Hello everyone. We're just going to give it a second to let the waiting room clear. Please make sure you're muted as you enter. And for those presenting, please make sure your video and audio are working. All right, we're going to get started. Good afternoon. This is a hearing before
the Boston Cannabis Board, the BCB. Today is February 11, 2026. Today's hearing is being conducted pursuant to amendments to the open meeting law. This is what allows us to meet virtually. This hearing is being recorded and will be posted to the city of Boston's website. Before I review some procedural
matters, I will introduce Chairman Kathleen Joyce. >> Good afternoon. My name is Kathleen Joyce, chair of the Boston Cannabis Board. And today I'm pleased to be joined by Commissioners Lisa Holmes, Commissioner Jack Kensaw, uh, Commissioner Sonel Gandhi,
Commissioner Raone Sodto, and Commissioner John Smith. >> Thank you, Chairwoman Joyce. My name is Jasmine Wyn, and I am the Boston Cannabis Board Manager. We are also joined by Luke Santals who is our cannabis licensing specialist. I will begin by calling each item in the order they appear on our agenda. We have three
amendments to already approved licenses and two new license applications. Each amendment application will have 5 minutes to present to the BCB and the new applications will have 10 minutes to present followed by questions and comments from the board members. We will then take public testimony beginning with elected officials or their
representatives followed by the general public. If you wish to testify, please sign up via the link that will be put in the chat. If you if you have already signed up, you don't have to do it again. Additionally, you may use the chat function to request to testify as well. Please wait until the matter in
which you would like to speak about is called. Do not use the chat function to give testimony. It would not be considered. Please state your full name, address, and any affiliation while you're given testimony. Testimony will be limited to 2 minutes, at which time you would be muted. Additional testimony
may be submitted in writing to cannabis boardboston.gov. The record will be kept open until Monday, February 16th at 5:00 p.m. The BCB does not give any more weight to spoken testimony than it does written testimony. All right, we'll begin with our amendment applications.
The following three amendments are related. They share the same representation and they're requesting the same changes. So, I'm going to read all three into the record and then we'll proceed with the presentation. So the lency is ber C3 Dorchester LLC high doing business as high-profile Bedadega.
The license permits is 43 Freeport Street in Dorchester. The license type is a marijuana retail license. The second license is Massachusetts Citizens for Social Equity LLC doing business as high-profile bed. The license premises 561 Deludy Street in Dorchester. The
license type is a marijuana retail license. And the third application is from Massachusetts Citizens of Social Equity LLC doing business as high-profile Bedadega. The license premises 39.95 to 39.997 Washington
Street in Rosendale and the license type is a marijuana retail license. All three are requesting a change of ownership interest. The lency is seeking board approval for an approves an approved employee stock ownership transfer in which 100% of the equity ownership of C3
Industries Inc. which is 49% owner of the license will be transferred to a newly formed ESOP trust. The transaction does not affect the 51% majority ownership held by Chevz retail Holdings LLC who is present on behalf of the
Lency. >> Thank you Jasmine. Good afternoon. Uh Daniel Glyman here on behalf of the applicants. >> All right, you may begin Daniel. Thank you. >> Thank you Jasmine and uh good afternoon
madame chair, members of the commission. Nice to be before you all this afternoon. Thank you very much for having us. Uh, as noted, my name is Dan Glistman. I'm an attorney with Prince Loel Thai. Uh, here on behalf of my clients, Urba C3 Doorchester LLC and
Massachusetts Citizens for Social Equity LLC. It uh in connection with our request for the proposed uh change in ownership of the non Boston Equity ownership of these entities. Uh, as Jasmine noted,
the applicant is seeking approval of the transfer of the 49% ownership currently held by C3 Industries, Inc., uh, to be transferred into, um, an employee stock ownership trust, uh, commonly referred
to or or known as an ESOP trust. Um, notably again as Jasmine mentioned, there's no changes to the day-to-day operations of the facilities uh affected by this request and uh Mr. Chavez
through his LLC uh will remain the 51% owner of all of these licenses. Um this is a a corporate restructuring strategy. um one that has been implemented by uh a few other licenses over the last few
years in Massachusetts and uh is becoming somewhat more of a popular strategy amongst cannabis establishments. Um and C3 Industries, Inc. is implementing this not only in Massachusetts but across its entire
portfolio. Uh and I'm joined today by Ian Gross, the general counsel for C3 Industries, Inc. who can answer any more detailed questions or specific questions that you may have on the ESOP itself. Uh and beyond that, we don't have any other
presentation. So, uh again, thank you all very much for your time today. Happy to answer any questions that the board may have. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dan. Um do any of the commissioners have any questions for this applicant?
I don't but I might after the other commissioners. >> Okay. >> Go ahead. >> Commissioner Holmes. Yeah. >> I do. And it's basically so the so the 49% so all the employees of the firm are
going to basically be the partners in that 49%. And they share in the do they share in the profits? >> Sure. I I can take this. So >> go ahead Ian. Thank So in good good afternoon everyone. Thank you again for having us here. So C3 right now is owned
by a large group of private shareholders and investors subject to receipt of regulatory approvals. Those shares will be sold to the trust who holds the shares um for the benefit of eligible employees. So it
it's really similar to a 401k plan. Okay, >> where it's heavily regulated by the IRS, by Orisa, and it's essentially the employees, the eligible employees pursuant to our plan will have interest that vests over time. That's really like
a contingent interest in a retirement account. >> Um, and this is something that it's good for the company, it's good for the employees, they don't have to contribute any money to it. It's tax deferred. And studies have shown historically over time that I think something along the
lines of four employee retirement savings go up by 4x if they participate in an ESOP. And it aligns our incentives. It helps us attract and retain uh new talent which is always important in competitive markets like
Boston and the other seven states we're in. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that information. >> My pleasure. Any other commission? >> Thanks, Jasmine. So, ESOPs are like
an employeeowned ownership, right? So, um I understand it from that perspective. Employeeowned industries and companies have use ESOPs and what would be the benefit can just elucidating a little bit more. Um so
sometimes that helps in terms of providing higher wages and you know deeper retirement savings for employees. Are there any other benefits here to the employees? >> And it's directly for the employees. Correct. >> Yes. Yeah. I think I think those are the
the benefits are it's a in addition to all the benefits we already have for our employees. We pay living wages. We have good benefits. We have training and education. In addition to that, there's now it's essentially an interest in a retirement account um that vests over
time, but which they don't actually while you're still employed with the company, you don't receive any funds from it. It's when you depart, >> it's essentially rolled over the amount that's vested into a retirement account. Um which is very tax efficient for
employees and they don't have to give anything to get this other than continuous service. And is that vested over a certain amount of time? Like if you were there for six weeks versus six years or something. Yes, it is. You know, if it's it vests
over time to incentivize long tenure um in continuity. So, it's something that if you've been here for a certain amount of time, that will be factored in, but your relative portion of the pool will
go up. It'll vest over time as you remain employed as an eligible employee. >> Okay. Um, you list in the paper in the items you sent over a whole
slew of like passive investors. So Brian Chavez would get 51% and some folks in an Alber and Miami and who's getting 4% who's getting 6%. Um are they part of the 49%? Can you
explain that a little bit? >> Yeah, I can. And just to clarify, prior to the transaction, Brian Chavez owns 51% of all the two license entities. after the transaction, he still owns 51% of the license entity.
So, he's a majority owner, entitled to a majority of the economics from these stores. It's only impacting C3. Now, the folks that we showed in the ownership tables, those are right now the private investors.
They will no longer be um owners once we close this transaction. They will all be bought out and cashed out uh under the terms of of our agreement and the only uh owners will be the employees who vest over time. Um right now we have about I
I'd say 940 employees give or take and we're still developing assets in a number of our states. So that will grow. So there won't be really large owners. It will be spread among a larger pool of people. Thank you.
