Pot cafe? Beer garden with a cannabis booth? A smoking spot at a yoga studio?
Regulators for Massachusetts’ Cannabis Control Commission are ironing out details on how to create establishments where people can use marijuana socially. The ideas shared in a meeting Thursday include options for allowing consumption at existing cannabis stores, other types of businesses and events.
Commission Acting Chair Bruce Stebbins said the plan includes input gathered from a variety of sources, including city and town officials, law enforcement, public health experts, real estate professionals and business owners.
There are three types of proposed licenses. The first is a supplemental license for an existing marijuana establishment, to allow consumers to consume what they purchase there on-site. The examples commissioners gave are a lounge, cafe, tasting room, or other spaces both indoors and outdoors.
Stebbins said this type of license “is probably the fastest to get to market, the fastest to open, just based on the fact that a licensee already has an existing space.”
The second license allows a qualifying consumption licensee to move into a new or an existing non-cannabis commercial business space. That could be like a yoga studio wanting to host social consumption during one of its classes, or a bar wanting to create an area for customers to consume marijuana.
Mike Baker, an associate general counsel for the committee, likened this type of license to having a Dunkin’ in a gas station. “We expect entrepreneurs to get really creative, and so we didn’t want to limit that as much as we could possibly do that — while still keeping public safety and public health at the forefront,” he said.
The third license type is an event organizer license, which involves a local permitting process and more municipal decision-making. Organizers will be required to obtain a temporary on-site consumption permit for each event. The commission is proposing events can be no longer than five days in length, and event organizers can host no more than 24 events annually.
The commission has proposed general rules for all licensees:
- No one under 21 will be allowed.
- Customers can’t bring their own cannabis products.
- Sales will be cut off 30 minutes before closing.
- Proper ventilation is required.
- Licensees will need a transportation strategy to help impaired consumers get home safely.
- And there must be posted information about levels of THC and average onset times.
The commission wants to partner with the Department of Public Health for a safe consumption marketing campaign.
“We’re going to also ask licensees to create standard operating procedures for what we call ‘cool down strategies,’ ‘cool down spaces,’” said Stebbins, for those who have adverse reactions and need to “come down.”
Regulators have held three public listening sessions so far. The group spoke with regulators in California, Colorado, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada and New Jersey.
They met with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission about how they license facilities and some of the regulations that they have. Stebbins said they also spoke with groups offering insurance products to cannabis businesses.
Stebbins said Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Holyoke, Northampton, Provincetown, Somerville and Springfield have all expressed interest in having social consumption sites.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting , a private corporation funded by the American people.
