Massachusetts Could Get Cannabis Cafes Sooner Than Expected

Nine months after a Massachusetts law outlined a process for cities and towns to authorize on-site consumption of marijuana products, the Cannabis Control Commission pivoted away from past regulations that would have constrained the launch to a dozen cities and towns.

Regulators voted Monday to “scrap years-old plans that called for rolling out cannabis cafes and other social consumption sites with a 12-municipality pilot program,” says a CBS News report.

Commissioner Nurys Camargo, a member of a working group that recommended the change in approach, said the decision to drop the pilot program “encourages municipalities to decide whether they will opt in to social consumption and allows regulators to devote their attention to longer-term questions about the industry rather than operation of a limited pilot program.”

“If we would have had a pilot project in place, then we’d have to think about a pilot license, and a pilot license would get stuck in our regs for the next three to five or six years, knowing how things move slowly throughout the process,” Camargo added.

Massachusetts still has several unanswered questions about how the broader regulations will address the risks of secondhand smoke inside marijuana cafes, impairment, and promoting business success for equity applicants.