>> Only Excuse me. I'm sorry for No, no, go ahead. Go ahead. To >> be clear, too. Only eligible employees may participate in the ESAP plan. If if they are not an employee there, there are no longer any private investors. >> Okay. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you. >> Question. >> Yeah. So, I mean, I'm I'm far from an expert on um company structures and anything along those lines. Um with with the 49% ownership, does it come with like a representative who would sit on
like the board for the company in terms of decision-m or is that all just like entirely held by the uh Mr. Chavez? >> So, I I sent in structure charts uh for pre and postc closing. It's a little bit easier if you can see those. So at the
entity level, the governance and management is not changing. So MCSE and Urba, there's two managers right now, Brian Chavez and Encore Runa, who's our CEO. He's going to be the CEO going forward. The folks who manage the actual
entity are Brian and Encore. So the day-to-day governance and operation at the subsidiary level is not changing. It's only a few layers down at the C3 industry is the minority owner level that things are changing. And in terms of a representative for the employees,
our CFO, Valle Sha, he's being nominated to the board of C3 Industries and he'll be the trustee, which essentially is a benefit plan administrator. Um, but again, that's beneath the the license entity level. Nothing is changing at all
in terms of the governance, operation, and management of any of the stores. >> Okay. And so who who nominated that guy to be like the the trustee for the trust overall? If it's like owned by the employees essentially, do they have any voice in the selection or is it just
part of the structure change that he's kind of in charge of it? >> So it it they were nominated by the current he was nominated by the current board of C3 Industries. >> Okay. Um and that so then this this is something that only pays out upon
separation from the company. There's no like quarterly bonus share or anything like that while they're still actively employed. >> Generally speaking, yes, that's correct. >> Why you say generally speaking? Is it is that something that could potentially change in the future?
>> No. So, I think there are ways to structure these that are way above my pay grade. This is Orisa lawyers deal with this. They're a very narrow subset of tax specialists. Um, and I say that not to be koi, just that it's very complicated. I know that there are are
manners of structuring this so you could have some kind of profit sharing. I think the reality for us as a cannabis company is part of the reason we're doing this is there isn't a ton of profit to be shared because of the way that we're taxed. We're in a a very competitive industry. There's price
compression in Massachusetts and elsewhere and we have very high overhead and can't deduct business expenses. So from the company's perspective, one of the primary reasons to do this is we derive substantial tax benefits. So as
we pay off the current investors over time, the value of the company increases and therefore so does any shares owned on on for the benefit of any employees. But the last thing I'd add to that, so we've been in business since I want to
say 2017 as a Ccorporation. our parent company. Every cent that we make, we reinvest into the business. The whole point of this, we want to grow and scale a very large business and exit. This is kind of like an interim exit. So, uh,
periodic distributions of cash flow have never been a feature of of this business and I don't expect that to change. I think every cent we make, we're reinvesting into the business to keep growing it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That's all I have. Thank you.
Thank you. Any other questions from the commissioners? >> Just remind me how many I'm sorry, son. Just remind me how many employees you have. >> As of today, we have around 940. So, we've got four stores to open in
Kentucky still, another one in Connecticut, and one in Michigan that is imminently opening. That's going to add to that number. So, it'll be north of a thousand. Um, but that's that's where we're at today. Sorry, my apologies for
um speaking when Commissioner Sil Gandhi's hand was up. >> Um no, actually you asked one of the questions I had so thank you uh chairwoman Joyce and the number of employees and it looks like you have um you know you're in a variety of
different states. Um my my question is around um what happens? We've seen you know uh varying degrees of success for businesses uh that are you know that are in this industry and the question I have
is you know worst case scenario what happens if you have to close down these locations and either terminate or lay off um employees and um you know I I get the kind of the obvious answer but I'd like to hear how you are thinking about
ensuring that the business is um you remain um successful and what uh you know how are you thinking about ensuring that the folks who are you know benefiting from this ESOP per your per your um explanation um could also have
some protections um when um shouldn't say when if there are any instances where the business has to you know change direction or consolidate into different locations. Sure. So, you know, I I would just start by saying um you
know, I think the the plan to stay in business and keep growing is really separate from the ESOP. We are a best-in-class operator. Um we are well capitalized. The people on the executive team are former Big Law, Wall Street, longtime retail operators. Our CRO was
at Nike for 20 years. So, you know, we have a lot of experience building and scaling the businesses. I think that's that's how we continue to win in operations. Um, these stores, you know, I know there's there's been difficulties
in this market. These stores are thriving. Um, you know, we have no intention of of going out of business. We want to continue to uh improve these stores. So I think like any company that if the company's in trouble and the the
employees depart that's an unfortunate reality of business but with the ESOP they'll have the benefit of to the extent their benefits have vested then they'll leave and and they will have that retirement benefit that has already vested in
addition to any severance or other benefits that uh they may be entitled to upon separation. Thank you. That's all the questions. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions from the commission? >> Right. We'll move on to public
testimony. Can Commission Sto, sorry. >> Sorry, I was having trouble uh turning my camera on. Um yeah, I just kind of I think dovetail a little bit on the some of the prior questions and apologies if this is
inarticulate but ultimately if it's if the uh concept is like a 401 or 40 I'm thinking of like a 403 or something you know similar
would there be any incentive or um safeguards I guess against a you know the the manager of the account from like
depressing sort of like how much it could grow as a as a potential kind of like long-term strategy, right? And I and I'm thinking of this honestly, I'm thinking of it from the lens of like my last meeting with my financial adviser,
right? And we sat down and talked about how am I splitting up my, you know, uh, uh, 403b, how how conservative or how, you know, loose do we want to get with it given the market right now, given the uncertainty and x y and z. And so if there's someone who's making that
decision for the employees fund, are they potentially um uh depressing the uh amount of gains that it could grow over a short amount of time because of maybe some instability or concern around the the
overall business uh uh uh uh environment. So, you know, I hope that sort of makes sense, but I just whose fingers are on the lever to make sure that >> that uh that that growth is maintained and I know you said that it's highly
regulated and you know, so would there be safeguards in place to say, hey, you can't do that similar to like a tips uh is issue where you know, folks, you know, discovered that tips were being pulled in illegal ways, right? And going not to the employees, right? So anyways,
just what safeguards might there be to prevent that? >> Sure. Um, so starting with you did mention it's heavily regulated. So an ESOP is is subject to really strict regulations by the IRS, by the Department of Labor. Um, we have to be
audited every year by the IRS. We have to submit a valuation that's subject to intense scrutiny by the Department of Labor and the IRS um to hold us accountable for this representing the fair value. So if you if you if Swan one would try to gain this in addition to
violating um fiduciary duties that they have to the employee beneficiaries, you're subject to criminal liability um and serious serious penalties with the IRS and other regulatory agencies
that uh I spend every day trying to avoid as as the head of our compliance and legal Thank you. That's helpful. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Any additional questions from the board.
>> All right. We'll move to public testimony beginning with elected officials or the representatives. And if not, is there anyone that would like to provide testimony on this matter? All right. Seeing no one, the board will take all three matters under adisement. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thanks everyone. >> Thank you. >> All right, we are going to move to our new license applications. The first applicant we have is Rosaroots LLC doing business as Rosaroots. The proposed license premise is 21 Broad Street
downtown. The license type is for a product manufacturer license and the proposed hours of operation are 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. 7 days a week. This is a non-equity applicant. They filed the application on August 12th, 2025 and they held their community meeting on
December 9th, 2025. There is a buffer zone conflict with another marijuana establishment. Um, this applicant is currently open and operating as a marijuana retailer at this location since February of 2025. So, they're just looking to add the product manufacturing
license to this location. Who is present on behalf of the Lency? >> Uh, Fernando Bent Mullings. I'm the owner along with my wife Hillary. >> Okay. >> Uh we should have two other people. Greg. >> Greg. >> Yes.
>> Gomes >> and Ty. Yes. >> All right. Perfect. All right. You guys have 10 minutes. You may share your screen and begin your presentation. >> So, uh before we get started, I was gonna present, but I took my son on a I
chaperoned on Friday and I got sick. So, uh, Craig's gonna take over the honors, uh, and I'm sure we'll do a great presentation. Go ahead, Greg. >> Thank you, K. Can everyone see our screen here?
