With each passing day, marijuana becomes less and less stygmatized. New studies are showing its effectiveness in treating a variety of medical conditions and, culturally, it’s becoming more accepted, like alcohol, as a an acceptable way to relax and unwind.
Public Domain As a result, the recreational and medical marijuana industries are booming and no place is this more apparent than in Massachusetts where voters approved the legal sale of the marijuana to anyone over 21 years old. The law was supposed to have taken effect on January 1 of this year, but lawmakers extended the deadline until July 1 in order to give the commonwealth more time to get its act together over how they’ll regulate the new industry. Don’t expect a flood of places to fling open their doors on the July 1 date, however. Officials are warning that it will be more of a slow rollout.
Public Domain Here’s more from Boston.com: Steve Hoffman, the chairman of the state’s marijuana regulator, the Cannabis Control Commission, said, “There are going to be some number of people that are up and running that have all the municipal approvals necessary and have the ability to have supply. It’s not going to be a large number." [He] added that he doesn’t expect the industry to get fully off its feet for six to 12 months after July 1. First, new marijuana shops need a supply to sell, and the CCC won’t be approving retail or cultivation licenses until June 1 at the earliest. In the meantime, only registered medical dispensaries can grow marijuana plants and not all of the state’s 24 medical outlets plan to immediately enter the recreational market.
Medical Marijuana - Wikimedia Commons Once additional licenses are approved, growing a marijuana plant can take up to several months. Thus, the only stores expected to have a supply of marijuana ready to sell in July are medical dispensaries that were granted retail licenses. Second, more than half of the towns in Massachusetts have at least temporarily, if not indefinitely, banned retail pot shops from opening within their borders. Additionally, any marijuana establishment must show that they have done local outreach and reached a host community agreement in order for the CCC to approve their license. “Given the realities of having to go through the municipal approval process as well as obtaining supply, I think it’s fair to say it’s not going to be on every street corner of every city and town in Massachusetts,” Hoffman told the State House News Service.
Marijuana Shop - Eugene, Oregon - Flickr Massachusetts has also become the first state in the country to allow for social consumption establishments. These include “‘cannabis cafes’ that primarily serve marijuana or even restaurants, movie theaters, or yoga studios that incorporate it into their principal business. That said, these establishments would be prohibited from serving or allowing the consumption of alcohol at the same time as they do marijuana.