wbjournal.com | October 28, 2024 | Worcester Business Journal 71
35th Anniversary
WBJ
HERE'S TO 35 YEARS OF HEALTHY
BUSINESS GROWTH IN CENTRAL MASS
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is proud to support
the thriving business, civic, and senior communities
of Central Massachusetts.
We're honored to have been voted
as best health insurance provider
for the eighth year in a row.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
headquartered agency tasked with
enforcing these rules.
The long list of problems emerging
from the CCC stretches further than
the lines to get into dispensaries
during the first few weeks of
recreational sales in 2016. Concerns
about everything ranging from
product safety, equity, worker safety,
and the behavior of commission staff
have accumulated.
Lawmakers are now considering
audits, receivership and other actions
to get the CCC's offices at Union
Station back on track. Business owners
are now dealing with the falling price
per pound of marijuana and social
equity companies struggle to compete
with large, multi-state cannabis
behemoths backed by celebrities,
sometimes featuring former CCC
employees serving in lobbying roles.
Despite challenges, Luzier is hopeful.
"I think when [CCC officials] said
that they were building the plane
while they were flying, it was an
apt description," he said. "I think
eventually they'll start to come around
to be supportive of the industry as they
should."
Pre-rolled marijuana cigarettes have made up
about 14 percent of all product sales in the state
since legal sales began in 2018.
Ulysses Youngblood is the President of Major Bloom, a minority-owned dispensary that has quickly
become a prominent member of the Canal District business community since first opening in 2021.
PHOTO | MATT WRIGHT