All right. Not hearing any objections. So, uh, hello everybody. Welcome to our presentation for product manufacturing license application at 21 Broad Street. See, let's go ahead and dive in. So, first working through today's agenda. Um, we're going to do an overview of
what we're proposing, dive into the details of a description of our proposed activities, talk through the community feedback, public support, and administrative steps we've already completed. Quickly, uh, stop by for a location detail, talk about our very
minimal parking and traffic impact, then open it up for questions. We've also included quite a few slides of additional information um which we may you know pop into in the question period if that's helpful for any of the commissioners or member of the public.
So an overview uh again we are currently operating out of this building with a retail dispensary. Uh we actually are a social equity applicant for the proposed product manufacturing. These activities would only take place on the fourth floor of the building and broadly is
repackaging flour, creating pre-rolls, and some creative product combinations. I'll dive into a second. I think it's very important to emphasize we have no plans currently or in the future to have any explosive chemicals nor pressurized systems on site whatsoever.
So, let's talk about some of those details of the proposed activities. The first is the cannabis flower repackaging. This is taking bulk cannabis and putting it into easily sellable amounts with all of the required labeling warnings and depictions. Uh the next area is
basically doing the same thing but putting it into a pre-roll like a joint, right? And finally, the third category here is making infused pre-rolls and we also want to explore some novel product ideas we have. Um we need to have this license in order to try those out, but it would just be different versions of
infusions. thinking stuff along the lines of what if we try two different um you know concentrates to mix in with our flower stuff along those lines. Um so that's what we would like to do when we are launching the operation. We also have some ideas for future
development uh which we do not plan to have at launch. The first one is cold water hash production. Um this can be accomplished with a simple machine or even less so with a bucket and a series of uh you know screen bags and you know
manipulating it um in those large buckets with ice. Next is vaporizer device filling. Just to be clear, we don't plan to create any oils here, but purchase already created oils and fill them. Again, just like with the cold water hash, we're not even sure we're going to do this, but we want to have
the ability with this license. And that final area that fits into that as well is rosin press extracts. Um, this is a pretty simple device that's uh sits on top of a table. I imagine most members who are here are aware of a rosin press, but happy to answer questions about any
of our current or future plans. Just want to emphasize again, any of these future plans, if we do go into them, will never be closed loop extraction. Um, we're never going to have potentially explosive equipment on site. Okay, let's talk about where we've uh
been so far. So, the fourth floor where we're proposing having all of these activities has already been constructed and completely built out. Um ISD has taken us all the way through uh the change of occupancy process. Um so, I know at BCB
it's very typical that we'd be having conversations around uh appeals through them and stuff like that. Uh wasn't the case here. We we've already completed all of our ISD interactions. We've also already presented to the Warf Council. We have a letter of support which does mention their unanimous support for us.
Um we're going to see that on the next page here. Also on that next page is uh Miss Zapata, our Boston city councelor for district 1's letter of support which we're pretty proud of being able to obtain. And we finally want to mention again in this building we've been
operating since last February um getting consistent community support and encouragement. And I think that's really evidenced by these letters. So, I'm not going to, you know, bore everybody by reading these the whole time. Um, but on the left we have the Warf District Council one and on the right we have our Boston City Council one. Want to point
out right out of the gate our Boston City Council says they're writing in support. Um, I think quite a few people on this call are aware that that's not often something we get out of a city councelor. So, again, we're pretty proud of it and we think it speaks to how much we've really been involved in the community and that um, you know, really
want to be part of this, you know, place we're in. Let's talk about that place. So, uh it's this building. If you know um that street, you're probably aware that there's a little sort of carve out that I think Greg froze. >> Yeah, I was I was looking like was that
me that froze? Yeah, he he definitely >> uh so uh the slide that we're looking at, that is our building. It was the market before it became Roster Roots. Uh the picture is where the uh manufacturing would be. It would just be on the fourth floor. I'm not sure how
we're going to be able to change the to the next slide. I'm sure Greg realized that he froze the bottom floor of the dispensary. >> There he is. >> Greg, can you hear us? >> Oh.
>> Oh, we lost him. Oh, he's back now. >> Well, that was fun. >> Um, let me get back into that presentation. I have no idea what happened. Okay. Can we see that again? >> Yeah. >> Greg, you you were explaining the fourth floor of the facility. The um
>> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we were just on the the fourth floor um is all we're proposing to add. Again, the first floor of this building is an active dispensary in there. Um, moving along to our parking and traffic impact. Uh, we think it would be
very minimal. Um, because it is our current employees that we'll generally be hiring from who are already in the building. Many of them use public transportation to get here already. Um, and for those who drive, there is paid parking in the adjacent building. Um,
the only other in keys traffic will be the occasional pickup from another dispensary or delivery. Um, but because this is a self-contained space with just a few employees, you know, mostly just repackaging cannabis and and rolling pre-rolls, um, we're anticipating, you
know, essentially zero increased, uh, traffic or parking impact. And, uh, at that point, we're up to questions and I got a lot of slides after this, um, for any additional information. >> Thank you. We will begin with questions, comments from the board. Start out with
chairman. >> Thank you. Um my question is about the last part of your presentation, the deliveries. You said occasional deliveries. Um what do you can you quantify that a little bit more? And I'm curious what the impacts are going to be
at this location with trucks and pickup delivery and um >> so we already get deliveries uh because we're uh just a dispensary right now. Um so we don't see that there would be any
addition to any kind of cluster that that happens. We haven't had any issues in the year that we've been there. Um we're able to schedule our deliveries out. it'll probably be even easier to do it when we're the ones sending it out.
Uh so we don't see any issues with that. Directly in front of our space, our building, there are commercial spaces where UPS, uh FedEx trucks, and where our deliveries tend to park. Uh so it's there's never an issue of like somebody
having to double park or anything like that. Knock on wood. >> Okay, that was my concern. Uh I don't have any other questions. Holmes, do you have questions? Commissioner Smith. >> Uh, thanks Jasmine. One question. So,
are you you said your current employees are going to be the ones doing this? Are you thinking of adding any more? >> I would love to need to add more employees because that just means that we're busier. Um >> um to kind of speak to the presentation
before, I would love to one day have 900 employees. Uh but I I think everything starts small and we kind of grow from there. Uh there's a reason why we're coming in front of the board now for manufacturing versus last year. Uh where I very much think of this business as
like kids and trying to do one thing at a time and not necessarily kind of rush. uh where I would love to be so busy that we're like, hey, we need to bring on more people, but um just want to do one thing at a time. >> So, so no, you're not adding any more
employees. How about like security? Are you adding any layers of security to this that >> we're we don't see needing to add any layers of security from the security that we already have uh with the amount of cameras that we have in the building
with the uh amount of um notifications through the security company that we do have. If if someone pulls on a door late night, I get a notification. So, we don't see any issues in the future with uh manufacturing. Um that I believe it
was the first or second slide Greg showed where uh we're asking for the hours of uh I forget what the extent was, but we we definitely don't plan on being there really late doing manufacturing or being there really early. It's just more so to have that
option uh so we can kind of find our our uh groove of what makes the most sense. uh not just with with staff but with um deliveries going out where we might find that like you can get great street
parking before 8:00 in the morning there. So if it if it's something where it makes more sense to have deliveries go out from us really early then we'd do so or vice versa especially on the weekend and later in the day or anything like that. So no, we don't see any need
for any additional security measures. >> But on on screen, you have an enhanced security plan. Is that >> Well, I I I think our and security plan is uh I I think that slide was kind of speaking to what we currently have where
I think we have 32 cameras throughout the building where I can I can see down the street uh if there's any issues. Uh uh so I I think that's what that speaks to. >> So this is what exists now basically. >> Correct. >> Okay.
