AC: It’s become an issue that host communities are demanding a lot from marijuana dispensaries, including that they must donate large sums of money to the community. Do you agree with this?

AL: I agree that it’s a situation that’s rife for corruption as we said in the context of announcing charges against Mayor (Jasiel) Correia in Fall River. So that creates a problem. … What’s troubling is this quasi-extortion of these dispensaries which are now licensed which can’t open up in a given town without really giving a pound of flesh to the local municipality. Now that can be perfectly legal … but it tempts local officials into corrupt practices by essentially seeking a payoff in exchange for permission to operate in that town and that’s what troubles us. Every municipality in Massachusetts where a dispensary wants to open could have this dynamic. So we’ve begun to look into it.