Cannabis on the Learning Curve: A Conversation About Regulatory Compliance and Diversity & Inclusion in the Cannabis Sector

June 30, 2021
Dan Adams of the Boston Glob

Although its early days were controversial, the cannabis sector in Massachusetts is now a thriving part of the business landscape. According to Dan Adams of the Boston Globe, cannabis sales have now reached over $1.5 billion in Massachusetts, since the start of the recreational and adult use market in November 2018. A recovery from the shutdown of many retailers during the pandemic also seems imminent, with celebratory 4/20 sales totaling $4.21 million.


But the cannabis sector is unique and its value can’t be measured by sales figures alone. Unique among such a fast-growing and highly regulated industry, the Massachusetts cannabis sector has a statutory and regulatory obligation to make substantial efforts towards racial and gender diversity and inclusion and create a positive impact on local communities affected by the history of cannabis prohibition. In this interview, attorney Richard M. Juang, Of Counsel to Royal LLP speaks with two leading businesswomen who provide critical services to the cannabis sector: Ashley Boucher, Founder of Quality Control Analytics, which provides regulatory compliance training, and Danielle Schumacher, Co-founder and President of THC Staffing Group, which provides executive-level recruitment and diversity & inclusion consulting. In this conversation, we take a birds-eye view of the landscape for regulatory compliance and for diversity and inclusion in the industry, and talk about what aspiring entrepreneurs should keep in mind as they seek to launch.


Richard M Juang (RJ): First, thank you both so much for doing this interview. Cannabis is a major and still-growing industry here in Western Massachusetts. Many of our cities and towns have welcomed cannabis businesses. I wanted to speak with you both because you both run businesses that are ancillary, but critical to the success of “plant-touching” parts of the sector. You both have a solid track record and see a lot of of what’s going on both statewide and nationally. Can I start by asking you to introduce yourselves?


Ashley Boucher (AB): It’s a pleasure to speak with you. I’m the owner and founder of Quality Control Analytics. QCA was the first accredited responsible vendor trainer here in Massachusetts. We provide compliance training to cannabis companies throughout the state and offer consulting with data and data analysis. Responsible Vendor Training is a curriculum that’s required for every employee in the Massachusetts cannabis industry, initially at hire and then yearly afterwards.


Personally, I came out of working in data and compliance in the medical industry. When the cannabis industry started in Massachusetts, I thought it was a great time to take my expertise and knowledge from the medical world over into cannabis. I started off as a manufacturing manager, but when the responsible vendor training opportunity came up, I left and founded QCA.


Danielle Schumacher (DS): Happy to be here. THC Staffing Group is a national consulting firm specializing in finding qualified executive, managerial and professional employees for cannabis businesses. We also have a specific focus on helping companies be genuinely inclusive, from the start.

I’m from Illinois and got involved in cannabis advocacy and policy work in the early 2000s as a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I was involved with Students for Sensible Drug Policy. For 10 years before starting THC Staffing Group, I worked for dispensaries, a doctor’s office, and in large scale cultivation centers. I also created the first curriculum at Oaksterdam University, which was the first cannabis college. So, when I co-founded THC Staffing Group in 2014, it was one of the first specialized cannabis recruitment companies, but it was also a culmination of the work that Shaleen and I had been doing. From the start, we wanted to specifically focus on creating more diversity in the industry and to figure out ways to help companies truly be more inclusive. Personally, my very specific goal has always been to do whatever I can to help create sustainable employment for people who have been incarcerated due to the war on drugs.


RJ: The timing and growth of both your firms tracks the growth of the recreational and adult use cannabis sector in Massachusetts, from the time of its legalization to now. My own start with the cannabis industry was from the regulatory side, as one of the attorneys brought on by the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) to help write the first set of regulations. My recollection of the early days is that I saw enormous entrepreneurial enthusiasm and a real commitment on all sides to racial and gender diversity. But I also recall thinking that navigating a highly regulated industry is inherently difficult and I couldn’t tell whether or not the sector would really thrive or whether it would be dominated by a handful of major, well-capitalized companies. Now, it’s clearly become a thriving industry with both small and large operators, despite a lot of challenges. Ashley, what do you see as the major regulatory and compliance issues that cannabis businesses face, and what should they look out for in the near future?


