The state Cannabis Control Commission’s research chief said Tuesday she will take medical leave for job-related post-traumatic stress, just days after she penned a public letter alleging she had experienced “inappropriate” and “harmful” behavior from senior leaders.
It’s the latest of many recent personnel moves at the commission that have forced lawmakers and industry observers to question how the agency can move forward with its day-to-day functions regulating the state’s $7 billion cannabis industry. The Legislature plans to hold hearings this fall to revisit the structure and issues within the commission after calls for receivership surfaced this summer.
The commission is operating without a director of testing after a pair of resignations in August. And the state treasurer recently terminated former chair Shannon O’Brien after a yearlong suspension for making a series of “racially, ethnically, [and] culturally insensitive” remarks during her year heading the commission. She intends to appeal the decision in court.
Julie K. Johnson, the chief of research now on leave, said the interpersonal dysfunction at the agency has slowed its productivity.
She was recruited six years ago in the commission’s early days to lead the team legally charged with analyzing the social, economic, and health impacts of marijuana legalization statewide. That covers everything from its impact on impaired driving and the size of the illicit market to the ownership demographic breakdown within the industry.
Johnson, who previously conducted research for Johns Hopkins University, Brandeis University, and Boston Children’s Hospital, said her team is a year behind schedule and frequently struggles to access internal data because of mismanagement at the commission.
“For the health of a thriving cannabis industry, consumers, constituents, and importantly, staff members tasked with ensuring the health of the industry, I personally believe that both staff and taxpayers alike deserve an external, objective audit to find the collective truth(s) and finally right the ship here at the Commission,” she wrote on Friday.
Johnson’s statement alleged she had been repeatedly mistreated by members of the commission’s top brass since 2020.
Johnson said she was contacted by commission leadership Monday about setting up a meeting. She said she feared she would be disciplined or fired over her online statement, and decided to take a two-month leave to try and avoid retaliation from her bosses.
“I felt like such an outsider from the beginning because everybody in the agency is so buddy-buddy,” she told the Globe. “Now I have exhausted all internal options for bringing up these issues.”
In a statement, a commission spokesperson said “the agency remains deeply committed to promoting a positive workplace where employees can thrive and effectively contribute towards its mission and mandate of regulating a safe, equitable, and effective medical and adult-use marijuana industry for the Commonwealth.”
Johnson’s public statement came after CommonWealth Beacon published state investigative reports last week surrounding allegations involving O’Brien, the former chair who was recently terminated. In one report, O’Brien and chief communications officer Cedric Sinclair traded allegations of bullying, harassment, and discrimination. Commissioner Nurys Camargo also alleged that O’Brien had made racially insensitive comments toward her during O’Brien’s tenure.
State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg has said she fired O’Brien for racially “inappropriate” comments, and did not provide further details.
Johnson told the Globe her belief that O’Brien was mistreated motivated her, in part, to go public with her own experiences.
Johnson’s Friday statement did not describe in detail what she had experienced, but internal commission documents reviewed by the Globe show Johnson described suffering from “severe and regular” panic attacks due to her interactions with Camargo and Sinclair.
In 2022, Johnson acquired a medical waiver requesting to be removed from working with Camargo and only have limited interaction with Sinclair. Working with them, Johnson said, was amplifying her existing medical conditions.
In a January 2023 letter to then-executive director Shawn Collins, Johnson said Camargo made “harmful and continued remarks” about the demographics of her research team and implied repeatedly that they could not do their jobs. In another letter to the acting executive director earlier this year, Johnson said, “I was exposed to physical intimidation and potential assault by Cedric Sinclair after experiencing verbal intimidation and displays of physical agitation.”
“The specific and combined behaviors of Nurys Camargo and Cedric Sinclair seemed to not only cause harm and disruption to the work we collectively conduct at the agency but created a hostile work environment(s) for those more intimately involved. For me, these behaviors caused serious harm, affecting my family as well,” Johnson complained to officials.
Johnson told the Globe her complaints were not investigated.
Collins, who left the commission in December 2023, declined to comment on “internal personnel matters.” Camargo also declined to comment.
Sinclair was suspended last December, after which he was accused of poor leadership at the commission by other workers. Three other women said they were pushed out or chose to leave because of harassment by Sinclair between 2019 and 2021, according to a June report from WBUR. An investigation into those allegations did not find any policies were violated, WBUR reported.
In a personal statement, Sinclair said “multiple credible witnesses disputed” allegations that he has harmed women at the agency, and that he has now filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to address his issues with the commission.
“The agency has conducted comprehensive investigations into several verifiably false claims against me and found that they were not substantiated by the facts,” Sinclair said, adding: “It has become commonplace for some staff to orchestrate unsubstantiated, racist, and retaliatory political hits on their peers for the benefit of Commissioners who previously worked at the agency.”
An investigatory report found that Sinclair’s bullying allegations against O’Brien were also not sustained by the investigation. The probe did find that O’Brien, who is white, had made racially insensitive comments that could be interpreted to mean diverse candidates, including Camargo, were not qualified to be chair.
Correction: A previous version of this story did not account for the fact that the commission has a new director of licensing.
Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_.
Julie K. Johnson’s leave, for what she called job-related post-traumatic stress, adds to vacancies and turmoil at the commission. Read More