A prominent Vermont cannabis company is accused of illegally growing and selling weed on the black market and faces an 18-month license suspension and a $60,000 fine.
The owners of Forbins Finest hold a “tier 3” indoor grow license that allows it to cultivate up to 625 plants at a time. The company’s cannabis is found in at least 19 dispensaries, according to its website, as well as at its Forbins Reserve shop in downtown Barre.
If enacted after a hearing next month, the penalty would be one of the harshest handed down post-legalization by the Vermont Cannabis Control Board, which regulates the industry.
The board has also accused a Forbins employee of illegally distributing high-potency cannabis products, something her bosses knew about. She faces the loss of her license to operate in the industry and a $10,000 fine.
Tim Fair, a lawyer specializing in cannabis regulation who is representing both Forbins and the employee, dismissed the allegations as trumped up charges brought by “disgruntled employees.” He vowed to clear his clients.
“The reality here is that there is no violation, and that everything that was in that notice of violation can be easily explained and does not in any way mean my clients are doing anything wrong,” he told Seven Days.
Forbins, owned and operated by Angela Payette, Nicholas Mattei, and Miranda and Alexander Lauzon, is only licensed to cultivate cannabis at a warehouse in downtown Barre. Payette and Mattei, however, also own a property in rural Northfield, which is where regulators say they were growing cannabis illegally.
Control board investigators interviewed Mattei in October. He told them that the house at the Northfield property was unfinished and that there was no cannabis cultivation happening there, though “cannabis genetics” were produced at the site when Forbins was first licensed in October 2022.
About 30 minutes after the interview ended, an investigator staking out the Northfield property saw a truck arrive and a man bring eight apparent cannabis plants from the house to the truck. Around the same time, the control board alerted the Northfield Police Department about the possible illegal grow site, and an officer showed up at the address.
The officer was eventually able to speak to the driver of the truck, Mattei. He initially offered to let the officer to look in the truck bed and search the home, then rescinded the offer. Mattei acknowledged that hemp, a less regulated cannabis plant, had previously been grown on the property but declined to confirm whether it still was.
The officer and investigator later saw black smoke, the odor of which “was not consistent with that of typical wood smoke,” rising from the chimney on the property. Mattei told the investigators that his daughter must have started a fire using wet wood. He also told police he thought he was being targeted by the control board and a former employee.
Investigators noted that indoor cannabis grow operations use a lot of electricity, and they subsequently analyzed bills at the property from late 2024 through late 2025. They found the home “consumed an extraordinary volume of electricity,” with an average monthly bill of nearly $900, with a high of nearly $1,600.
The board found Forbins violated four regulations around growing or selling cannabis without a license, lying to investigators, and intentionally destroying or concealing evidence. State cannabis law allows the board to revoke a grower’s license entirely, but the board recommended instead a “waiver penalty,” or a lesser penalty issued at the board’s discretion, of a $60,000 fine and a suspension of the company’s cultivation license for 18 months. The company is contesting the allegations, and a public hearing is expected in April.
Mattei declined to comment, referring all questions to his attorney, Fair. Last year, voters named Forbins Finest “best local cannabis grower” in the annual Seven Daysies contest.
The control board also issued a notice of violation against a Forbins employee, accusing her of intentionally lying to investigators and destroying or concealing evidence of cannabis regulation violations.
The employee allegedly sold products that “vastly exceeded statutory limits on THC potency and content,” including a 1,500 milligram mint white chocolate bar. According to the board documents, a consumer of one of these products “experienced an adverse outcome and sought hospital care” last September.
The employee faces a waiver penalty of $10,000 and revocation of her employee identification card.
Fair, Forbins’ lawyer, claimed that one of the photos included in the notice of violation filed against the company employee was a “poorly Photoshopped” photo of a product produced in Washington State.
“This is the type of evidence that’s being used to accuse my clients of something that they have absolutely not done,” he said.
License revocations have been rare during the four years since Vermont’s cannabis market first opened. One tier 2 grower, Holland Cannabis, was accused twice of using banned pesticides on its plants. The control board fined the company and revoked its license, a decision the Vermont Supreme Court upheld last year.
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