'Pot Cafes' Coming To MA With Expected Final Vote This Week

MASSACHUSETTS — The state's first "pot cafes" could soon be coming to a dispensary near you with the expected approval this week of guidelines for the first-ever on-site consumption of cannabis products and licensed cannabis-consumption events in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission is expected to approve the revised rules at its Thursday meeting. The option for on-site consumption was part of the ballot initiative legalizing marijuana in the state in 2016, but conflicting state laws and the regulatory process delayed the process for more than half a decade.

The on-site consumption options will include the potential for existing cannabis establishments to add the so-called "pot cafes" where products purchased can be consumed on-site. Hospitality businesses will also have the option of hosting marijuana-consumption events in collaboration with qualifying dispensaries.

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Cities and towns would have the option to permit or deny these cafes and events — as they do now with allowing pot dispensaries — with priority for licenses going to social equity businesses, microbusinesses and craft marijuana cooperatives for the first five years of the program.

"During the last few months, commissioners have been going line-by-line through the social consumption regulations to ensure we are expanding the cannabis industry in a sustainable, safe
way," Commissioner Kimberly Roy said in July. "Public safety was an integral part of the deliberative process, and we've built in initial safeguards aimed to help prevent over-consumption."

The guidelines include the requirement for special training for employees to detect impairment, banning alcohol at cannabis-consumption events, and requiring transportation/ride-sharing plans for each business.

Permitted businesses will be able to serve non-infused food and drink items on site that are shelf-stable and pre-packaged, while hospitality businesses will be able to sell their own prepared food at licensed events.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)