Section 16. Sale or distribution of cannabis by vending machine or similar automation is prohibited.
Section 17. Any license issued under this chapter may, upon application to the authority upon such forms and in accordance with such procedures as the authority may prescribe, be transferred from one location to another or the description of the licensed premises may be changed with the approval of the authority. Any license under this chapter held by an individual, partnership or corporation may be transferred to any individual, partnership or corporation qualified to receive such a license in the first instance, if, in the opinion of the authority, such transfer is in the public interest.
Section 18. The license of any licensee who, directly or through any agent, employee or other person, changes in any manner cannabis in his possession by adding a dilutant, attenuant, intoxicant, preservative or any additive of any kind, the effect whereof is to reduce the purity of cannabis to less than 100%, shall be suspended by the authority for a period of not less than six months, and the licensee shall be subject to such additional sanction as the authority may prescribe. Presence on the licensed premises of cannabis less than 100% pure shall be prima facie evidence of a violation of this section.
Section 19. Whoever places or causes to be placed any additive in cannabis shall be liable to any person injured by reason of ingestion thereof to the extent of three times actual damages, plus damages for paid and suffering, costs and reasonable attorney’s fees.
Section 20. Any person aggrieved by the conduct of any license holder hereunder, his agents or employees, shall state his grievance in writing to the local licensing commission of the city or the selectmen of the town wherein the complained of conduct occurred. After investigation and hearing said commission or selectmen shall, if the public interest so requires, within seventy-five days from the date of the first regular meeting following the receipt of said complaint, submit to the authority a certified copy of the original complaint, together with a report of the commission’s or the selectmen’s findings and recommendation, which recommendations shall include, but not be limited to, one of the following:
a.. That no action be taken against the license whose conduct is complained of.
b.. That the licensee’s license be suspended for a specified period of time, not less than one week nor more than one year.
c. That the licensee’s license be revoked.
d. The authority shall, within thirty days of receipt of such findings and recommendations, implement the said recommendations unless the licensee complained of shall, during said thirty-day period: have requested a hearing or the authority shall have deemed a hearing to be in the interest of fairness. In either said event, the authority shall, within sixty days, hold a hearing de novo, and thereupon accept, reject or reverse the recommendation of the license commission. No revision shall exceed the limits set forth in this section for recommendations of the license commission. All hearings shall be conducted in accordance with the Massachusetts Administrative Procedure Act, and the licensee shall have the right of appeal as prescribed therein. The authority may suspend or revoke any license issued under this act for failure of the licensee to comply with any provision hereof, or if the licensee has ceased to act in the capacity for which other license was issued, or for other good cause; and no person whose license has been suspended or revoked shall sell cannabis or cause or permit cannabis to be sold during the period fo such suspension or revocation.
Section 21. Except as specifically provided in this act, all costs and expenses of the authority, including salaries and rent, shall be borne by the authority from revenues collected.
Section 22. The number of retail licenses exercisable within any city or town shall not exceed the total number of alcoholic beverage licenses which may be issued in said city or town under the provisions of Chapter 138 of the General Laws, regardless of the number of alcoholic beverage licenses actually issued. For purposes of this section, “alcoholic beverage licenses” shall mean the aggregate number of licenses which authorizes the sale of alcoholic beverages to consumers, whether package, tavern or victualler.
Section 23. Licensees hereunder shall not sell, borrow, loan or exchange unstamped cannabis or stamps to, from or with other such licensees unless authorized by the authority. Licensees other than processors shall not accept deliveries of unstamped or improperly stamped packages of cannabis except as authorized by the authority. Every licensed retailer and trade licensee shall immediately examine all packages of cannabis received by them and shall immediately return to their supplier any and all packages of cannabis that are unstamped or improperly stamped. Such supplier shall replace them with packages of cannabis upon which stamps have been properly affixed.
Section 24. No holder of a license of any class shall have, directly or indirectly, present or future, an interest in any other license of the same class or of any other class.
Section 25. Every licensee shall keep such records in such detail and affording such information as the authority may from time to time prescribe, and shall file with the authority, whenever and as often as it may require, duplicates of copies of such records; and the authority shall at all times, through its designated officers and agents, have access to all books, records and other documents of any licensee relating to the business which he is licensed hereunder to conduct.
Section 26. Every licensee shall, on or before the twentieth day of each calendar month, file with the authority, on a form prescribed by it, a report under the penalties of perjury, stating the amount of cannabis sold by such licensee in the commonwealth during the preceeding calendar month and such report shall contain or be accompanied by such further information as the authority shall require; provided, that if a licensee ceases to sell cannabis within the commonwealth he shall forthwith file with the authority such a report for th period ending with such cessation. Each import licensee shall, upon importation of cannabis into the commonwealth, file with the authority a report, stating the amount of cannabis imported and such other information as the authority shall require
Section 27. The surviving spouse or legal representative of a deceased non-corporate licensee may continue to exercise the license for thirty days following the death of the licensee, but thereafter only with the written consent of the authority, which consent shall expire, if not sooner revoked, fifteen months from the date of death. Consent shall be withheld unless the said surviving spouse or legal representative meets the qualifications prescribed by section 406 for the type of license sought to be retained.
Section 28. No holder of a cannabis license hereunder shall have any property right in any document or paper evidencing the granting of such license issued by the authority, and said authority, upon the expiration, suspension, revocation, cancellation, or forfeiture of such a license shall be entitled upon demand to the immediate possession thereof. The superior court shall have jurisdiction in equity, on petition of the licensing authorities, to enforce this provision.