure a safe and equitable industry even if it is for a short period of time," she said, during the commission's monthly meeting held Thursday.

Kim also thanked former chair Steven Hoffman, who resigned at the end of April with no public notice, about four months before the end of his five-year term. She said Hoffman set the foundation for a very successful industry.

Several members of the commission noted all of the original commissioners from the first years of legal cannabis have departed.

Commissioner Nurys Camargo said she looks forward to the next phase of the industry.

"We can do more. And we should do more when it comes to righting the wrongs related to this industry," Camargo said.

Camargo called on lawmakers to create a social equity fund, repair the host community agreement process and allow for social consumption of marijuana.

The state senate unanimously passed a bill in April that addressed these issues. A similar bill would still have to be passed by the House and then signed by the governor.

At the meeting commissioners also discussed new applications for cannabis licenses.

Kim will lead the commission while the state treasurer's office completes a search for a new chair. The office is looking for someone with experience in corporate management, finance or securities.

Nancy Eve Cohen is a former NEPM senior reporter whose investigative reporting has been recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for Hard News, along with awards for features and spot news from the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), American Women in Radio & Television and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She has reported on repatriation to Native nations, criminal justice for survivors of child sexual abuse, linguistic and digital barriers to employment, fatal police shootings and efforts to address climate change and protect the environment. She has done extensive reporting on the EPA's Superfund cleanup of the Housatonic River.

Previously, she served as an editor at NPR in Washington D.C., as well as the managing editor of the Northeast Environmental Hub, a collaboration of public radio stations in New York and New England.

Before working in radio, she produced environmental public television documentaries. As part of a camera crew, she also recorded sound for network television news with assignments in Russia, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba and in Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia.
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