SEC Executive Director Brandon McGee Added to the Statewide Cannabis and Hemp Enforcement Board

SEC Executive Director Brandon McGee: Added To Connecticut’s State-Wide Cannabis & Hemp Enforcement Board As HB 5222 Moves Toward Final Passage

CT CannaTimes Staff - 5.6.2026

Connecticut lawmakers quietly inserted a major cannabis power shift into HB 5222.

If the bill clears the Senate today, Social Equity Council Executive Director Brandon McGee will officially gain a seat on the State-Wide Cannabis, Hemp and Controlled Substances Enforcement Board — a board specifically tasked with identifying “enforcement opportunities” related to illegal cannabis sales, intoxicating hemp products, and controlled substances.

That means the executive director of the Social Equity Council an entity originally sold to the public as a vehicle for repairing harms caused by cannabis prohibition would now directly participate in a statewide enforcement structure focused on identifying and coordinating cannabis enforcement priorities.

The language added to the bill states:

“There shall be a State-Wide Cannabis, Hemp and Controlled Substances Enforcement Board consisting of the Attorney General, the Chief State’s Attorney, the Commissioner of Consumer Protection, the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection, the Commissioner of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Commissioner of Revenue Services and the executive director of the Social Equity Council…”

The same section says the board will meet quarterly to:

“identify areas of need and enforcement opportunities concerning illegal cannabis sales, intoxicating hemp product sales and controlled substance sales…”

This is politically significant for several reasons.

First, Brandon McGee and the Social Equity Council have already faced years of criticism over corporate favoritism, opaque licensing decisions, delayed transparency, and the broader failure of Connecticut’s social equity rollout to meaningfully empower legacy operators or small independent cannabis participants.

Now, under HB 5222, the executive director of that same council would formally join a statewide enforcement body targeting the very market many advocates argue Connecticut’s system economically displaced but never realistically integrated.

Second, this comes as Connecticut simultaneously expands hemp and cannabis enforcement powers while moving key testing standards out of statute and into regulatory discretion under DCP. Critics argue the state is continuing to centralize enforcement authority while insulating major operators from competition.

The bill also partially softens prior FOIA secrecy language tied to the enforcement board after backlash. Instead of making all meetings and documents exempt from public disclosure, the amendment now allows executive sessions specifically for discussions involving enforcement opportunities, with records from those sessions remaining exempt from FOIA.

HB 5222 has already passed the House and now heads to the Senate for final consideration today.