AB: Currently, it really depends where you are in the industry. If you are a cultivator, you might say, for example, “my biggest compliance challenge is not using certain pesticides on plants.” A manufacturer might say “purging out my extracts to have only a specific level of butane or a specific level of a residual solvent left.” So specific compliance issues depend on where you are in the industry.


Overall, the biggest challenge that cannabis companies face when we’re thinking about compliance is having good communication in your establishment. If your operational teams aren’t communicating effectively, you’re going to have a hard time maintaining compliance. Employees need the education to know what a compliance failure is, in the first place, and what needs to be reported. Then employees have to know what to do if they do witness or suspect any compliance failures. Who do they communicate to?

RJ: Are there recommendations that you’d make for the CCC to help businesses?


AB: I do think that some of the compliance challenges come from the need to clarify some of the regulations. In the medical world, when I had to do any internal audits, one of the best things that helped was that I would get a huge booklet of everything we have to maintain in the lab. It would also have a list of what’s acceptable for cited evidence of compliance. So having a checklist from the CCC and a higher level of transparency and communication with regulators would be tremendously helpful: basically, a way for businesses to know what records to maintain and how they’ll be evaluated for compliance.


In the industry itself, I think that the industry is going to start considering some more Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CMGP) standards so that we have more consistency in the products that are being delivered to the market.


RJ: Is that something you see coming in the sector?

AB: Yes. When you go into some establishments now, you see that they’re already ahead of the curve, and they’re implementing some of those CGMP standards. For example, you see that they’ve paid attention to the physical construction of the establishment and that have training to ensure quality manufacturing procedures and training on hazardous substances. The result is that employees are safe and the products that are going to consumers are also safe. Those standards might become regulatory requirements at some point. There are groups out groups out in Colorado in Washington that are really pushing for better standardization of the manufacturing processes in the cannabis industry, now, and the codification of those standards in regulations. I think Massachusetts may start seeing that as well.


RJ: Ashley, that makes a great deal of sense. While regulators should avoid, I think, stifling entrepreneurial creativity, having consistent regulations about consistent practices is probably good, when it doesn’t lead to a loss of creativity or growth.

Danielle, THC Staffing Group sees diversity in the cannabis workforce as both an ethical principle and good business sense. As you know, it’s also a cornerstone of public policy in Massachusetts. From your perspective with recruitment and hiring, what do you see as challenges and recommendations for the cannabis sector, going forward?


DS: I think there’s a big risk of a lack of planning and underinvestment in hiring. Breaking into the cannabis business is expensive and complicated and it’s an extremely competitive industry. So, when a business starts up, there’s a real sense of urgency: companies often feel that they need to hire as quickly as possible, as many people as possible, while spending as little as possible. This can make hiring a diverse workforce difficult. The problem isn’t a lack of racial or gender diversity in the talent pool; it’s that there hasn’t been the planning or the time to do recruitment well when a new company is having to move really quickly and has to get set up in harsh financial conditions and in a complicated regulatory context.


RJ: I think it’s pretty common for entrepreneurs in any sector to rely heavily on personal networks for finding good hires when they’re starting out and even after they’re established. And if one’s personal networks are not racially diverse, then the result is not going to be a racially diverse hiring pipeline. What do you recommend companies do?


DS: First, plan ahead and make a recruitment strategy part of the business plan from the start, not after everything else is set up. Second, recognize that the drug wars have had severe negative consequences for Black and Indigenous communities. For white entrepreneurs, relying on personal networks alone is simply not a sufficient way to do recruitment, especially in the cannabis sector.


RJ: That makes sense. And I think the CCC’s licensing requirements promote businesses breaking out of personal networks and engaging with communities of color when hiring, not just putting a posting online and hoping that candidates of color and women will see it.


DS: Yes, cultivating community relations and cultivating a wider network is really important. That’s certainly something that THC Staffing does for clients.

AB: In Massachusetts, community engagement is also part of the regulatory landscape.


DS: And that leads into the challenge of retaining a diverse workforce. If you take the time to really get to know the local communities and communities of color and truly support the work that’s being done within those communities, you’ll have a better chance of building a welcoming workplace and retaining good employees.


