Draft regulations for cannabis social consumption businesses expected this month
Photo | Elizabeth Brooks
The Summit Lounge in Worcester serves a members-only club where patrons can consume cannabis. Registered as private smoking club with the City of Worcester, Summit did not need approval from the state's cannabis regulators to open its doors. The state's Cannabis Control Commission has been considering adding social consumption licenses as a possibility for businesses for several years, which would allow consumers to purchase and consume cannabis products at licensed locations.
The latest draft framework for allowing people to use marijuana in public social settings could be released next week as the Cannabis Control Commission considers feedback from public health experts, law enforcement and others, a regulator said Thursday.
Commissioner Nurys Camargo, one of two CCC members who has spearheaded the latest effort to launch the social consumption offerings contemplated when voters legalized cannabis almost a decade ago, said the CCC is "now editing and amending the social consumption regs" with the hope of releasing the new draft next week "so that we then can come back on the 27th of March and have a full discussion on the social consumption regs."
"We're now sort of at the end of bringing those regulatory comments back ... I know that the Department of Public Health has submitted comments as well, so we're looking forward to that, and obviously we've spoken to a lot of the public safety community. We're actually going to meet with the Major City Chiefs next week to discuss some social consumption as well," Camargo said. "Also, you'll hear more, possibly on the 27th ... in terms of a social consumption city tour that will be kicking off on April 2."
Camargo previously said the CCC had "parallel" conversations with other state departments and agencies, with law enforcement and law enforcement training entities, and with municipalities as it developed the regulations. She said Boston, Chelsea, Holyoke, Springfield, Northampton and more communities were part of those conversations, and on Thursday said Holyoke, Springfield, Boston and Somerville would be part of the social consumption tour.
The basic idea of on-site social consumption is to allow adults to purchase a marijuana product and use it in the same location, much like purchasing alcohol at a bar or a cigar at a cigar bar. The idea was part of the 2016 ballot law that legalized non-medical marijuana, and the CCC planned to include social consumption sites in its initial 2018 launch of the legal industry before it bowed to pressure from Beacon Hill to focus on the retail rollout first.
The new framework rolled out by CCC members in December calls for three social consumption license types: a "supplemental" license for existing marijuana establishments like retail stores and cultivation facilities that want to offer their customers the ability to consume products purchased on-site, a "hospitality" license category that would allow for on-site consumption at new or existing non-cannabis businesses like yoga studios or theaters, and an "event organizer" license category that would allow for temporary on-site consumption at events like rallies and festivals.
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