The state’s cannabis board is giving pot cafes the green light.
The regulators tasked with creating the rules around “social consumption sites” have scrapped a pilot program that would have tested out weed cafes in a dozen locations and will dive right into licensing and regulation.
Voters approved adult use of marijuana in Massachusetts in 2016 and many have been legally partaking since the first adult-use pot shop opened late in 2018.
Along with allowing adults to purchase and smoke marijuana at home, the law also calls on the state to come up with rules to allow Amsterdam-style pot cafes to open and adults to spark up at the counter.
The Cannabis Control Commission on Monday voted to move forward with the process by eliminating a planned pilot program that would have allowed 12 selected municipalities to open pot cafes while regulators gauged how well the idea worked.
The problem, according to Commissioner Bruce Stebbins, was that starting small when the whole state requires the same regulations is a waste of both time and money.
“Right now, to help direct our work, we don’t feel that the pilot program is needed as it’s written. So help us take that work off our plate,” Stebbins said. “Our feeling is that eliminating the pilot program will help us dive into building that licensing and regulatory framework.”
Most of the commission was on board, though Commissioner Kimberly Roy chose to vote present rather than cast a yes or no vote, after expressing concern about the public health implications of allowing people to smoke anything, marijuana or otherwise, in indoor spaces where employees are forced to stay.
A pilot would allow the commission to develop guard rails for the new industry, she said, without it commissioners are flying blind.
“We don’t know about health and safety, we don’t know about secondhand smoke,” she said.
Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien, who voted in favor of doing away with the pilot, questioned whether some mechanism was needed to help ensure cafes have the ability to thrive and survive once opened, considering how some marijuana retailers have struggled to stay open as the market grows.
“I’m mindful of the fact that there are more licensees right now facing, you know, going out of business, not having the resources,” she said. “What are the potential alternatives to a pilot program that could allow us to sort of walk first and assess how this is rolling out and then make sure that we get it right the first time or first and a half time? What might that look like?”
Stebbins reassured O’Brien that the working group responsible for promulgating social consumption regulations had considered all of the implications of dropping the pilot program before bringing the idea to the full commission.
“I hear you and I hear all the concerns that all of you are sharing with us. They are all thoughts that our working group has taken to heart,” he said. “Again, we didn’t see a value to the pilot program and the way the pilot program was laid out.”
Further, Stebbins pointed out, recently passed legislation that causes the commission to consider more closely the impacts of cannabis criminalization on communities of color doesn’t align with the pilot program’s limited rollout.
“We’re handcuffed, right now, by the pilot program,” he told the chair.
Exactly when you might be able to roll into a casual neighborhood weed joint to buy and smoke a bowl among fellow tokers is still very much up in the air, as the commission hasn’t yet determined what sort of licenses they will issue or what rules will govern licensees.
