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Boston Herald
Boston Herald
13 Aug 2023
Boston Herald editorial staff


NextImg:Editorial: At $181K, Massachusetts pot boss no bargain

Cannabis board boss Shannon O’Brien is paid $181,722 to oversee the state’s weed rollout.

Losing her cool and needing to apologize for it because a key staffer is leaving is unprofessional.

It comes as the latest tally shows the Bay State has hit a new one-month high in legal weed sales — $136 million in July. The previous record was set in June when $132.9 million in sales was recorded. That’s a lot of gummies.

It’s clear that in Massachusetts, Democrats take care of their own. O’Brien was a failed Democratic candidate for governor and has landed on her feet with this job. Her outburst just adds more questions than answers.

It’s clear she was overreacting to the departure of the agency’s long-serving executive director, Shawn Collins. He earns $201,879 and even if he’s the reincarnation of Steve Jobs, a suitable replacement can be found at that hefty salary.

So declaring we’re in a “crisis” is far from reality. Maybe O’Brien should earn some of her salary and take over until a replacement is found. Try working, we’d say.

“I want to begin by apologizing to my fellow commissioners regarding the way I made an announcement before I left our July 28th meeting,” O’Brien said Thursday. “I was not graceful in doing it. I apologize for what I did.”

Taxpayers shouldn’t need to watch a career politician prove what we’ve known for a long time — most of the executives in the state could go and we wouldn’t miss them.