‘Social consumption’ pot bars coming to Massachusetts … eventually

Welcome to Amsterdam on the Charles.

The Cannabis Control Commission predicts adults in Massachusetts will be able to patronize Amsterdam-style pot cafes and sample marijuana at the point of purchase sometime in the near future, but only after the time-consuming process of finalizing rules and licensing establishments is complete.

Commissioners announced they’ve arrived at a regulatory framework for how a “Social Consumption Site” can open and operate in Massachusetts, more than two years after an update to the state’s marijuana laws indicated municipalities could opt into allowing public use of the federally prohibited weed.

In announcing the draft regulations and a timeline for making them official, Acting Chair Bruce Stebbins warned both the rules and the concept are still in their infancy.

“This framework and the accompanying regulations represent our exhaustive and thoughtful work. It is in no way intended to have every answer to every question,” he said.

Offering draft regulations, the acting chair said, fosters conversation with industry stakeholders and community members who have thoughts or concerns. Stebbins said the commission is “anxious” for both the public and business interests to weigh in as the process moves forward.

It won’t be a quick process.

Commissioners will receive the draft regulations on Dec. 9 and they’ll be released for informal comment on or about Dec. 17. The informal comment period will last a full month, and will be followed by three weeks of work for the commission to edit the regulations to reflect input from commenters.

There will be a public hearing on the regulations — as yet unscheduled — and a formal public comment period to follow.

According to their timeframe, the commission expects they will file the final edited regulations with the Secretary of State’s office sometime “about three months from initial filing (goal of mid-2025).”

Matt Giancola, the commission’s director of government affairs and policy, said that filing the regulations doesn’t mean shops will pop up immediately.

“Once the regulations are available, that doesn’t mean a social consumption establishment is going to open the very next day,” he said. “But the commission is going to help external parties with this implementation.”

The exact timeline from the announcement of a regulatory framework this week to the first shop opening, Giancola said, will be “dictated by the state process, the municipal process, and licensees’ business decisions.”

Three types of licenses are currently planned. An existing marijuana business will be able to add a “supplemental” social consumption license to their business to allow sales and consumption at or adjacent to their established retail locations.

A company that partners with an existing marijuana establishment can apply for a “hospitality” license to open a “lounge, cafe, entertainment/recreation space, yoga studio, theater, lodging space” or other consumption venue at their non-marijuana business.

An “event organizer” license is also planned, which can be secured for an up-to five day “temporary consumption event.”

Expanding the sales scope for the state’s largest cash crop gives the marijuana industry the chance to “be innovative, while continuing to be compliant and successful,” Stebbins said.

Massachusetts will join a dozen other jurisdictions in allowing adults to imbibe marijuana in public establishments.