The director of operations at Canuvo, one of Maine’s eight state-licensed medical cannabis dispensaries, has been appointed to the Marijuana Advisory Commission and will become the first marijuana grower to sit on the 15-member panel.
Josh Quint of Bridgton was appointed by Senate President Troy Jackson as a representative of the public to fill the commission’s last vacant seat. Maine lawmakers created the panel last year to review the state’s recreational and medical marijuana laws and to recommend changes to the Legislature.
Josh Quint of Bridgton, director of operations for Canuvo, the state-licensed medical marijuana dispensary in Biddeford, was named to the last open seat on the state Marijuana Advisory Commission on Friday. Courtesy photo
Quint has been Canuvo’s director of operations for six years, running the day-to-day operations of the Bridgton grow facility that supplies the Biddeford retail store. He deals with all aspects of the business, from designing the cultivation facility to developing products to formulating public policy.
The Minot native lobbied Jackson for the position, arguing the board needs someone with operational knowledge of how a cannabis business operates to weigh in on any proposed cannabis laws and rules, as well as recommend changes to existing laws that may not be working as planned.
Quint said he hopes to improve health and safety standards for consumers and to ensure a regulatory model that promotes Maine-owned-and-operated businesses, which has been a big issue for many in the cannabis industry that fear a takeover by out-of-state corporations.
“I hope to work with Mainers who do not approve of cannabis to find common ground on issues,” Quint said. “While I have worked hard for the last seven years to grow my business, my loyalty and interest lay with promoting the best outcomes for both consumers and non-consumers of cannabis in Maine.”
Quint is married to Zia Peterson, daughter of Canuvo’s founders, Sage and Glenn Peterson.
Canuvo landed a state dispensary license in 2011. It has grown from those four original family members to a 38-person operation. In the Maine marijuana industry, Canuvo often strikes a balance between the increasingly corporate marijuana industry and Maine’s network of small craft cannabis operators.
Some medical marijuana caregivers had been lobbying for one of their own to fill the commission’s last vacant seat, arguing the panel needed someone to represent medical marijuana patients and small mom-and-pop grows and shops in an industry teeming with lawyers and lobbyists.
But small operators do have a voice in commission member Alysia Melnick, a Bernstein Shur attorney who was political director for the 2016 Yes on One legalization campaign. She also represents Maine Craft Cannabis Association, a group of small cannabis operations run largely by caregivers.
Other industry representatives on the panel include lawyer Dan Walker of Preti Flaherty, the legal face of Wellness Connection of Maine, and lawyer Hannah King of Drummond Woodsum, who advises Maine Professionals for Regulating Marijuana and whose husband owns Coast 2 Coast Extracts in Portland.
The other members include state lawmakers like Rep. Teresa Pierce of Falmouth, who co-chaired the legislative committee that wrote the adult-use law, Maine’s marijuana czar Erik Gundersen, and Scott Gagnon, director of AdCare Educational Institute of Maine and an avowed opponent of legalizing marijuana.
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