Thank you so much. >> If I if I may also add some context to that um please. So, Commissioner Smith, uh the reason why there isn't any need for additional security is because when roster Roots um designed the facility
initially, it already was uh factoring product manufacturing on this level. So, it took all the precautions from day one. So, access ID badges, which is a requirement from the CCC, cameras covering every square foot of the
facility, all of this stuff was taken into consideration uh before we actually went through the process of applying on the product manufacturing side. Does that make sense? >> Yes, sir. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you. I think that slide more so speaks to people that aren't on the board and maybe have not maybe they just got uh the they're new to the area and and saw that we're doing something just to kind of speak to the security of it. Uh where if they had any
concerns of what we want to potentially do next u understanding that we we haven't we've had it covered this entire time. >> And everyone my apologies. I checked my text. I got kicked off the second time and uh we are having outages in our area. So, I'm now on cellular and
hopefully you will not lose me again. >> No worries, Greg. >> Commissioner Smith, you're all set. >> All set. Thank you, Jasmine. >> Commissioner Canel. >> Thank you, Jasmine. Um, how many employees do you currently have?
>> Uh, 12 total. >> How many of them are full-time and how many are part-time? >> Full-time. I think it's eight and four part-time. >> Okay. >> But like they're they're considered part-time, but there's there's moments
where they they get 40 hours a week. So, it all depends. >> But in our on our records, they're they're down as parttime. >> With these added tasks, if if you're not immediately hiring new staff, do you imagine that there will at least be more hours available to the part- timerrs? Um
because there's all this more work to be done. >> Uh we we do see that. Uh I also plan on on spending more time in the manufacturing side and and figuring out scheduling uh with bringing new people on. It's for me I didn't want to start
hiring people before we needed to. Uh especially if it's something that I I had permission to do something. I I would much rather have the go to have the green light to to move forward with something and then realize, hey, we need more help versus
the other side of that coin of hiring staff and then realizing that we don't actually need them and then having people in a awkward situation financially. >> Okay. Um, so will the like operating or the
manufacturing operations will it be kind of like operating under the same hours as the retail dispensary or will it be a more like limited time frame that that's actively going on? >> It would probably be more of a limited time. Um, like we said in the the initial slide of just being able to have
that time frame where we can figure out what what makes the most sense. uh I know when we're typically slower, which days we're slower, and and being able to take advantage of that slow time to to spend more energy on the manufacturing
side is is what the plan is. And will like do you imagine that some of your workers would then just be like dedicated to either like full-time working just in the manufacturing room or spending full shifts working just in
the manufacturing room or will people have to kind of bounce back and forth between the retail and the manufacturing a lot? Um, I I think it's going to be kind of like how we did with with our retail where it's like I don't want to put anybody that we have already working
for us in a situation where now they don't like to work for us. Uh, where uh it's more testing the waters where somebody might find that they love packaging and might say, "Hey, can I just spend more of my time doing that and and kind of evolving that way?"
That's kind of how I've always seen Ross just as a company in general of having people in positions that they actually want to be in versus forcing them into something and then having to find somebody to come do that job after they leave because they their roles change.
So the the we don't want to uh disturb the the the vibe that we already have amongst our staff whether it comes to duties and what they're doing. >> Okay. And will there be any difference in pay rate for people that are doing
the the manufacturing work versus people working in the um on the on the retail side? >> That part I haven't really talked that part over yet. uh still trying to figure that out where if it's someone that's
part-time and I have them coming in to to do pre-rolls on on a day that they're not necessarily there, uh we pay pretty well. I think we're in the top 10% actually when it comes in the state hourly for for our bud tender. So, uh I
I don't know what the pay rate going is for um packaging. Uh but I'm pretty sure that we'd be up there regardless. So, I don't see a need to to to do a pay increase. >> Okay. All right. No further questions
for me. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Gandhi. Do you have any questions? >> Yes. Uh, thank you. Thank you for the really um thorough presentation. Um, I think I know the answer to this question, but I have two questions. Uh
the first one is you don't propose to have any kind of additional HVAC or any kind of other modifications to the building to accommodate this manufacturing. >> Nothing additional. No, we we we just with going through ISD they they saw the
word uh manufacturing and their their uh all the flags went up there and had to kind of walk them through what it what manufacturing means uh in a lot of cases when it comes to cannabis. Uh so we were okayed by the fire department uh through
uh the electrician and all that stuff for they understood what we were going to be presenting to the commission today uh and gave us a thumbs up without any uh push back. >> No, thank you. Uh the second question um
goes around um you know ensuring that the businesses that have licenses uh you know remain successful so we don't have empty storefronts um around our city. Um would this be a lease amendment for additional square footage for your business? So are you amending your lease
to add more square footage? >> I don't know if I understand the >> um the lease is already for the entire building floors one through five. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. So, >> so you're not adding to your lease costs? >> No. No.
>> Okay. Okay. So, that's incredibly helpful. So, it's a capital cost for the equipment that goes onto the fourth floor. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> I believe so. Yes. That's incredibly >> um and the reason I asked this question is and you look I don't want to get into
your into the business side of things but when you have additional costs um it's it's helpful to know you don't have additional lease costs but you will have a you know you'll have capital costs that are coming up and how those are absorbed um and then ensuring that you've got the revenue that you know
justifies the capital costs um I think is important and just want to make sure that that's been thought through uh just to ensure that the business, you know, stays where it is and we again don't have empty storefronts um in our city. So, I I guess it's a general question to ensure that you've kind of done that
that that math, which I'm sure you have, but I just kind of want to hear your thoughts about that as well. >> Yeah. So, we just to kind of add to to that, I for one, first I I appreciate making sure that we've kind of thought about that before kind of moving forward
uh that question. Uh what we also see with the manufacturing is is helping with the costs uh where it's another stream of revenue. Uh we have uh we're lucky to have great landlords and and when we told them we were thinking about doing manufacturing years ago, that was
the first thing they said was, "Yeah, having a having multiple streams of revenue coming in can kind of help feed the other." So when you have slow times, you can kind of rely on one part of the business uh a little more so. and a little less stressful. So, yes,
>> also add that um all of the future plans we'll explore, you might notice, are the things that require expensive pieces of equipment. All of the launch plans are ones that, you know, are very minimal. A shake box, you know, to make pre-rolls is a couple hundred dollars.
>> Thank you. That's super helpful. >> Thank you, Commissioner Sto. >> Thanks, Jasmine. and uh thank you for the um the great presentation. Um it hit on many of the points that I uh normally touch on. So um I really just want to
uplift the support that you received. I think um you know would love to see more letters like that in presentations um because I really do think it reflects the um support of of the community. Um,
but you know to get it from the elected official as well as the neighborhood association really shows a grassroots level of support and I appreciate that. Um, makes just makes things a lot easier. Um, I do have a question and >> pardon my ignorance, maybe it might just
be from my own edification, but when we you mentioned the um potential for new uh types of products or combinations of things, at what level would that need to be uh
um what I uh measured or observed um before it could by like a scientist, someone from the state, right? To to ensure that that that that's safe and you know that it's all reading the correct readings uh before it actually
went to market, right? Um so that we avoid something hitting the street out of the fourth floor that you know could have been avoided, right? >> Yeah. You know, a lot of the things we'll be trying just to see if it sort of works are again it's going to still
look like an infused pre-roll, right? But if you do something like let's say sativa concentrate at the beginning and indica concentrate at the back what is that like? Any product we created would be going through the typical third party testing process. Um and we already
actually maintain a great relationship with the CCC and anything that we ended up coming out with that was particularly out there, we would much rather have their engagement and approval before we spent the money to try to mass market it. Um, and really, you know, what we're
saying there is that we've got some some cool ideas, um, for, you know, stuff like I mentioned with the different kinds of, uh, pre-roll, infused pre-roll. Um, is it going to work? We don't know. Uh, is anybody going to want to buy it? We don't know. Um, and we'd certainly want everyone to feel
comfortable before we made a large investment in having a scaled novel product, >> but but it would require some level of approvals before that could happen. Is that accurate to say?
>> Yeah. I mean, an infused pre-roll is is already certainly approved, right? Um, >> and then the third party tester has to make sure that it's safe essentially. >> Yes, absolutely. Yeah, I guess that that enough I guess would be the approval. I guess I'm thinking of like something
that says yes, it's okay to sell that, right? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, it would be tested for I mean so many things, heavy metals, pesticides, um the those tests have certainly flagged in the past, never for we've never made a product, but I've seen in, you know, other places that
test for a new testing labs for a new place will say, hey, you know, it passed the testing, but your pre-roll keeps breaking, right? So, I don't know if that's a good idea um to reach market. So yeah, we would certainly have that uh that third party scrutiny of anything before it came to market.
