FILE – A marijuana plant. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
The Cannabis Control Commission has spent a second full day discussing the draft rules for public consumption of marijuana, with more word wrangling apparently yet to come.
The commission began its discussion of “social consumption” rules on Thursday and wrapped talks Monday without approving a final product.
Commissioner Nurys Camargo said she’s heard critics — both inside and outside of the agency — speak about the commission’s slow roll out of their social consumption policies.
What’s more important, she said, is getting the regs right, not done quick.
“This is why it’s taking so long – we want to do it right. We’ve had public safety and public health at the forefront,” Camargo said.
The commission spent the last pair of meetings trying to nail down specifically where adults over the age of 21 will be allowed to consume marijuana in a public setting and who might be allowed to serve them, ironing out definitions for terms such as “Social Consumption Establishment,” and refining language to make sure their regulations don’t cause more harm than good for an as-yet-unlaunched industry.
The idea of social consumption — think Amsterdam-style pot cafes — goes back to the original voter-approved law passed in 2016. Efforts to see the plan put in place stalled as regulators worked to get other parts of the law, like those regulating medical and adult recreational sales locations, up and running.
When the program finally goes live, Massachusetts will join more than a dozen other U.S. states in allowing adults to imbibe cannabis where they buy it, similar to alcohol at a bar.
However, getting through each sentence of the about 200-page draft regulations may take more than a few more meetings, according to Camargo, but that’s okay if it means the plan is successfully implemented.
“If we have to have five or six more of these meetings, we’re going to have them, because this is the first step toward the larger conversation,” she said.
“Some of us may not be here as commissioners when this stuff goes into effect, you know, when it’s time to implement this. I think part of our jobs right now is to move this forward, have these conversations and, you know, work on this little by little to make sure that we do have the manpower and we do have the funding to be able to put this out there,” the commissioner said.
Acting Commission Chair Bruce Stebbins acknowledged that, apart from getting the rules language right, implementing the regulations will be a significant “lift” for the commission and its staff.
“I’m sure the industry would acknowledge it — and stakeholders in communities that are also looking for guidance from us, it’s not just licensees — that creating this new piece of the market is a lot,” he said.
The commission has scheduled a pair of further meetings, on April 16 and 18, to continue with their discussion of the draft social consumption regulations.
