Saying Massachusetts has missed out on $16 million in marijuana taxes, officials behind the 2016 legal marijuana ballot question on Monday pointed to staffing levels and bureaucracy at the Cannabis Control Commission as potential reasons for the slow rollout of retail sales in Massachusetts.

“The Cannabis Control Commission needs to pick up the pace,” Will Luzier, who managed the 2016 ballot campaign in Massachusetts, said at a press conference outside the State House. “We’re not here for cannabis operators, we’re here for the consumers and voters of the commonwealth that don’t understand why this is taking so long.”

Nevada and California voters approved non-medical marijuana laws in November 2016, at the same time the ballot question passed in Massachusetts. Retail shops opened in Nevada in July 2017 and in California in January 2018, Luzier said.

Blake Mensing, an attorney working with cannabis businesses in Massachusetts, said the cannabis commission, perhaps unintentionally, failed to prioritize the licensing of marijuana testing labs earlier in the process, ensuring some of the current delays. [Read more at Boston Globe]