Ousted for a second time earlier this year, just a few months after winning back her job following a lawsuit, former Massachusetts cannabis czar Shannon O’Brien is suing again.
This time, O’Brien is alleging in a lawsuit filed last week in state court that she was removed as chair of the state Cannabis Control Commission after insisting the agency investigate “credible allegations of regulatory misconduct” and “conduct that violated (state) law and endangered the public” in the $1.6 billion annual industry, court records show.
According to a lawsuit filed Aug. 20 in Suffolk County Superior Court, among the problems in Massachusetts cannabis that O’Brien claimed to have identified that led to her dismissal:
- “Delays in license processing”
- “Failures” with marijuana social equity
- “Ongoing complaints regarding testing fraud and contaminated products”
- “Concealment of testing and seed-to-sale data”
- A “continuing failure to investigate” a licensee named Greatest Hits accused of diversion that also had personal connections to CCC leadership, including former CCC Executive Director Shawn Collins
According to the suit, O’Brien’s reward was “swift” retaliation: “pressure to resign, misuse of confidential personnel processes, suspension, and ultimately removal from office.”
Why is the former Massachusetts cannabis czar suing the state?
O’Brien’s lawsuit names the state Treasurer Deb Goldberg and her office as well as the state CCC as defendants.
The suit alleges violations of state whistleblower protections as well as that Goldberg violated O’Brien’s civil rights and invaded her privacy when she disclosed “confidential accusations against O’Brien to a political associate.”
A spokesman for Goldberg told the Boston Herald that she hadn’t been served with the suit and could not comment on pending litigation.
A spokesperson for the CCC declined to comment, according to the Herald.
O’Brien, a former state treasurer who was first appointed chair of the Massachusetts cannabis commission in September 2022, was suspended a year later and then ousted in September 2024 by Goldberg for alleged “gross misconduct,” including making racist remarks.
She was ordered reinstated in September 2025 by a Suffolk County judge who found the allegations unsubstantiated.
Her reinstatement also came on the heels of a scathing state audit that found “widespread dysfunction” at the CCC, including demonstrating “potential favoritism and/or impropriety” in its dealings with some licensees.
Why was the former Massachusetts cannabis czar fired?
In an interview with MJBizDaily earlier this year, O’Brien said she wanted to streamline affairs for state cannabis businesses and encourage operators to pursue a “research lab” license category that to date has never been awarded.
O’Brien also intended to impose stricter cannabis testing laboratory protocols, including standardized THC testing, to combat the longstanding issues of potency inflation and lab shopping.
But following a shakeup of the state cannabis agency this spring, Gov. Maura Healey did not retain O’Brien.
“Given everything that’s gone on, I think it’s important to have a fresh start, fresh look at things,” the governor said at the time, according to PBS-affiliated WGBH.
O’Brien’s latest lawsuit repeats some of the allegations made against Goldberg and staff in the suit that led to her reinstatement.
In response, according to the Herald, a Goldberg spokesman accused O’Brien of “attempting to rehash issues that have already been investigated or litigated, further wasting taxpayer dollars.”
“This latest complaint is about generating headlines, not presenting the facts,” Goldberg spokesman Andrew Napolitano said, as per the Herald.
“We are focused on the work of our office. It is time to move on.”
Are Massachusetts cannabis operators inflating THC potency?
However, recent CCC disclosures support at least some of her claims, O’Brien’s lawsuit claimed.
These include allegations of THC potency inflation and commercial cannabis testing laboratory fraud.
On Aug. 14, the CCC released results of a potency-testing audit that found 13 out of 63 cannabis flower samples labeled with a THC content outside of an acceptable variance range of 75% to 125% of what a second lab test found.
The CCC’s audit “substantially corroborated the testing – fraud and consumer-protection concerns O’Brien had raised and disclosed to public bodies before, during, and after her suspension and removal,” the lawsuit claimed in part.
O’Brien also makes some ominous statements in her new suit.
These include the claim that, after receiving advice from the state inspector general, she invoked whistleblower protections while providing “information and documents” about Greatest Hits “for referral to the United States Attorney’s Office.”
In addition, according to O’Brien’s suit, important “information concerning the death of a cannabis-industry worker had not timely been provided” to the state.
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That’s an apparent reference to the January 2022 death of Lorna McMurrey, a 27-year-old employee at Trulieve Cannabis Corp.’s former Massachusetts manufacturing facility who collapsed and died as a result of exposure to “ground cannabis dust,” a later federal investigation found.
The state fined the MSO $350,000.
The allegations also come as voters will decide whether to end Massachusetts’ state-regulated adult-use cannabis market.
A question that would end adult-use sales while preserving medical cannabis, funded by a national anti-cannabis organization, will appear on the November ballot.
