Massachusetts Superior Court Holds That New HCA Law Does Not Apply Retroactively
On June 10, 2024, Associate Justice Jeffrey Karp, of the Massachusetts Superior Court, Essex (the “Court”), issued an important—and, to many licensed cannabis businesses in Massachusetts, surprising—ruling in the case of Haverhill Stem LLC vs. James J. Fiorentini, that the new Host Community Agreement regulations (See Chapter 180 of the Acts of 2022, “An Act Relative to Equity in the Cannabis Industry” (the “New HCA Law”)) promulgated by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (the “CCC”) do not apply retroactively to the Host Community Agreement (the “Stem HCA”) entered into in 2018 between the City of Haverhill, Massachusetts, (the “City”) and Haverhill Stem LLC (“Stem”), a licensed cannabis dispensary.
Therefore, the Court held that the Stem HCA is governed by the language of G.L. c. 94G and 935 CMR 500 et seq. as in effect at the time of entry into the Stem HCA (the “Old HCA Law”), such that the Stem HCA is not governed by the New HCA Law.
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