Forchion estimates that he has already served between 1,100 and 1,200 days of incarceration for selling cannabis. His storefront was most recently raided in 2016 and he spent more than a year in jail awaiting trial on witness tampering charges, for which he was acquitted. The related drug charges were dismissed, the report says.
Forchion said that with the state’s regulations allowing micro-businesses—those that sell less than 1,000 pounds of cannabis per month—he believes that officials “are trying to bring the black market” into the legalized market.
Forchion added that the state’s rules will not disqualify him from the legal market because of his cannabis-related criminal history. The rules state that the state program is “expected to offer some economic benefit to people from communities that have historically been excluded from economic opportunities, particularly those with prior criminal convictions, people of color, and disabled veterans.”