Regulators eye plans for public social marijuana consumption in Mass.

As they prepare to roll out their latest attempt at putting a framework around allowing people to use marijuana in public social settings later this week, regulators on the Cannabis Control Commission said Monday they are confident that a 2022 law and the conversations they've had with businesses, other regulators, municipalities and law enforcement will put them in a position to succeed.

Establishments where people could use marijuana socially were contemplated in 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 CCC last year discarded a regulatory framework from 2019 that called for rolling out cannabis cafes and other social consumption sites with a 12-municipality pilot program, and a working group has been trying to craft a new approach since. That group plans to present its proposal to the CCC and public at its meeting Thursday.

"We've been telling people, you know, social consumption is happening now. I mean, people are hosting private events -- you bring your own. We obviously feel this is a great way for more successful business opportunities for our social equity applicants, our economic empowerment participants, microbusinesses and our craft marijuana cooperatives," Acting CCC Chair Bruce Stebbins said Monday.

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. Allowing on-site consumption would provide legal locations for marijuana consumption to tourists staying in hotels and renters who are prohibited from smoking in their apartments. Officials have also said the sites could also give parents a place to smoke or consume marijuana without ever bringing it around their children.

The new framework 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. The regulations will retain a requirement that establishments have a transportation plan in the event consumers are not safe to drive home as well as rules around employee protection.

For the first five years, the licenses will only be available to applicants who qualify for the CCC's social equity or economic empowerment programs, microbusinesses and craft marijuana cooperatives.

Commissioner Nurys Camargo provided examples of what the license types would allow. She said the supplemental license would open the door to cannabis growers having a "tasting room" at their facility and for retailers to get creative with how they use extra space in their stores, to either offer a consumption site or to host events for people to better familiarize themselves with the array of cannabis products.

"The hospitality license, we're really excited about this license type. It has the opportunity to be a big game-changer," Camargo said. She added, "Just to kind of visualize it here, this is where you'll see your typical lounge, cafe, entertainment space."

Camargo used the wildly popular game of pickleball as an example of a way the hospitality license category could create an opening for cannabis in non-traditional settings.

"So if a pickleball owner wants to do mocktails, you know, cannabis-infused drinks, and, possibly, let's just say infused donuts or something like that at their pickleball place, they will partner with someone," she said. Camargo added, "Think about a comedy club. Think about yoga studios, a movie theater and ... when it comes to these, if people want indoor combustion, they're gonna have to get a type of HVAC system, right?"

She continued, "But folks, the trend is moving. It's not just folks smoking, right? It's folks consuming cannabis, and folks getting educated on cannabis, but in a fun space and in a safe space -- pickleball, comedy, comedy shops, things like that."

Stebbins and Camargo said they anticipate that the first social consumption establishments to open will be those with a supplemental license, since those will go to businesses that already have a footprint of operations here. The CCC is expected to review the proposed regulations throughout this month, including a meeting on Dec. 17 to review how the new edition differs from previous proposals. Officials will put the latest regulations out for public comment as well.

The CCC is also going to launch four working groups that will focus on public awareness efforts, responsible vendor training, municipal outreach, and implementation and adaptation. The agency sought a supplemental appropriation of $500,000 for a social consumption awareness campaign and Stebbins said that request will be renewed in the agency's fiscal 2026 budget request. He attributed some of the success of the 2018 rollout of retail marijuana stores to the extensive public awareness campaigns the state and CCC produced.

"The public awareness campaign is going to be huge for Massachusetts, huge, huge, huge," Camargo said. "Because folks are going to be really excited about this and what we call the 'canna-curious' are going to be really excited. It's almost like when you're 21 and you're like, 'Yeah, my first drink,' right?" she said.

Initial legal marijuana industry regulations put out by the CCC in early 2018 included marijuana cafes, delivery-only marijuana businesses, and the ability for establishments like cinemas and massage parlors to offer limited marijuana products. But regulators acquiesced to criticism from Gov. Charlie Baker's administration, the Legislature and others when the CCC agreed to delay the launch of home delivery and social consumption, two of the most commonly-condemned parts of the agency's draft regulations.

The CCC has since launched home delivery licenses, but social consumption has long been a thornier and more complex issue for an agency that is supposed to balance economic benefits to the industry with public safety considerations.

"There will be social consumption, eventually. Twenty percent of the public uses marijuana. They have ways that they use it. This is not some new scary group of people that's going to start doing some new scary thing," inaugural CCC member Shaleen Title said in October 2018. "In 10 years, this is going to be as normal as when you go to the Boston Common and see a movie and you can buy a drink. But it's not happening tomorrow."

Stebbins and Camargo pointed to two things they think have better positioned the CCC to succeed with this social consumption rollout. First was the 2022 marijuana reform law, which among other things changed the process for cities and towns to opt in to allow social consumption establishments and created a Social Equity Trust Fund that could help social consumption license applicants.

"Chapter 180 also allowed for combustion, heating, vaporization, aerosolization of cannabis products indoors, and that we did not have prior to the changes in Chapter 180," Stebbins said, referring to the 2022 law. "So Chapter 180 really helped deliver the tools for us to move ahead with social consumption."

And the CCC has been having "parallel" conversations with other state departments and agencies, with law enforcement and law enforcement training entities, and with municipalities as it has developed the regulatory framework, Camargo said. She said the CCC has already talked to Boston, Chelsea, Holyoke, Springfield, Northampton and more communities.

"If I want to get one thing across with a lot of these interviews, it's that cities and towns are going to have to do their part to really figure out their municipal process. But also, either you're in or you're out in terms of wanting this. And I'm sure you're going to see some cities come on faster than others," Camargo said. "I hope that cities and towns can kind of read the fine line in terms of the regs, because we've put this whole thing together to think about: how do we create safe and successful? How do we create a safe and successful model for Massachusetts?"