In regulatory ‘home stretch,’ Cannabis Control Commission expects social consumption licensing next year
SPRINGFIELD — The state's applications for social consumption — the ability to sell cannabis for consumers to smoke, sip or eat on site — will likely first be available in about a year.
Those applications will be open to existing marijuana retailers, growers and manufacturers interested in branching out to social consumption, Bruce Stebbins , the acting chair of the Cannabis Control Commission, and Commission Executive Director Travis Ahern said.
"Right now, where we are in the regulatory process, we're into the home stretch," Stebbins said, meeting along with Ahern Friday with editors and reporters at The Republican.
The home stretch of a regulatory process that began in earnest with the formation of a working group in February 2023 but in practice probably dates back to November 2016 when voters OK'd adult-use cannabis legalization.
Licenses Stebbins described as "hospitality" — dropping a cannabis consumption establishment into an existing non-cannabis business — and event licenses for promoters organizing cannabis fairs and festivals will follow, Stebbins said.
Cannabis Control Commission Executive Director Travis Ahern. Sept, 5, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
It's the hospitality licenses that offer the most opportunity for innovation, he said.
Cannabis and billiards? Cannabis and cornhole? Smoke-and-yoga?
All the new licensees will have to run a creative business that gives people a reason to be there other than the drug.
"Similar to how any of us walk into a restaurant or a bar," Stebbins said. "How do you engage the customer to stay a while, consume safely, maybe have food?
Food, either served by the cannabis business or a partner business, is required for all licensees.
"So that either becomes an opportunity for an adjacent restaurant or it becomes an opportunity for somebody to operate a kitchen at the same time," Stebbins said.
A visit to Smokey Joe's Cigar Lounge in Springfield a few years ago gave him the insight. How is smoke ventilated? How is food offered? How do people who've consumed get home safely?
Commissioners also visited social consumption locations in states where they are approved.
Stebbins is a former Springfield city councilor and Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner. Stebbins and Ahern visited in the final days of a public comment period that closes Monday at 5 p.m. A public hearing on social consumption will be held Monday at 10 a.m. in Worcester and Stebbins said commissioners will take a few days to late September and early October to comb through the public comments.
Public comments can be left via email at commission@cccmass.com.
If the commission votes to approve regulations in October, that means months of getting regulations approved by the state secretary of state, published and distributed and of setting up the IT infrastructure to process applications.
Those supplemental licenses — supplemental because social consumption will supplement an existing cannabis operation — will be the first because the commission is already working with those businesses, Stebbins said.
He said towns and cities will be able to approve or disapprove.
"We do know that the city of Holyoke has expressed interest," Stebbins said. "We've actually been up there and talked to the mayor and his team and some of the social equity licensees. Easthampton has had interest. Northampton has had interest. Each community is going to need to decide for themselves where they want to allow it."
It's already been a newsy week for the commission.
Tuesday, a state Superior Court judge ruled state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg unlawfully fired Shannon O'Brien as chair of the Cannabis Control Commission. The judge ordered O'Brien immediately be reinstated to the job, a job Stebbins holds.
It's under appeal. Stebbins has said he would accept a permanent appointment as chair.
He said the litigation between O'Brien , a former legislator from Easthampton, and Goldberg is out of his hands.
"I will tell you our team is a talented and dedicated group and everybody is just focused on the work right in front of them," Stebbins said.
Ahern took the job in March, knowing about the O'Brien and Goldberg litigation.
"If the courts decide that the chair is coming back, we will be prepared to re-onboard her. If the courts take another prolonged period of time, we're going to continue to do our work."
Stories by Jim Kinney
Read the original article on MassLive .