>> Okay. Um all right, I think that's all I got. Thanks, Jasmine. >> You're welcome. Any other additional questions from the board? >> Yeah, I had a few more that came to mind. Jasmine, thank you. Um yes, this kind of popped
to my mind after Commissioner Gandhi's question. So, you said that you don't plan on making any changes to the like HVAC and ventilation system that you have in the packing room right now. So, what what do you have that's there currently? Is it just like the HVAC
system that was already in place or had you already fitted it out so that it could be, you know, a proper ventilation system for a cannabis manufacturing facility? >> So, when we did construction on the building, we did a complete renovation
of everything. Uh so we um temperature controlled rooms. Uh there there's no HVAC system from before uh we went in. Uh, and when we did all of the construction, like like
we said, with the not only the appearance of the fourth floor for manufacturing, all the equipment that was put in there was was always put in with the consensus of like, okay, we're going to eventually apply for manufacturing and to help hopefully speed up that
process, we won't have to do any kind of construction. So with ISD with when like I was saying with with the the scary word of manufacturing to them is they assume that I had to do construction and we had to to bring in all these different pieces of equipment where we
don't necessarily need to uh because of what we're doing already. The the building's already set up and they already had the blueprints and everything from when we went through the process for the retail. So, they were able to just kind of go through their
old uh our old file with ISD and see that everything was done where we were one of the rare cases that I know of that we didn't get a denial from ISD. We we got approval where the steps to get to having our neighborhood services
meeting, we had to get a a a disapproval letter from ISD saying that uh the the building wasn't fitted correctly. But we had we we did do all that stuff. Uh >> I don't know how else to go ahead, Greg.
>> Yeah, I was trying to search for the whole um you know, to show you how nice it is. Uh but I did first come across that it was the estimated cost of $146,000 system. Um I don't know what a lot of this stuff means, but I'm happy to read
to you about our split units and exhaust fans and and anything that would be helpful, Commissioner. Yeah, I I guess for me it's I don't know the the correct terminology for for all the stuff that we have put in, but I know that we fitted the building out to be able to
have manufacturing and and not have to worry about outside smells where we haven't had any complaints uh from what we have currently in the building. I I don't see us doing anything in our space that would still that would somehow now
uh have smell outside or or any kind of issues like that. >> Yeah, I mean I think if you could provide um some of that information to us that we could review it um or any like information you got from the ISD, I think it'd be interesting to take a look at that. Um it mentioned in the
presentation that you're primarily like early on going to be focusing on um hand rolled pre-rolled joints. Do you have any plans to put in like a a Mobius machine or other automated uh preole pre uh pre-roll machines?
>> For me right now, uh I just kind of want to be able to start to to do hand roll stuff. uh the idea of buying machines and dragging it up the fourth floor before even knowing if people are even uh wanting our products. I I I think
that's that would be a bold move to to spend money on something and and assume that our pre-roll is going to do really well, especially in a market that has tons of pre-rolls. Uh so I I don't have any intentions of doing that right now. I like
to to add to the hopefully needing more employees. Hopefully we get so busy with with our products that we do need to buy a machine uh and kind of go forward that way. But as of right now, that that's not the plan. >> Okay. And do you have plans to have um
some sort of like face mask or uh respirators and fit tests as an option to your workers? I think there was a slide in there, Greg, that that had all I don't know if you're able to access your but it spoke to the safety precautions
where um we wouldn't be skipping any corners and making sure that everything is regulated um is is done the the way that it should be. Uh while Greg tries to pull that slide up. I know I saw one
Yeah. So if Yeah. And and we can send that along to you know I apologize again for my internet service provider having these issues. It is slide 18 in what we sent previously. Um but we you know plan to have full PPE suite. Uh certainly
that includes you know fit tests, availability of respirators. Everyone will be wearing hair and beard masks uh or nets excuse me and uh gloves will be required. Um, and those details are in our um, SOPs already.
>> Okay. Yeah. I mean, I appreciate the level of uh, of thought that you put into us. I think the uh, the light bulb just kind of uh, went off on my head when Commissioner Gandhi was was asking her questions because I mean, obviously, we've we've heard a lot about some of the safety concerns with the the cannabis produ production facilities.
And what we've seen is that um especially like even in the big uh facilities that do cultivation and manufacturing and processing, a lot of times it's the the room where pre-rolls are made that we see the most complaints and some of the most um risks to workers
and dangerous um incidences. So, um I think definitely just the the more, you know, level of care to make to take those preventive measures early on, it's it's really going to put workers in the best spot. So, I I appreciate the level of intention that you've put into this
already. >> Thank you. >> Any additional questions from the board? >> All right, we'll move to public testimony beginning with elected officials or their representatives. Good morning, commissioners. Uh, Sigy Johnson with the Office of Neighborhood
Services. This applicant has completed the community process. Our office hosted an abutters meeting on the 9th of December at which a number of questions were raised regarding the proposal. A direct a butter in the adjoining building had a number of questions about fire suppression, possible nauseous
odors, possible noise. The applicants made a good faith attempt to answer all of those questions. The applicants have also met with the Wararf District Council which is in support of this application. With that background, our office defers judgment to the board. Thank you. >> Thank you. So Samantha, you have your
hand raised. >> Yes. Good afternoon. Um I'm Samantha on behalf of councelor Kleta Zapata's office just to express our support for this project. >> Thank you. Are there anyone else that would like to provide testimony
regarding this matter? All right, seeing no one, the board will take this matter under adisement. >> Thank you everyone for your time today. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> I'm going to move on to our final matter. The applicant is IMAD LLC. The
proposed license premise is 24 school street downtown. The license type is a marijuana research facility license. The proposed hours of operation are 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Saturday through Sunday. This is a non-equity
applicant. They filed their application on September 9th, 2025. And they held their community meeting on November 20th, 2025. There's a buffer zone conflict with another marijuana establishment who is present on behalf of the applicant.
>> Um, I am Dr. Denise Valente. >> All right, Dr. Valente, you have 10 minutes. You may begin. Um first thank you. We're quite excited being um a pioneer in the research space. There is only one other um
license in the state of Massachusetts for research and it involves um product. We are the first um applicant looking at the human um behavioral and marijuana related um research on humans. A little
bit about my background first. I was trained as a clinical provider. Um I specialized in vision loss and rehabilitation. Um my experiences included working with the Indian health services and running a clinic for the
indigent in Detroit, Michigan. Um part of that work was specific to um aging. I served as a consultant to general motors um and we worked with um vision loss as
well as sensory impairment. Moving forward I transitioned out of clinical care and started doing research in Alzheimer's Parkinson's and head injury. Um that began our first look at cannabis. Um we believe um although we
haven't followed it up with any funded research that cannabis is an excellent treatment for neurodeenerative processes such as Alzheimer's such as Parkinson's such as um head injury. However, as part of that activity, we pivoted when we
realized in our studies of marijuana and retina that we actually could develop a technology specific um for driving impairment that was objective. Why is this needed? Well, there's nothing out there that can
actually identify impairment with marijuana use other than the subjective observation of a law enforcement officer. While that is quite good, it can be fraught with problems. What is going on? Unlike for alcohol, there is
no breathalyzer or standard field soority sobriety test. Unlike alcohol, cannabis is not related in the amount you have in your system to an impairment. You see here, you can actually have a very large amount of cannabis in your system and not be
impaired. On the other hand, think of some of the other end with a small amount of cannabis, but if you're an older adult or you're an adult treating a disease, you may have the minimal amount of cannabis and you can be deadly on the road.
