For as long as there have been political fundraisers, there have often been glasses of wine or bottles of beer available to hoist the candidate’s success.
In Somerville, a mayoral hopeful is taking another approach. And one that, to his frustration, is still technically in a legal gray area: a cannabis-infused menu at a fundraiser.
Willie Burnley, Jr., a city councilor running against incumbent mayor Katjana Ballantyne, is publicizing a fundraiser, to be held on Sunday — yes, that’s 4/20 — at an undisclosed location, where guests will share a cannabis-infused meal.
He believes he is the first candidate for public office in Massachusetts to do so. Hopefully, he said, he isn’t the last.
“There’s a stigma certainly around smoking cannabis, but also edibles. There’s this idea that anyone who does it is unserious, unmotivated, not a leader,” Burnley said. “These are really outdated ideas, and I think it’s important for us to show that just because you smoke marijuana or take an edible, it doesn’t mean that you lack any of the intelligence or determination necessary to help lead communities.”
The event is also designed to make a statement about what he believes is the slow pace of the state’s rollout of licensed social consumption sites, which have yet to open several years after legal cannabis became the law of the land.
He wants the state’s Cannabis Control Commission to move more quickly to make licenses for those establishments available, he said. And he wants Somerville officials to prepare for the moment when licenses are available, so the city can be “first in line” to open a cannabis-friendly café or other venue where people can buy and pop THC snacks or beverages, legally.
The commission has been drafting regulations for three types of social consumption licenses, and hopes to complete them “within the coming months,” according to a spokesman for the state-appointed board.
Even as they operate in a legal gray area, proprietors offering THC-laden meals at private events have become part of the cultural fabric among cannabis users, and aren’t all that hard to find.
Other events, like ticketed yoga classes where guests can help themselves to cannabis provided on site, have also proliferated, taking advantage of loopholes in state law and lax enforcement.
Cannabis edibles have also had a role in political fundraising in the past, albeit a lot more quietly, people involved in legalization efforts said, with under-the-radar fundraisers that included food infused with pot.
But for a candidate to come out publicly and invite potential voters to THC-laden meal is new for the state, experts said.
“I’ve never heard of someone doing that before,” said Marc Shepard, co-founder and president of NECANN, which organizes conventions for the cannabis industry.
He said he wishes it was more widely accepted, given how widespread a practice it is for political fundraisers to be held in places where alcohol is served.
“It’s beyond ridiculous,” Shepard said, “that nine years later we’re having a discussion about the legality or rightness of someone holding an event where cannabis is being served. It flies in the face of what was passed in 2016.”
Somerville is no stranger to cannabis-infused events, or to cannabis-event entrepreneurs.
One is Sam Kanter, who lives in the city and owns companies that host them called High Road Experiences and Dinner at Mary’s, and is responsible for the buzz in the items on offer at Sunday’s fundraiser.
Kanter said her businesses rely on a “gifting” model. Although she can’t sell cannabis products for use on-site, paying guests at events are instead free to help themselves to cannabis products.
Regulators mostly leave her alone for now, she said, and she’s never had an event get shut down by police. She said she plans to open a yoga studio and café in Somerville where, once regulations allow it, she hopes to operate as a fully licensed social consumption site where she can sell cannabis herself.
“We’ve been hosting these events for quite some time, and we’re really excited to be able to do it in the regulated space. That’s the goal,” Kanter said. “In the meantime we’re just trying to show what social consumption can do and ideally make sure that people understand it and want to support it.”
What this means for the future of the political fundraiser remains to be seen.
Mason Tvert, a cannabis consultant and longtime evangelist for cannabis legalization, said he could see campaigns hosting more THC-laced meals in the future. Cannabis has gained more social acceptance alongside its new ubiquity in the public square, a trend he thinks would continue if and when it is legalized at the federal level.
With time, more people of voting age will have grown up in a time when cannabis sales have been legal, and for whom the chance to pop an edible in the company of a local politician is enticing.
“As it becomes more legal and more widely accepted, we’re sure to see candidates or businesses or organizations take steps to reach out to that audience,” he said. “There are some people who might be attracted to an open bar. Some might be attracted to a cannabis-infused meal.”
Spencer Buell can be reached at spencer.buell@globe.com. Follow him @SpencerBuell.
He believes he is the first candidate for public office in Massachusetts to do so. Hopefully, he said, he isn’t the last. Read More
