Lamont Administration Worked on Tribal Compact for 20 Months; Industry Got 45 Minutes' Notice

By Connecticut Cannabis Times - 10.2.2026

HARTFORD — Connecticut officials were discussing a cannabis compact with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation as early as October 2024, nearly 20 months before Gov. Ned Lamont publicly announced the agreement.

But records produced by the Department of Consumer Protection under the Freedom of Information Act show a dramatically different timeline for people already operating within Connecticut’s cannabis system.

The available DCP records show the Social Equity Council’s executive director received the embargoed announcement roughly five hours before the public release. State cannabis licensees received it at 2:30 p.m. — about 45 minutes before the Governor’s Office publicly announced the compact.

Four days later, two Republican legislative leaders complained that an agreement “of this magnitude” had been executed without broader legislative involvement or public examination.

The records do not establish that the SEC, legislators or licensees had no knowledge through communications outside DCP’s production. But among the responsive, non-exempt records DCP produced, Connecticut Cannabis Times found extensive evidence of negotiations involving the Governor’s Office, the Tribe and DCP stretching back to 2024 — while the documented notices to SEC leadership and state licensees appear only on the day of the public announcement.

And DCP’s own Cannabis Director described who had been leading the process.

“I apologize for the short notice, but we were not given a ton of notice from OTG and that office was primarily responsible for negotiating the compact.”

That message was sent after the compact had already been signed.

October 2024: The earliest record

The earliest compact-related record DCP produced is dated Oct. 18, 2024.

It is a Microsoft Teams meeting titled:

“Cannabis Compact MPTN-OTG-DCP”

The title identifies the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, Office of the Governor and DCP. The produced calendar record does not contain an attendee list.

Another meeting simply titled “Cannabis Compact” occurred Dec. 11, 2024.

By the following spring, actual drafts were moving between the state and Tribe.

On April 22, 2025 at 4:32 p.m., Patrick Hulin, policy director for the Governor’s Office, emailed DCP officials a Word document titled:

MPTN_cannabis_compact_OTG_4.22.25.docx

Hulin wrote:

“Julianne, FYI: here is the version of the compact we just sent back to the Tribe.”

Recipients included DCP officials Julianne Avallone, Bryan Cafferelli and Maureen Magnan, among others. Part of Hulin’s message was redacted in DCP’s production, and the attached draft itself was not produced.

The phrase “sent back to the Tribe” indicates the drafting process was already underway before April 22.

DCP’s privilege log further identifies 27 internal emails, messages and attachments involving compact drafts and notes from April 2025 through June 2026, plus three external emails and attachments involving Mashantucket Pequot counsel and Governor’s Office counsel. Those materials were withheld.

July 2025: DCP discusses the terms

On July 28, 2025, DCP held two separate Teams meetings titled “Cannabis Compact Terms.”

The listed participants were Avallone, Cannabis Director Lila McKinley, Deputy Commissioner Shirley Skyers-Thomas, Maureen Magnan and C.J. Strand.

The meeting records reference an attachment beginning:

“Re: Compact - 21a-421j-15 and”

That provision ultimately became significant in the final agreement. The signed compact expressly permits, if consistent with tribal regulations, a Tribal Enterprise to operate a facility where cannabis consumption can occur alongside cannabis retail sales and sales of food and beverages.

The state’s own FAQ now acknowledges one difference directly: “Unlike state licensees, the tribal enterprise may operate a consumption lounge.”

June 2026: The agreement moves rapidly toward execution

The records become particularly dense immediately before the compact was signed.

On June 3, 2026, Cafferelli, McKinley, Skyers-Thomas and other DCP officials participated in a “Cannabis Compact Discussion.” During that meeting, Skyers-Thomas forwarded the April 2025 Governor’s Office draft to DCP legal official Caitlin Anderson.

On June 8, Anderson shared a document titled “DCP Cannabis Compact Notes” with senior DCP officials.

Her message said:

“Reworked notes to send to OAG in lieu of a call”

The underlying material was redacted.

Cafferelli commented on the document the following morning. Additional internal responses were redacted.

Then, on June 10 at 12:40 p.m., Anderson sent Governor’s Office counsel Abhishek Mukund an attachment titled:

“DCP_Cannabis_Compact_Notes_-_PRIVILEGED_AND_CONFIDENTIAL.docx”

A related two-page memo from Anderson to Mukund was titled “Draft Tribal Cannabis Contract.” Its entire substantive contents were redacted.

