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After a years-long wait, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has presented a new regulatory framework for getting social consumption for cannabis up and running in the state. But without an executive director, the road ahead remains uncertain.
The new proposed framework for social consumption has three different license types – a “supplemental” license for existing marijuana businesses to add a social consumption component like a “tasting room” for people to consume cannabis they purchase on the site, a “hospitality” license for on-site consumption at new or existing non-cannabis businesses like lounges, yoga studios, cafes, and theaters, and an “event organizer” license for consumption at events like festivals that are no more than five days long.
Cannabis Control Commission member Bruce Stebbins. (Via CommonWealth Beacon)
Bruce Stebbins, the acting commission chair, warned that there are several hurdles before social consumption can begin in Massachusetts.
“This framework and the accompanying regulations represent our exhaustive and thoughtful work,” he said. “We know that this regulatory process is never quick, never speedy.”
The actual language of the regulatory changes will be released on December 17 and the commission’s goal is to get the social consumption regulations published by mid-2025. After that, the commission’s executive director and staff will have to have to develop applications for social consumption licenses, new guidance materials, and training for the new license type.
Further complicating the process is the fact that the commission has been without an executive director since Sean Collins quit the position in December 2023. The commissioners offered the job to David Lakeman, the former head of government affairs at the agency, but according to reporting by The Boston Globe, he has rejected the offer.
The framework presented is attractive to business owners, said Tito Jackson, a former Boston city councilor and owner of Apex Noire who has been vying to get into social consumption for years now
“It presents an amazing opportunity for businesses like my own,” said Jackson. “It’ll strengthen the bottom line of our business and make us more competitive and more attractive. Social consumption also begins to normalize an an industry that is significantly contributing to the bottom line of the state of Massachusetts.”
Jackson urged the commission – which has been enmeshed in dysfunction with slow rollouts of regulations like the removal of the two-driver rule for cannabis delivery which happened in October after months of deliberations – to move fast.
The regulations will not allow alcohol and cannabis to be consumed in the same space and emphasize the importance of ventilation. Each social consumption space must have a menu with information about the cannabis products including the amount of THC as well as a food service menu that includes items without cannabis.
As with cannabis delivery licenses, the social consumption license will be available exclusively to social equity applicants in the beginning. The proposed regulations suggest an exclusivity period of five years after the first hospitality consumption licensee begins operating.
Expensive air ventilation systems, however, could be prohibitively expensive for social equity applicants to operate consumption sites. Many cannabis businesses have struggled with falling prices as well as the difficulty of raising capital without having access to banking because cannabis is still illegal under federal law. Stebbins noted that whether air handling systems will be required will depend on planned activities and that the executive director of the commission will be able to approve different technologies that promote air quality.
Social consumption has been a long time coming in Massachusetts. It was legalized through the same 2016 ballot question that brought recreational marijuana to Massachusetts.
The commission initially aimed to roll out regulations for social consumption in 2018 but held off following pressure from critics – including then-Governor Charlie Baker and then-Attorney General Maura Healey who encouraged the new commission to focus its limited resources instead on setting up retail shops and cultivation facilities. At the time, they said that they were worried that social consumption businesses would encourage over-consumption of cannabis and lead to more intoxicated driving.
On top of that, a drafting error in the law prevented cities and towns from authorizing social consumption. By default, social consumption is banned at the local level so cities and towns have to opt in but initially, there was no process for them to do so. The Legislature weighed in with a 2022 law that fixed this issue by formally establishing a process by which municipalities can approve social consumption establishments.
Municipalities that want social consumption businesses will have to opt-in by ordinance, by-law or petition and will have to revise zoning codes. There will also have to be a local permitting process for the new businesses.
Last year, the commission chose to scrap a regulatory framework from 2019 that would have allowed social consumption sites to be rolled out with a pilot program in a maximum of 12 municipalities with restrictions that some advocates and cannabis operators called “overly burdensome.”
Since the ballot measure passed in 2016, social consumption has primarily been limited to private events. Entrepreneurs have created events during which people can smoke or consume edibles while doing yoga, craft-making, painting, and enjoying cannabis-infused meals. Generally, those who attend are encouraged to bring their own cannabis. For example, Sean Hope, a co-owner of Cambridge dispensary Yamba Market, has founded a private club called Diaspora that holds social consumption events around Harvard Square.
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“}]] After a years-long wait, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has presented a new regulatory framework for getting social consumption for cannabis up and running in the state. But without an executive director, the road ahead remains uncertain. Read More