RJ: Agreed. From an attorney’s perspective, there can be a big gap between legal compliance and actually having a welcoming workplace. There are important policies and procedures that all companies need to have, like anti-retaliation policies for when employees raise a concern about discrimination or harassment. But those policies need to be supported by managerial competence, which includes competence in managing a diverse workforce and also making sure to eliminate racial and gender bias in key things like evaluations, promotion, and wages.


How do the two of you think the sector’s doing so far?

DS: I think we’re still learning. Right now, I find that initially, many companies start off with a diverse workforce because they’re hiring from the communities that they’re located in. But if we look at the retention of employees of color, that’s a different story. So the big question now isn’t how do cannabis companies attract and recruit a diverse workforce, but how do they retain a diverse workforce?


AB: And part of retaining that workforce is also making the workplace a safe place to learn. Even in a highly regulated environment where maintaining compliance and standards is essential, workplaces also need to be a safe place for people to make mistakes and learn from them. The cannabis workplace needs to be a place where people are able to learn from mistakes and grow. And by reducing turnover rates, your compliance is going to improve.


DS: Because — and this goes back to your earlier point about communication and education, Ashley — companies will have better internal communications about good practices and better institutional knowledge, if there’s less turnover.

RJ: Thank you both for these insights. It’s always a pleasure to work with you both and thank you for your time.

Richard M. Juang, is Of Counsel to The Royal Law Firm, LLP, Springfield MA and Hartford CT. Ashley Boucher is the Founder of Quality Control Analytics, Assonet MA. Danielle Schumacher is the President and Co-Founder of THC Staffing Group, Chicago IL.


The article can be found here: https://danielle-thcstaffing.medium.com/cannabis-on-the-learning-curve-a-conversation-about-regulatory-compliance-and-diversity-2c00790330c6

Modern Leadership Through Coaching

June 20, 2025
“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” This quote from my Notre Dame football coach, Lou Holtz, has not only resonated with me through all aspects of my life, but it has guided me in coaching employees for success. Indeed, in playing for Coach Holtz in the late 1980s and winning a national championship with him, I learned quite a bit about leadership and accomplishing goals. The following takeaways that I learned as a young adult are what I have implemented into my professional life. While the objectives of leadership — driving performance, fostering engagement, and cultivating growth — remain constant, the ways in which we motivate our teams have evolved with each generation. What inspired Baby Boomers may not resonate with Millennials or Gen Z. Understanding these generational shifts is key to effective leadership today. In today’s work environment, coaching employees is not just a leadership tactic — it’s a strategic imperative. Remote work has reshaped communication, and employee expectations have shifted toward development and purpose. Coach Holtz’s quote serves as a simple but powerful framework for effective coaching: leaders must recognize ability, fuel motivation, and shape attitudes to bring out the best in their teams. Recognizing Ability: Know What Your People Can Do The first step in coaching is understanding each employee’s strengths and capabilities. This means going beyond résumés and job descriptions to truly observe how individuals think, solve problems, and interact with others. When leaders understand what their team members are capable of, they can align tasks and goals in ways that challenge without overwhelming. Coaching helps bridge the gap between raw potential and real-world performance. Inspiring Motivation: Help People See the Why Motivation is deeply personal. What drives one employee may not matter to another. Effective coaches take time to learn what inspires their team — whether it’s growth opportunities, recognition, or a sense of purpose. By connecting everyday work to larger goals and company values, leaders can unlock intrinsic motivation. Motivated employees are more likely to take initiative, push past obstacles, and grow within the organization. The Leader’s Role in Shaping Attitude Attitude determines how work gets done. A coach’s role is to cultivate a culture where positivity, resilience, and accountability thrive. This involves addressing challenges by considering setbacks as chances for learning and demonstrating emotional intelligence. Leaders who coach with empathy and encouragement set the tone for how their teams respond to pressure, change, and collaboration. From Feedback to Forward Momentum Coaching isn’t about occasional feedback — it’s about ongoing dialogue. Regular check-ins, clear communication, and actionable suggestions create an environment where employees feel supported and empowered. Effective coaching helps people take ownership of their growth, rather than waiting for direction. It turns feedback into fuel for development. Coaching in the Modern Workplace Hybrid teams, technological shifts, and generational changes have made coaching even more essential. Today’s leaders must be more intentional about building connections and offering guidance, especially when face-to-face time is limited. Virtual coaching tools can help, but the foundation remains the same: genuine curiosity, active listening, and consistent support. The Lasting Impact of a Great Coach Coaching done well builds more than just stronger employees — it builds stronger people. When leaders take the time to develop ability, ignite motivation, and nurture the right attitude, they create lasting value for individuals and the organization. As Coach Holtz wisely reminds us, performance is not just about what you can do — it’s about how and why you do it. Derek Brown is chief administrative officer at the Royal Law Firm, LLP and a retired, nine-year NFL veteran who also gives speeches on leadership and teamwork to accomplish goals. The Royal Law Firm LLP, is a woman-owned, women-managed corporate law firm certified as a women’s business enterprise with the Massachusetts Supplier Diversity Office, the National Assoc. of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. If your business has any questions on this topic or any other matters, please do not hesitate to contact the attorneys at The Royal Law Firm at 413-586-2288. Derek Brown wrote this article which was featured in BusinessWest. Click here to visit their website.

