Last December, after months of deliberation, the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) voted to eliminate its so-called two-driver rule—which requires all marijuana deliveries to be handled by two drivers.
The vote was 3–1, with Commissioner Bruce Stebbins the lone holdout. He was concerned about dropping a safety requirement to make the delivery license more lucrative. His fellow commissioners, however, wanted to reduce overhead costs for the delivery companies, which are headed by social equity licensees. “Ample security measures are already in place,” said Commissioner Nurys Camargo, referring to body cams and GPS tracking.
Five months later, the two-driver rule remains in place. Delivery operators are still waiting for relief, and the commission has no timetable for when the rule will be modified. At the commission’s public meeting on May 9, the commission’s general counsel shared that it would be months before the two-driver rule is removed. The CCC attributed the delay to an effort to consolidate a number of regulatory changes dealing with deliveries in a single rewrite.
In the meantime, the two-driver rule remains in place, which is not sitting well with the delivery companies.
“The two-driver rule is a hurdle and a handcuff that companies like mine are facing,” said Gyasi Sellers, the owner of cannabis delivery company Treevit. “There are a lot of companies like mine that are running out of time. Some have gone under already, and that rule is one of the primary causes of that.”
The two-driver rule requires that any cannabis delivery have two drivers in the vehicle so that when one person leaves the vehicle to actually make the delivery, the other person can stay and guard the vehicle. According to the delivery companies, the rule doubles the cost of each job because two people have to be paid for work that can be done by a single person. Plus, if one driver is out, the other driver can’t make the delivery.
Cannabis delivery operators have been speaking out against the two-driver rule for a long time. “[Back] in 2020 and 2021, we were telling the commission that the two-driver rule is gonna really hurt businesses,” said Chris Fevry, the co-owner of Dris Delivery. “We’ve told them multiple times it’s literally just gonna hurt equity. And come to find out it’s still 2024 and the two-driver rule is in place, and companies have gone out of business because of the two driver rule.”
Ulysses Youngblood, the owner of cannabis company Major Bloom, which has a dispensary in Worcester and also a delivery arm, expressed frustration that the CCC wasn’t prioritizing this issue.
Hellbound and Down 