A Fight For Fairness in Legal Weed with Caroline Pineau

Entrepreneurs face high hurdles before they can enter the legal cannabis industry. Especially in Massachusetts, where potential business owners have to get Host Community Agreements with their cities or towns, which include the controversial 'Community Impact Fee.' Lately, more and more company owners say their towns are charging small canna-businesses the maximum amount allowed by law, not because they are impacting the community, but simply because they can.
This episode, Brit talks to Caroline Pineau, owner of Stem adult-use cannabis dispensary. Caroline is the first cannabis business owner in the state to sue her host city over the legitimacy of the Community Impact Fee. Her lawsuit alleges that the City of Haverhill is requiring the maximum impact fee from her business without providing any itemized documentation of how it incurred the costs, or how those costs are reasonably related to the pot shop. It's considered a landmark case, which has the potential to change the way the entire cannabis industry operates in the state of Massachusetts.
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Produced by Brit Smith and Andrea Muraskin, music by Homebody.