Less than 90 minutes later, at 2:06 p.m., Cafferelli wrote:

“Memo was sent, reviewed by OTG, and Compact currently being signed.”

The final compact bears the signatures of Lamont and Mashantucket Pequot Chairman Rodney Butler and is dated June 15, 2026.

A second cannabis regulatory market — connected to the first

The compact does considerably more than recognize tribal sovereignty.

Connecticut’s existing cannabis establishments operate under state licenses and DCP oversight. Under the compact, cannabis activities on Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Lands are instead regulated by the Tribe’s own Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

The agreement states that cannabis activities authorized on Tribal Lands are:

“regulated exclusively by the Tribe.”

And although tribal regulations must meet or exceed numerous identified Connecticut standards, the compact explicitly says neither DCP nor another state entity has “administrative responsibility or enforcement authority” over those tribal standards.

Yet that separately regulated market connects directly to Connecticut’s state-licensed market.

A Tribal Enterprise may transact with Connecticut licensees for cultivation, manufacturing, processing, testing, purchase, sale, transfer and other cannabis activities “to the same extent” that a state licensee could transact with another state licensee.

Tribal Enterprises are also given access to Connecticut’s State CATS seed-to-sale tracking system.

For its first five years, the compact allows up to 250,000 square feet of cultivation grow space on Tribal Lands, including indoor or outdoor cultivation.

There are other differences.

A Tribal Enterprise can apply for a Connecticut transporter or delivery-service license without participating in the state lottery, and application and license fees are waived.

A Tribal Enterprise can similarly apply for a Connecticut independent testing laboratory license without the lottery requirement and with fees waived.

The Governor’s Office itself described the compact as creating a framework for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe to “establish and regulate its own cannabis industry on tribal land and access the state’s existing cannabis market.”

Connecticut law expressly authorizes the governor to enter such cannabis compacts with the Mashantucket Pequot or Mohegan tribes.

The issue raised by the records is therefore not whether Lamont possessed statutory authority to sign the compact. It is how an agreement creating a separately regulated cannabis market connected to the existing state system was developed, and when people already charged with or affected by Connecticut cannabis policy were brought into the process.

June 18, 9:56 a.m.: SEC executive director receives announcement

The available DCP production shows no comparable negotiating role for the Social Equity Council.

Instead, on the morning the compact was publicly announced, Cafferelli emailed SEC Executive Director Brandon McGee.

At 9:56 a.m. on June 18, Cafferelli sent McGee the embargoed release and wrote:

“As discussed, this release will be issued by the Governor’s office later this please don’t distribute this further until it is formally sent out by the Office of the Governor.”

At 10:41 a.m., McGee forwarded the material to SEC staff.

His message consisted of:

“FYI”

Recipients included Nichelle Mullins, Mariedy Collazo Cruz, Douglas Clemons, Karraine Moody, Jessie Coleman, Caesar Valentin, Paul Dunford and Solaiman Chowdhury, with Georgette Cicero and Jennifer Stevens copied.

The Governor’s Office would not publicly issue the announcement until approximately 3:15 to 3:17 p.m.

Based on DCP’s responsive production, the documented window between McGee receiving the embargoed announcement and the public announcement was therefore about five hours.

The records do not prove that no SEC official had prior knowledge through communications not contained in DCP’s production. But the production reviewed for this story contains no documented substantive SEC role comparable to the Governor’s Office and DCP officials who appear throughout the negotiating record.

DCP employees themselves were told late

The same morning, McKinley sent a revealing message to DCP’s Cannabis Division.

At approximately 11:10 a.m., she wrote:

“For those of you who missed our all call yesterday, the governor’s office has signed a cannabis compact with the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe.”

She then acknowledged the timing:

“I apologize for the short notice, but we were not given a ton of notice from OTG and that office was primarily responsible for negotiating the compact.”

And she told staff:

“It is not anticipated that the tribe will commence operations any time soon, so we should have time to discuss all the nuances and implications for our licensees as well as work with our licensees on implementation.”

That sequence is notable.

The compact had already been signed.

DCP employees were being briefed.

And DCP’s Cannabis Director was saying the agency would now have time to work through the agreement’s “nuances and implications for our licensees.”

