Blogger Grant Smith Ellis named as recipient of Commission agent data leak

Grant Ellis, a cannabis blogger from Massachusetts, has gone on record claiming to be the recipient of the personal information of thousands of former and current marijuana agents from the Cannabis Control Commission.

According to GBH, Ellis and fellow blogger Eric Casey of Burn After Reading were investigating allegations of financial ties between Curaleaf and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich when the Commission inadvertently included the names, contact information, and addresses of roughly 17,000 marijuana agents and the reason for their termination in response to a public records request by Ellis. Ellis and Casey acted quickly to publish an article confirming the existence of the Curaleaf investigation by including images of internal communications between Executive Director Shawn Collins and investigation staff discussing the case. The Commission asked Ellis to delete any shared files that were sent inadvertently but did not notify affected constituents about the data leak until the following week.

Find the full story from GBH on their website here: https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2023/03/22/cannabis-regulators-putting-out-a-series-of-fires-involving-a-russian-oligarch-and-data-breach