Good Faith Engagement with ADA Accommodations Makes all the Difference

June 19, 2025
Dooley v. Nevada Gold Mines, LLC Leroy Dooley appealed the United States District Court for the District of Nevada decision to grant Summary Judgment in favor of the Defendants. Dooley alleged in his original suit that Nevada Gold Mines, LLC “NGM” violated The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) under failure to accommodate when they made the decision to terminate his employment after his medical leave ended. Before having to go on medical leave, Dooley worked as a Process Maintenance Tech 6. The Tech 6 role is physically demanding. An essential function of the Tech 6 role included repairing ore-processing equipment, a task that required lifting and carrying up to sixty pounds, frequently twisting, and occasionally stooping, kneeling, and crawling. Dooley’s return to work form provided by his doctor indicated he could not lift more than ten pounds, carry more than fifteen pounds, bend, squat, or twist. The United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s decision to grant Summary Judgement in favor of the Defendants. Restructuring His Position Dooley asserts that NGM could have restructured his position and reassigned repairing ore-processing equipment to other technicians. The court concedes that role restructuring is generally a reasonable accommodation however, an employer is not required “to exempt an employee from performing essential functions or to reallocate essential functions to other employees.” Dark, 451 F.3d at 1089. Dooley also alleged that NGM could have reduced his hours as part of an accommodation while NGM continued to assert that even working part time Dooley would need to repair ore-processing equipment, an action he was still not cleared to do by his doctor even on a part time basis. Request for Assistive Equipment Dooley argued that NGM should have allowed him to use existing workplace equipment like cranes, forklifts, and dollies as assistive equipment to perform his role. Providing such equipment could typically be an accommodation but Dooley provided no evidence that he could operate the referenced equipment with his medical restrictions. Reassignment Dooley alleges that he was denied reassignment as a reasonable accommodation because he was denied reassignment to an open lab position in April 2018. However, Dooley was only cleared to work in December 2018 when the position was no longer open. NGM had other roles open at that time, and it is an undisputed fact that Dooley turned reassignment to those positions down. Per Wellington v. Lyon Cnty. Sch. Dist., 187 F.3d 1150, 1155 (9th Cir. 1999) “there is no duty to create a new position for the disabled employee." Dooley had turned down the positions that would have qualified as a reasonable accommodation, there was no expectation for NGM to create additional roles to accommodate Dooley. Request for Additional Leave It is undisputed that NGM provided Dooley with paid disability leave for over a year, including two extensions. Because of the length of the accommodation, Dooley was required to show that additional leave would have allowed him to heal and “plausibly have enabled [him] adequately to perform [his] job. Humphrey, 239 F.3d at 1136. Dooley could not provide such documentation because his doctor indicated that the restrictions were permanent. Dooley does not allege that more leave would have healed him but that it would have provided more time for him to “bid on positions that would come open.” However, Dooley failed to present any evidence that such positions opened within a reasonable time after his termination that he would have been able to perform. Take Aways NGM was able to provide documentation that they fully engaged with Dooley’s requests in good faith and that the process was hindered by Dooley’s lack of engagement and documentation. Awareness of ADA obligations and processes is the best pre-emptive protection against a claim of discrimination. If your business has any questions on this topic or any other matters, please do not hesitate to contact the attorneys at The Royal Law Firm at 413-586-2288.