PROVIDENCE – State leaders charged with appointing the 11 voting members of the Cannabis Advisory Board, which will advise the recently created Cannabis Control Commission, released the list of their choices Thursday.
Gov. Daniel J. McKee, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio were tasked with packing the advisory body, which under state law must include 11 voting and eight non-voting members to “work in collaboration with the Cannabis Control Commission to advise and issue recommendations on the use, commerce, regulation and effects of adult-use and medical cannabis within the state,” according to a joint press release issued Thursday.
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Non-voting members will be the heads or designees of R.I. Commerce Corp., the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, R.I. Department of Health, commissioner of education, superintendent of public safety, R.I. Department of Business Regulation, secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and a representative from the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy selected by the commission.
Three of the voting members were appointed by McKee, while Shekarchi and Ruggerio each appointed four candidates. Members will serve three-year terms or until a successor is appointed, according to state statute. The board will hold public meetings and is subject to open meetings law.
McKee said the appointments “represent a diverse slate of candidates who possess a wide range of experience that will prove critical in their new roles” and will help “lay the groundwork for the future of cannabis in the Ocean State.”
In a joint statement, Shekarchi and Ruggerio said the state law legalizing adult-use Cannabis “is aimed at more than simply ending the policy of prohibition. It is also about righting past wrongs, and building a new industry in as fair and equitable a manner as possible.”
Cannabis Control Commission Chairwoman Kim Ahern said Thursday the board will “ have an important role to play in advising the Cannabis Control Commission, as we carry out our statutory obligation to oversee the regulation, licensing and control of adult use and medical cannabis in our state.”
The CCC will be crafting new regulations and running oversight of the cannabis industry, including the approval of 24 new retail licenses allowable under the Rhode Island Cannabis Act passed in May 2022. The three-member panel has been holding a series of public listening sessions to gather public feedback, the next scheduled for Aug. 18 at the R.I. Public Utilities Commission building in Warwick.
McKee appointed Ronald Crosson II, executive director of Urban Ventures, Inc. to serve as Chair and Social Equity Officer; Angela Bannerman Ankoma, vice president and executive director of equity leadership with the Rhode Island Foundation; and Stuart J. Procter, co-founder and current Laboratory Director of PureVita Laboratories, a cannabis testing facility.
Shekarchi appointed Angelyne E. Cooper-Bailey, legal counsel in the R.I. Department of Labor and Training; Michael A. DiLauro, owner and manager of the Just Criminal Justice Group; Melina Lodge, executive director of the Housing Network of Rhode Island; and Armand T. Lusi, principal with Evergreen Gardens LLC and the president of the Rhode Island Cultivator Industry Association.
Ruggerio appointed Emily R. Almeida, quality and compliance manager for Green Thumb Industries; Dr. Mary J. Archibald, truancy officer and school social worker for Providence Public Schools and adjunct faculty member in Rhode Island College’s Sociology Department and School of Social Work; Dr. Dioscaris R. Garcia, professor and co-director of the Diane N. Weiss Center for Orthopedic Trauma Research at Brown University; and Nicole M. Verdi, an attorney and head of government affairs and policy, New England for Orsted Americas.
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
An 18 person Board is asinine.