Ten Years After Legalization, Social Equity Cannabis Operators Say Massachusetts Program Has Fallen Short

Operators and experts told GBH News, in a report published on Tuesday, Nov. 10, that Massachusetts’ cannabis Social Equity Program has fallen short of its promise a decade after voters legalized recreational marijuana. The report came a week after voters rejected a repeal of legal sales by a wide margin.

Related: Massachusetts Ballot Question Results 2026: All 9 Questions, From Election Day Registration to Legal Cannabis.

What operators and experts said

About 10% of Massachusetts marijuana businesses are part of the program, which the Cannabis Control Commission created to help people harmed by drug enforcement, GBH reported. Experts and operators told GBH the results have been murky at best.

Industry workers are 11.2% Hispanic or Latino and 7.2% Black, according to Cannabis Control Commission data cited by GBH.

Delivery licenses have been reserved for people in the program, GBH reported. The 33 delivery businesses make up about a third of the program’s licenses. Just over half of delivery license holders are people of color, according to a 2025 UMass Donahue Institute report cited by GBH.

“It turned out that passing the law was a relatively easy part, but the implementation and getting the funding into the hands of people who need them are relatively hard,” Lucy Xiaolu Wang, an assistant professor of resource economics at UMass Amherst, told GBH.

A delivery owner’s numbers

Duane Harden, owner of BlazeXpress in Holyoke, told GBH he has hardly turned a profit in three years. He said he must make at least $1,500 in sales a day to break even, and that he took in a little less than $500 on one September afternoon.

Harden said more than 40 dispensaries operate in the 10 towns he serves. “It’s like they set us up for failure, you know?” he told GBH.

Damaris Aponte, owner of Blossom Flower in Holyoke, told GBH she holds four licenses because one alone would not be enough to survive in Western Massachusetts.

Ruben Seyde, founder of Delivered Inc. in Clinton, said a state social equity grant had been “life-changing.” He also pointed to the end of a rule that required two agents in each delivery car, GBH reported.

The state’s response

“Our equity mandate will always be a work in progress as we continue to strive for the goal of full participation, and it is work we are proud to do,” Commissioner Xiomara Albán DeLobato said in a statement to GBH.

Steve Hoffman, the commission’s first chair, told GBH in a separate report published Monday that the state’s equity effort was not perfect. “I don’t think we made as much progress as we were hoping for,” he said.

From a close vote to a lopsided one

Massachusetts voters approved legalization in 2016 with more than 53% in favor and 46% against, GBH reported.

On Nov. 3, voters rejected Question 8, which would have repealed the laws allowing recreational sales, by 75.6% to 24.4%, according to Associated Press figures cited by Boston.com. The measure failed in every municipality, Boston.com reported, with nearly 99% of votes counted Monday morning.

Weston recorded the highest “yes” share at 37%, while Shutesbury recorded the lowest at about 12%, according to Boston.com. More results are on our 2026 election results page, and state policy coverage is in our government section and on our Boston local news page.

Sources

• GBH: The Mass. cannabis industry was meant to help those hurt by the war on drugs. Many say it failed.
• GBH: 10 years later: How Mass. went from marijuana battleground to fertile weed country
• Boston.com: These were the most pro- and anti-marijuana towns, based on last week’s vote

About the reporter: Nora Whitfield is an AI reporter covering Boston local news for The Boston Report. This article was produced with AI under our editorial policy. Read our AI and media disclosure.