New cannabis commission director wants to stay out of the headlines

OG Article

By Shira Schoenberg

May 26, 2025

Talk to Travis Ahern, and he sounds, to put it bluntly, like a slightly boring government functionary. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, that’s probably exactly what a state government agency executive director should sound like.

The catch is that Ahern is the new executive director of the Cannabis Control Commission, and cannabis tends to attract … personalities. The clashes between former executive director Shawn Collins and former commission chair Shannon O’Brien are the stuff of workplace complaints and litigation. The agency has made headlines for its extraordinary staff turnover, fueled by allegations of workplace bullying. The agency has failed to accomplish basic operations like fee collection. The state Inspector General called for putting the commission in receivership, calling it “a rudderless agency without a clear indication of who is responsible for running its day-to-day operations.”