Cannabis Control Commission Assoc. General Counsel Steven Laduzinski received his notice of termination on April 28, just nine days after Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed new legislation aimed to “modernize” the commonwealth’s cannabis laws.
In addition to numerous reforms, the act ended the terms of the previous commission members effective on the date of signing. The appointed body was basically closed with all its assets, activities, rules, and employees transferred to new leadership. One section provides for the continuity of staff: “Any employees at the transferor commission … shall remain employed by the transferee commission without interruption.”
According to Laduzinski, though, that’s not how things unfolded for him. After almost six years at the CCC as an attorney specializing in contracts, he’s filing for unemployment benefits. He says his termination was retaliation for whistleblowing during a 2023 probe of the CCC by the state’s Office of the Inspector General, and over internal investigations he later conducted under the direction of then-CCC Chair Shannon O’Brien—especially one into connections between Greatest Hits Cannabis and former Executive Director Shawn Collins.
Shannon O’Brien returned to the chair of the CCC last September, following a two-year forced hiatus. An...
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