IMAD is named in memory of my 15year-old in memory of Mark Alvin Dilvia. He died because of somebody's irresponsible and selfish decision. And what added to this is I had to see and still hear of his
murderer suffering zero consequences. We want to prevent incidents like that and incidents like you see here where a family is mourning the loss of a loved one to a preventable crash. What do we
do? Well, it's a very simple off-the-shelf technology. Pico Neo Gaming, you see them all over the place if you're in the world of gaming. Um, what it does though, it's very simple. It shows tiny striped squares in the peripheral vision. Participants
simply press a button whenever they see the stripes. Marijuana users at least up to an hour and a half cannot see many of these stripes. We are seeking a research license. Um first we began this process
in 2018. For those of you that follow Massachusetts, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, um the whole process and evolving an industry is complicated. um they did not define um a research
license until 2022 and that was an evolution process also because earlier commissioners had one vision and as it advanced and they retired newer commissioners had different visions on what research is. Um one thing is clear
though there is an interest in research. Massachusetts though is one of the few states that does have zero dollars going to research. Other states actually had lines of um percentage of taxes going into research.
However, Massachusetts does have on board um a research specialist that is part of the commission. There has been one research license granted that is to cure leaf. They are multi-state multi-country operator. They are currently have approval in Newton,
Massachusetts, but they're seeking to reclo relocate to the periphery. um they are looking at more product research. Um in addition to a research license, anybody doing research under the supervision of the commission needs to
take out permits for every research protocol they have. When that involves animals or humans, you actually have to have something what's called um an institutional review board protocol approval to make sure it's safe for either the human or the animal. um under
research. We have had IRB approve approved protocols for human research since 2018. We are already recognized nationally and internationally. Um the location we are
proposing is very proud of the technology that is already on board. You can actually take a tour of some of the innovative technologies um within the region. We are proud of our work. We are
the only company that has been invited to give a pitch on technology at South by Southwest. That's an um international meeting held in Austin, Texas. I have been a member of the American Public Health Association for now 44 years. and
I was instrumental and participated in their development of um cannabis policy both for safety measures and also for medical treatment. We've had success at our federal grants.
We received our first grant um in 2018. We received another grant in 2022. there was a hiatus there where COVID um and they had withdrawn all funds um for marijuana related research for a variety of reasons. However, we suffered
probably the biggest setback we can possibly have last year. Um one of the key researchers who was instrumental in securing grants because of his background died suddenly at a very young age um last January. We had to withdraw
all our grants. So part of the reason um besides us being committed to collaborating with groups and we think that's very important. So being part of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission research community we think is important but we also um would become
eligible um as a social equityowned business to some of those resources. We were declared a social equityowned business in 2018 um by the cannabis control commission. Well, what do we want to do? Well, we've always had
shared workspace. Our proposed site is 24 school street um at work bar. The reason we can do this is we never have marijuana on site. We would not receive federal funds if we were handling or had anything to do with the dosing of
marijuana. So, I'll explain this a little bit later. And again, we would be the first um group potentially to get a permit to do human research. Now, while there's no funding for it, Massachusetts marijuana laws actually require research
in driving impairment. What do we do? Well, we do something called opportunistic dosing. This is not a good way to do research. I think it would be bad if we were doing medical treatments. But what happens is we see people when they're not high. We do extensive protocols um questionnaers to determine
a little bit about their marijuana use. We draw blood and we um take saliva samples and then they tell us when and where they're going to get high. Usually it's in their home. We arranged Uber, Lift, shared transportation to pick them up and bring them into the clinic and
then we return them home by that same mode of transportation. The location is um quite conducive for our type of work. We're on the corner of Washington and School Street. Um we're already operating there. Let's make it
clear. We don't need a license to do what we do. We want a license. We think it's important politically. We think it's important for the state. Um, if you're not aware, the state is trying to have a federally funded resource center,
a resource center on cannabis. There already exists one in California. Um, I believe there's also one in Colorado. So, this is important to advance the science in the state to have anchor research groups or groups contributing
and interested. This is the corner. Here's the entrance. Here is an image of the building inside itself. When we don't run participants, we use shared workspace. This is cost-effective for us because we don't have that many people working for us unless we have grants.
When we see subjects, we actually use conference rooms. Here's the layout of that particular um site. We would have our primary site in Boston, but we would also based on membership be able to use
sites elsewhere. And those sites include Quinsey and Worcester. We do acknowledge that we probably have the proposal that has the densest population around where we're proposing. Um, I downloaded it twice. We actually
have 420 abutters. 420. We thought this was interesting. Um, now the for those of you that don't know, April 20th, 420 is the informal holiday for cannabis. We find, and we have experience with this, that this is actually an
advantage. Our participants, the priority is their safety, their comfort, and their ease of accessing and being able to come in for research. We had a previous location at 25 um Milk Street
where we found um it was popular with our volunteers because after they visited us, first of all, they had $100 in their pocket after participating. Um they could go out to the restaurants, go shopping. It also provided a greater
level of safety. So unlike other groups, um the dense population is really a positive for us. The other thing is our um students, staff and myself, we take public transportation in this location
is right across from a um line. Our volunteers take public transportation. We do not in general have people drive in to participate. Those few that do in the past, I probably can count. Yes, I can count on one hand. um it was because
they weren't comfortable with shared um Lyft and Uber. So, we would give them funds to pay to drive in and park if that was appropriate. But again, when we have people driving, it's very unusual.
Safety is a priority. This particular building has 24-hour security. It's supplied by Northwest Northeast Security. Um it's managed by Indere Indira Feder Rico. She's pictured here. It accesses by a pass. There is a
security desk. You then go on to the elevator. When you get into the actual work space during traditional hour traditional hours 9 to5 that's um um hosted by a receptionist. So we do have a secure system that meets our needs.
And again because there are no products on board that's not really an issue. When there are participants or rather customers on site, we have a security system also that is for everybody's
safety. When we see someone two staff members from um the research meet them at the curb, this is whether they arrive by public transportation or shared um vehicle. There are two people with every
participant at all times. Now, on the occasion that might not happen is if two people decide to come together, they still are escorted, but we may have a ratio of um one-on-one, two staff and the two people. The staff escort them to
the street level and actually until they get into their Uber or lift. On occasion, we actually have them call us back um the minute they've arrived at their home. We are not even closely comparable to
retail. However, our site was chosen specifically for close proximity. Our first research project was on 24 25 Milk Street. We had actually selected that site because at
the time it was right across the street from um a licensed but not yet operational medical or um yes, it was a medical marijuana facility. They never opened. However, we find that still an
advantage in that we're going to be located um near Pure Oasis close proximity. And if this one which is Kira leaf ever opens close proximity this is an advantage to us. They are in
close proximity to each other. So that would be up to them and the board whether or not that is a disadvantage. But we feel this close proximity is um a very positive um particularly if down the road we receive um grants that are
medicinal in nature and those are sometimes um a more difficult product to obtain >> parallel businesses. >> Denise you are at your 10 minutes. I don't know if you want to just >> All right, we'll flash through because the next thing just talk about what is
close. One thing that is close in business and that we've experienced are um criminal lawyers. They can have the same type of people, but what we found criminal lawyers had a more disruptive client. For example, we have never had
to pick up or clean up or defun after our clients even though we plan on that, but we have after um some of the clients visiting neighbors. Another thing to point out and then I'll just wind down is 50% of our business visits
participants are high. This is not in compliance and we appreciate that with one of the regulations through the Boston cannabis. We intentionally have 50% of our clients that are going to be impaired. But what we are very careful about is everybody's safety. So we
acknowledge we know we have people that are high on site. We never have anyone underage. actually card for the older adults. And this is just images of our diversity. You can read more about that. This is our staff.
This slide was not developed to demonstrate diversity. It was developed to actually talk about how we need diversity within participants. So again, it just naturally demonstrates
what our existing diversity is. We track it. This is just talking a little bit more about our research and what we do. And as you go through this later, you can see what the result and products
are. The products are science. These are examples of the research our company does. We have several publications and proposed publications and our team. Thank you.
