Massachusetts Cannabis Regulator’s Firing Unlawful, Judge Says

A Massachusetts state court judge ordered the reinstatement of the the former chair of the state’s cannabis regulator, who was fired last year amid misconduct claims advanced by the state treasurer.

Suffolk Superior Court Justice Robert B. Gordon said Tuesday that the allegations leveled against former Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien by Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah B. Goldberg (D) fell short of justifying the official’s termination.

“Shorn of rhetoric and hyperbole, the Treasurer’s Decision attempts to stretch a modest number of unexceptional facts into a Procrustean bed of gross misconduct they simply cannot be made to fit,” Gordon said. ...