Cannabis Equity: Stigma Still Seems to Impact Marijuana-Based Businesses in Mass.

Twelve years ago, cannabis entrepreneur Devin Alexander, 29, was arrested for the possession of three grams of cannabis.  Today, he co-owns one of only seven businesses in the state approved for a delivery operator license – driving cannabis products to people’s doorsteps.

Ironically, his cannabis arrest record improved his eligibility for a state-regulated license.

“To be able to legally sell cannabis on the same streets that I got arrested for – and get praise for it – is mind boggling, honestly,” he said.

Not everyone treats his company, Rolling Releaf, welcomingly.  Alexander, and people throughout the Massachusetts cannabis industry, tell NBC10 Boston a stubborn stigma around cannabis persists even though the marijuana trade has been legal and state-regulated for many years.

“The short and sweet answer is: yes, the stigma still exists,” said Cannabis Control Board Commissioner Ava Callender Concepcion.  “But I think that it is slowly going away. And I think it's because there's more awareness.”

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Whatever stigma remains may inflict injury on cannabis industry business bottom lines.  For delivery operators like Alexander, he finds mandated security requirements to be an overreach and municipality bans on his service to be misguided.

“How are you going to legalize something on a state level but then go town by town and say you're not allowed to get this delivered to your household?” Alexander asked rhetorically.

About 120 Massachusetts municipalities ban the delivery of cannabis in their towns.

On the issue of security, all delivery operators are required to wear body cameras and keep two workers in the delivery vehicle for all orders.  Both requirements are costly to a start-up business, the latter is the number one threat to survivability, according to Rolling Releaf. 

Commissioner Concepcion seems to agree, a change is warranted.

“I think the commission needed more data to understand where we were and if there were other safety precautions in place that were enough to remove the necessity for two drivers in a vehicle.

“I'm committed, and I believe a few of my other commissioners are also committed, to now evaluating and tackling that two to one delivery-driver rule,” Commissioner Concepcion said.

Mass. Cannabis Delivery licenses: 7
Mass. Cannabis Courier Licenses: 9

Deliverers sell their own wholesale products while couriers deliver what’s sold by dispensaries.

Just a couple months into a new delivery business, Alexander is banking on that rule getting changed and on municipalities lifting their bans as the perceived stigma subsides. If that happens, he believes Rolling Releaf is well positioned to capitalize from its dispatch center in Newton.

“The name of the game is population density and accessibility,” he says. “Because our headquarters is right here, we can be anywhere in the greater Boston area in an hour or less.”

Dispensary vs Liquor Store Test

We checked Brookline Police call logs for a dispensary along Route 9 and a liquor store near Coolidge Corner to test whether one created more police activity than the other.   The dispensary created far more calls for service and incident reports during an 11-month period in 2022, but none of the calls indicated an ongoing public safety risk.

Here’s a summary or review the public records for yourself.

DISPENSARY INCIDENT REPORTS	LIQUOR STORE INCIDENT REPORTS
Shoplifting	Check Fraud
Medical Emergency
Found Property
Found Property
Motor Vehicle Accident
Motor Vehicle Accident

DISPENSARY CALLS TO POLICE	LIQUOR STORE CALLS TO POLICE
41 calls	3 calls