This is just Oh, just to explain this. We do real car closed road studies. That's not in downtown Boston. That's in Weimoth at a closed Air Force base. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, we will begin with questions and comments from the board
members. Excuse me. Beginning with Chairwoman Joyce. >> Thank you. Very, very thorough presentation. First, let me just say I'm very sorry for your loss. Um, I found your presentation very informative and helpful. I have no questions. >> Commissioner Holmes, do you have any
questions? >> Yes, I do. One, doctor, how do you pick your subjects? >> Um, that and the successes failure depends on staff. Um, I carefully select staff
and interns based on their science background. However, I will not hire them if they don't have evidence of um other activities of communication skills because it is very difficult to um
hire a diversity of and types of cannabis users. So, my staff um make or break that. And what I look for in staff is do they have experiences as um bartenders, weight staff, previous
cannabis dispensaries, um a a person that's been a lifeguard, um those kind of things. So, it's one-on-one recruitment. Um the place we had the most success in getting non chronic users um was actually at
networking at CIC. Um there's a Thursday uh evening event where I send the interns to recruit um and staff. Other places is we collaborate and get invited to cannabis events. It is not difficult
for us to get chronic daily users. That isn't difficult. The other category is difficult. >> So what's the other category? >> Um not that use less than twice a week.
>> Oh okay. Okay. Okay. Um because we try to be visible and it isn't always me doing the recruiting. I make that clear. That doesn't always work. Um we we we attend events. We participate.
Um one of the things we have learned is um we at one point had a whole group of wonderful um casual users. Again, that's a hard category. Um, when it came time for them to do the real car closed road studies,
all but one of them was doing a Veterans Administration clinic rotation. So, we had to not use them. I could not risk them going out and testing positive for marijuana. >> Yeah. >> So, again, these are all variables we work on.
>> Okay. Thank you for that. Thank you very much. >> Jasmine, do you have any questions? >> Thank you, Jasmine. No, I don't. But I do also want to echo um my condolences on the passing of your son. >> Thank you.
>> Question. >> Um yeah, thank you Jasmine. Um you know my condolences as well loss um like the other commissioners have said. Um you you mentioned that you're you know you're already conducting this
research. You have the federal funding. Um, >> we don't have currently federal funding, but we had to withdraw. Yeah. >> Um, and so you don't need a license through um the Boston board and the CCC, but
you're doing it for like political and kind of messaging reasons. Is there any any other like use that having this license would provide to you that would help kind of make the whole process a lot easier? Well, I think um being part of an
organization as the potential laws change, it'll be easier if as groups you're collectively putting your brain together. Um again, it took a while for
NIH to accept opportun opportunistic dosing. you know, again, these are evolutions that I didn't cause that as collective groups. And so I I just I I want the
commission to succeed in getting um funding for a center of excellence. And so again, being able to talk about groups in existence that are part of the
commission will be helpful. and cure relief because they're really not in the federal funding po venue isn't going to do it for them. I would love to see Harvard Research apply for a
license. Um, again, right now I think there's only two other groups even having an application. It's difficult too though because the definition is evolving. Um, and as I applied,
as Jasmine will tell you, we had to figure out and it is very frustrating. We we were in compliance. So, we didn't get a rejection from zoning, but we kept getting we don't know what to do with you.
Why are you applying? So again, these are processes that as we go through it, it's going to be easier to put them and make it transparent so that other people are not hesitant. I can tell you the um
president of the clin clinical group nationally, he's based in Boston, has been watching me because he thinks he wants a license also. But again,
Jasmine will tell you I'm not. It's been interesting. >> And And so you mentioned that um like opportunistic dosing isn't like the ideal way to do this research, but it's kind of >> it's okay for impairment to drive. It's
what a police officer encounters. It's not okay when I go to study Alzheimer's. It's not okay because you don't have control. However, for our next grants that we haven't gotten rejected yet, we
propose collaboration and we're really excited because there is a group not based in Boston and we welcome any of you guys that presented um where we'll be working with them and while we are not controlling what they purchase,
having a collaboration will help narrow what they're purchasing. So again, it's a fine line for federal funding, but if they show up at the dispensary and the bud tender says, "Hereby this,"
that's not me telling them. I had nothing to do with that. So, is like the the end goal under the like the current kind of round of of testing that you're doing to just like produce these VR headsets and like sell
them or make them available for police departments to like use? >> Yes. >> Our customer, the first customer is actually the judge in the courtroom that decides is this evidence strong enough to accept. So, we've done a very straightforward
path that's very difficult, but we don't think that's going to happen until we have four to five solid publications. Once that happens, law enforcement are going to be more likely to purchase it. We are still standing. Our competitors
are slowly dying because they did not have good products. Um, for example, saliva companies are great. Breathalyzers cannot pick up edible use marijuana. One of them that got 30 million in revenue, their investors
asked for the money back and they folded. They hadn't told their investor. So, it's one of those slow and steady things. So, we we need federal money to do research.
That's not a maybe. and we were doing really well until my colleague died. >> Okay. And then um so so you talked about like obviously the a lot of your staff uses public transportation but most of
the um like the the study subjects you kind of like arrange uh >> well their first visit >> they come in by public transportation when we were on Milk Street the vast majority I can't even think of anybody that didn't came by public
transportation but we didn't let them leave by public transportation they had to leave by Uber lift. When we were in Quinzy, it was mixed. I'd say 70% actually drove in or had somebody drive them, but they didn't
drive in when they were high. We had Uber and Lift. So, their first visit, now there was street parking. Most of those people came from the Southshore. Um, we struggled with that project
because of our location with the non chronic user. We didn't get as many people from Cambridge and Boston. The first project, that's pretty much a lot of what we had. So, any research we have in the future, we'll have two locations,
Boston for which we're seeking a license. offline. We could talk about Quinzy, >> but again, we don't >> What What are the two visits that they make? Like the first one is just like a baseline and the second >> where they're not high. They're told no
use for 48 hours. They come in, we draw, we take saliva, so we know immediately if there's cannabis. If there's cannabis during that visit, we don't see them a second time. They're considered unreliable. On the other hand, depends on who they
are because you could test positive and even not used in 48 hours if you're a heavy chronic user. So, we will have looked at their intake survey. If they're a chronic heavy user, we'll draw blood. Well, we draw blood anyway, but we don't know the blood immediately. So,
once we've run blood, before they reschedule them, we look at the blood. A chronic heavy user will have a lot of what's called inactive THC. Your system can only handle so much inactive and convert it. So if their
numbers match that we think they didn't use for, you know, 48 hours, we'll still enroll them even if they tested positive with our um saliva. So, but then the next visit um they're told to use and um
use products they normally use. We, you know, it's a safety thing. We don't want them trying unusual things. So, um and then we pick them up by Uber Lift. We see them. We draw blood again. We do saliva again to make sure there aren't
any other drugs on board. Um and then we send them home by Uber Lift. Do you have a sense of like the average time it usually is between like when they consume it and when you're actually conducting the test? >> Yes, we do. And that's why Quinsey
wasn't ideal either. Um our our first set of data we were actually on site in Colorado. So all those people were within um 10 15 minutes. So their their data with our technology
is extreme impairment. However, um the ones in our second project, which was um when we were at CIC Milk Street, on average it took them about 15 to 20 minutes to get there. So,
they were impaired. In Quinzy, we on occasion had our Cambridge clients go through two traffic jams. So, we had some of those that were 45 minutes. We're seeing that the impairment that we measure is
dissipating around 45 minutes. >> Okay. >> But again, we don't know precisely and there are proto >> um the one that team in Denver, they actually
have the person go on Zoom, which I think is interesting. I don't think my IRB would approve that. um even though they're just parked outside. So again, that was a university IRB. My IRB is a
private company and it's really tough to get these protocols approved in any manner. >> And then if if you're able to move beyond opportunic dose, opportunistic dosing into it like in partnership with some of the dispensaries, then you might be able to do like immediately after
consumption. >> Maybe. No, it depends. It depends on location and what we're doing. When we did real car closed road, they arrived by Uber lift, but they weren't high. We tested them when they weren't high.
Then there was this magic tent. They had brought their own product and they got high and then we So, we were seeing them because of the way it was set up. We were seeing them at about 15 20 minutes. We weren't seeing them immediately. So now we did learn something that I
should have known. First of all, I grew up in Portland, Oregon. What do you guys want to know about weed? Growing in the 60s and 70s. Um, we should have controlled for blunts for our work. Nicotine influences your
retina. So it wasn't until then I'm like how could you not have thought of that? It's just you don't think of everything. So we're going back and we did fortunately based on their history we know which ones are using blunt. So it was easy. Uh there weren't that many.
