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Scot Crow (Member, Columbus) and Benton Bodamer (Member, Columbus) recently spoke with Law360 regarding the Boston U.S. Attorney’s office’s investigation of potential public corruption in the cannabis sector. More than half a dozen Massachusetts communities received subpoenas seeking information about “host community agreements,” contracts a cannabis shop must enter into with a city or town before presenting its business plan to the state’s Cannabis Control Commission, which some believe amounts to a pay-to-play system. However, Benton and Scot have concerns regarding federal intervention in a state’s cannabis market.
"They can put it under the guise of ferreting out corruption and it might very well be that, but it also is a potential detriment and barrier to compliance in the state marketplace," said Benton. "Any chilling effect the federal government creates in a state marketplace is a subsidy [to] the elicit marketplace."
"There is nothing to stop them from going state-to-state, and now you're talking about a chilling effect nationwide,” Scot told Law360.
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