2024 Business Women Awards
ACHIEVEMENT HONOREE: Megan Sheehan
Green Path Legal founder
LIFE LESSONS COME from all directions. Consider the takeaway for Megan Sheehan, a Barrington lawyer: “My great aunties told me, ‘I just discovered vape pens!’ ”
It was an aha moment for Sheehan, who says she now uses cannabis for insomnia.
She’s not alone.
“When clients began asking me how to get into hemp and CBD [cannabidiol oil], I got excited,” Sheehan said. “It’s interesting legally because cannabis intersects with state, federal and criminal law. There are a lot of gray areas.”
Initially, Sheehan’s practice had been primarily in general law, but she also volunteered with patient advocacy groups. She saw how cannabis could help those with epilepsy or suffering from serious pain. Using marijuana helps them avoid opioids.
She started taking clients in the cannabis business in 2017, then launched Green Path Legal, an all-female practice in Barrington that focuses on marijuana issues, in 2022.
Initially, Sheehan worked alongside her mother as a lawyer at Sheehan & Associates Law LLC, but as cannabis was legalized in more jurisdictions, the laws surrounding it intrigued her. Clients were asking for advice in areas ranging from plant cultivation and retail dispensaries to licensing and zoning disputes. It was time to launch Green Path as an adjunct practice, and Sheehan has represented hundreds of clients in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Part of Sheehan’s work revolves around educating clients appearing before local zoning and planning boards. In a recent case, her firm successfully represented a Black pharmacist who’d won a license to open a compassion center in Woonsocket. The city zoning board had turned down the special use permit, saying, among other things, it wouldn’t fit with the neighborhood, which already had a methadone clinic.
“We appealed it to a Superior Court judge and won,” she said. “Although the judge didn’t rule on the issue of race, we believe it was a factor.”
Although Rhode Island is behind its neighbors in decriminalizing pot use, that’s also an opportunity. The state can learn from the best practices of others, she says.
A cannabis entrepreneur needs deep pockets, which eliminates a lot of historically disadvantaged groups in the community, she says.
A would-be entrepreneur has to afford rent for a prospective location while waiting for the next lottery of licenses. Simply applying for one can cost $10,000, and the last round of compassionate licenses went for $500,000.
To help advance social equity for patients, consumers and entrepreneurs, Green Path co-sponsors policy salons around the state. These allow people to network over upcoming legislation.