Um, but then we started learning the definition of blunt because there are products now like Snoop Dogg sells a blunt wrapper that is not nicotine and he's calling them blunts. Any other questions? Sorry.
>> I have a lot more questions I could ask, but I think in the interest of saving time, I'll I'll let it move on to the other commissioners. Thank you. Oh, by the way, I call it marijuana when it's recreation and cannabis when it's medicinal. Um, as a kid growing up in a inner city community, if I had used the
word cannabis, I wouldn't be here to talk to you. >> Commissioner Gandhi, do you have any questions? >> Yes. Uh, thank you, Jasmine. Uh, first of all, my I add my condolences for the loss of your son and also for your colleague Mark. Um, I'd heard about Mark
as well, so I I offer my condolences um on both those losses. Um, my question is a little bit um it has to do with what you said earlier in response to Commissioner Kensley's uh question. Um, and it's more I know that I know you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard
place here and there's a gray zone, but I I guess I would I'd like I I question jurisdiction and setting precedent um for a license application like this, especially given um you know, given uh
your comments about others are kind of watching. I'm I'm just kind of curious um and would seek guidance on uh what the jurisdiction is of the BCB um and also kind of what this means for setting
precedent. Um I I if I if I may finish >> I do I do I appreciate and respect very much your research and what you're trying to do. So this isn't any kind of you know commentary on that. I'm just curious about um jurisdiction and and
precedent. >> I can briefly touch on that because she is applying for a marijuana research with the state, she needs a host community agreement which is this process. So even though as she says she's doing her study and they don't
need a license for what they're doing, she's seeking a license with the state and this is the one of the the requirements of that process. But it is, like you said, it's a bit confusing as far as like she doesn't really need it, but she needs it. and the what is actually a research
license like I said was very solid with the first set of commissioners but it's kind of evolving meaning the cannabis control commissioners and chair Hoffman and um some of the people but as the commission
has changed that's why there was delay in actually um issuing any licenses Yeah. And also I would compare it to the one I believe we saw him last week Josh's onetop who sells um I think it's
CBD or something and currently that's like a gray area and there's no license but with the regulations changing he will need a license. So, I kind of feel like this doctor um Denise is trying to like cover her bases so later on if this
does become part of the regulations, she's not she's already up and running. She doesn't have to do this. >> We do. Um Jack had asked about facilities. When Dr. PMPON was alive and
we had potentially viable grant funding coming in. Our shared office space was going to be right across from UMass Boston, a beautiful space, um, Venture Lane. It's shared office also. It's also on
public transportation, but the reason we had looked at that was because they had hood space. So part of your shared office space is you developed your contract with them and your um agreements, we could grow
and be in the same spot. Um, we saw if schedule marijuana change scheduling, schedule 3, um, we would come back and seek amendments to how we're doing things, um, with whatever license we had
because we would change location. We could change we would change procedures um, and have people smoke under the hoods. But again, that's not going to happen for at least three years, if at all.
super helpful. Um, thank you. Thank you Dr. Valante and also Jasmine. That's incredibly helpful. >> Commissioner Stole, do you have any questions? >> Thanks, Jasmine. >> Yeah, just one question. If the if the
focus because it's a research kind of writ large, it appears like in the way that it's written. If the focus of this research were to change in three years because of some rapid shift in the market and someone went someone went to
market and it's already picked up everywhere and everybody's using it and you know there's an opportunity now to um really focus on Alzheimer's. does there um I you know I imagine it's
another round with the IRB and then if there's a I guess a um material shift in the work does it have to come back uh does is there another process to to to then
approve and then a part B to that is if we're looking at this as a from a license perspective are we also considering the local community quote unquote impact or is there any sort of light on that and and so maybe that
question is for Jasmine I'm not sure but um th those are the kind of two things that have been rattling around in my head >> well in answer the focus um if you look I went through it very quickly the type of research we do we have unfunded
research and one of the real fun pieces we do is we did marijuana and smell um So we would for any change in focus you would we would get another IRB. So we
have an IRB for smell and marijuana. We have an IRB for the technology we're developing. So if we wanted to do anything with Alzheimer's, we would have to write another IRB. One of the things we are able to do with our
existing IRB is we can look at schizophrenia. So just the way our IRB is set up, we would have to come back before this board though if we changed how we used
cannabis. Like if we were choosing to control the cannabis and bring it on site, that would be a completely different license procedure. We'd have to ask for that. But right now, almost all the
research we would do, I can't imagine why how why we wouldn't, it would be done offsite. So even if we get to say what the product is. Um that would still be done offsite.
>> Yes. And to answer your question, Commissioner, yeah. Any like she said, this is ever evolving regulations. I'm sure if they add something additional to the marijuana research license, we would have her come back and present it or we will seek guidance from the state as far
as okay, this person already has this type license type. A bunch of things change like how do we handle um the new regulations surrounding that license type. So it's ever evolving. >> Yeah. And again, we have approval for
the vision and the olfaction. Olaction was fascinating in that cannabis actually increases your ability to smell but decreases your sensitivity to um similar smells. The other thing we're
trying to get funding for, um, cannabis probably was protective against COVID, but when we did our questionnaire, we didn't do it as well. So, we need to redo some of what we looked at.
>> Fascinating. >> Yeah. Pretty cool. And you need diversity when you look at smell because culture and ethnicity it was fascinating when it comes to your taste and smell. >> Oh, I mean just in my own house between
my wife and I, we can disagree on the smell of almost anything. >> And this is while they were high, remember? But we did determine a lot of your history and knowledge of smells was based on your drinking history. For
example, our young adults did not recognize Amordo almond, but some of our adults didn't recogni older adults didn't recognize lime. So, while they were high, we all decided
it's based on what was popular drinks at the time you came of age. All right. Any other additional questions from the board? All right. We'll move to public testimony beginning with elected officials or their representative. >> Good afternoon, Commissioner. Sigy
Johnson with the Office of Neighborhood Services. I hosted or office hosted an abutters meeting on Thursday, November 20th, at which no concerns were raised. The downtown Boston Business Association is aware of this application. They've met with the applicant and they are supportive of the application. With that background, our office defers judgment
to the board. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ashley. Councelor Flynn's office. >> Hi, my name is Ashley from councelor Flynn's office. IMAD has completed the community process with an abutters meeting on November 20th and met with the leadership at the downtown Boston Neighborhood Association and the
Downtown Boston Alliance. Both organizations have expressed their support for the proposal based on the condition that there are no marijuana and no marijuana products on site, no seal of product on site, and strictly doing research at this location. Based on the agreed conditions above,
Councelor Flynn would like to go on record and support. Thank you. >> Is there anyone else that would like to provide testimony? >> Uh yeah, thank you very much everyone. Doug Meyer, Downtown Boston Alliance. As folks have mentioned, we were very
pleased uh to go on record in support of this with the support letter we furnished to the BCB prior. Uh it was very nice to see Denise shared that slide with the innovation trail wife wayfinding marker right outside there in Irish fam memorial plaza. You know, it it uh reinforces that this is a very
appropriate use and tenant for our district given there's so much innovation happening all the time in the DBA area and that uh IMAD is is so innovative in its own right. So again, for those reasons, we are pleased to offer our support. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else that
would like to provide testimony? >> All right. Seeing no one, the the board will take this matter under adisement. Thank you, Denise. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. So, >> if anybody has any additional questions, um, because it is a fun line of
research, >> Jack's laughing. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, those are all the matters before the board today. The board's voting meeting will take place next Wednesday, February 18th at 1 p.m. Again, the record will be kept open
until Monday, February 16th at 5:00 p.m. Thank you all for attending and enjoy the rest of your day. >> Jasmine, >> yes, >> Monday's a holiday, the 16th, isn't it? >> Yes, it is. >> Monday's President's Day. >> All right, so the bo the Thank you for
that. So, Tuesday, February 17th, the record will be open till 5:00 and then the board's voting meeting will take place Wednesday the 18th at 1 p.m. Thank you, Commissioner