Massachusetts Marijuana Legalization: What You Should Know

Massachusetts has legalized marijuana, effective this December, leaving tourists with a lot of questions that include, but aren't limited to:

If I buy my family pot cookies for Christmas, can I fly out of Logan with them in my bag?

Can my buddy in Boston mail me a bag full of special gummy bears?

If I swing through Woburn and accidentally eat the wrong kind of brownie, can I still get in trouble with my zero-tolerance employer back in New Hampshire?

These are big questions that are going to be far more than theoretical soon, but unfortunately there aren't many answers right now, at least not definitive ones. Massachusetts marijuana legalization is brand spanking new. Its implications in the state are barely known, let alone its impact across the border.

First, remember that retail sales aren't scheduled to start until 2018, and legalization doesn't technically take effect until mid-December.

In the meantime, try looking to the West. Massachusetts' ballot initiative is modeled after Colorado's, so a likely blueprint can be found there. Take Denver's rules as an example.

Read More: In Marijuana Push, Massachusetts Is Far From Alone

In the Mile High City, tourists and visitors over 21 are permitted to imbibe. Out-of-state purchasers would be subject to the same limits as residents —1-ounce retail purchase, the same as stipulated in the Massachusetts ballot question.

But if you take that bag of gummies or box of pot brownies back across the border to New Hampshire, you're in trouble. Although marijuana will be legal in the eyes of Massachusetts law, that's not so for federal law enforcement.

That means it's illegal to mail or transport marijuana over state lines, and your employer can still enforce drug-free requirements in your workplace.

A final question is whether Massachusetts can expect a glut of new visitors traveling here in order to partake.

Tourism departments in other states like Colorado and Oregon have been grappling with this very scenario.

On the one hand, Massachusetts (and now Maine, too) will have something to offer that nobody else in the region provides. On the other hand, that something is still illegal under federal law.

So, how does Massachusetts' tourism office market marijuana?

“It’s a funny place to be; we don’t exactly know what to do with it,” the Oregon Tourism Commission's spokeswoman recently told The Denver Post. “Being that (marijuana is) still federally illegal, we’re not exactly sure whether to wade into that water.”

Reports the Post, it's still early days for the legal marijuana industry, with little research in regards to its impact on the tourism industry. Anecdotal evidence so far suggests legal weed isn't the main reason most tourists visit a state, "but an incidental factor — like that of wine tasting," according to the article.

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