The prior day’s “All Hands Call re: Cannabis Compact” had itself been scheduled at 3:37 p.m. for a 4 p.m. start — just 23 minutes’ notice.

June 18, 2:30 p.m.: Licensees get 45 minutes

The existing cannabis industry was notified even later.

At 2:30 p.m. June 18, DCP sent credential holders an email titled:

“Embargoed Press Release Regarding Cannabis”

The message told licensees that the Governor’s Office would formally release the announcement later that afternoon.

The Governor’s Office publicly issued the release between approximately 3:15 and 3:17 p.m.

Documented advance notice to state cannabis licensees: approximately 45 minutes.

The timing is especially notable because the compact itself contains an explicit notification provision:

“Upon executing this Compact, DCP will promptly inform all State Licensees that any Tribal Enterprise is legally authorized to engage in Cannabis Activities with State Licensees pursuant to the terms of this Compact.”

The compact is dated June 15.

The documented licensee notice was sent June 18.

Legislators were briefed the morning of the announcement

Legislative leaders were also sent an embargoed copy shortly before the public announcement.

At 10:04 a.m. June 18, Giovanni Pinto of the Governor’s Office emailed House Speaker Matthew Ritter, House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora, Senate President Martin Looney, Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding and other lawmakers.

Pinto wrote:

“Our Office is planning on sending this release out this afternoon, but I wanted to give you all a heads up on it.”

He asked recipients not to share it before the official release.

Four days later, on June 22, Candelora and Rep. David Rutigliano, the ranking House Republican on the General Law Committee, sent a letter objecting to the process.

They wrote:

“We remain disappointed that an agreement of this magnitude was executed without broader legislative involvement and a thorough public examination of its long-term impacts.”

Both lawmakers had themselves received the Governor’s embargoed announcement only on the morning of June 18, hours before it became public.

Twenty months of work. Hours of notice.

The chronology contained in DCP’s FOIA production is stark.

Oct. 18, 2024: First produced meeting, “Cannabis Compact MPTN-OTG-DCP.”

Dec. 11, 2024: Another “Cannabis Compact” meeting.

April 22, 2025: Governor’s Office says it has sent a compact draft “back to the Tribe.”

July 28, 2025: DCP holds two “Cannabis Compact Terms” meetings.

June 3, 2026: Senior DCP officials meet for a “Cannabis Compact Discussion.”

June 10: DCP sends privileged compact notes and a memo to Governor’s Office counsel. At 2:06 p.m., Cafferelli says the compact is “currently being signed.”

June 15: Lamont and Butler sign the compact.

June 17: DCP holds an all-hands compact call scheduled 23 minutes beforehand.

June 18, 9:56 a.m.: SEC Executive Director Brandon McGee receives the embargoed announcement.

June 18, 10:04 a.m.: Legislative leaders receive an embargoed heads-up.

June 18, 11:10 a.m.: DCP Cannabis Director tells staff OTG was “primarily responsible for negotiating the compact” and apologizes for the short notice.

June 18, 2:30 p.m.: State cannabis licensees receive the embargoed announcement.

June 18, approximately 3:15–3:17 p.m.: Governor’s Office publicly announces Connecticut’s first tribal-state cannabis compact. The official release says future tribal businesses will be able to access Connecticut’s production, wholesale and distribution chain.

June 22: Candelora and Rutigliano formally object to the lack of broader legislative involvement and public examination.

The public record establishes that Lamont had the statutory power to negotiate and execute the agreement. It also establishes that the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe is a sovereign government whose cannabis activity on its lands is subject to tribal jurisdiction.

But DCP’s records illuminate something the June 18 announcement did not:

The state spent roughly 20 months developing a new tribal cannabis regulatory framework tied directly into Connecticut’s existing market. Yet in the records produced by the agency responsible for regulating Connecticut cannabis, the documented notice to the Social Equity Council comes only hours before the announcement, the existing cannabis industry gets roughly 45 minutes, and DCP’s own Cannabis Director says the Governor’s Office was primarily responsible for the negotiations and that DCP still needed to work through the implications for its licensees.

That is not evidence that the compact itself was unlawful.

It is evidence of how the decision was made;

and how late much of Connecticut’s existing cannabis system appears to have been brought into the room.