Marijuana lounges and cannabis-friendly yoga studios could become reality in Massachusetts under new rules unveiled last week by state regulators.
The Cannabis Control Commission presented three new license types that could take effect by mid-2025:
Supplemental licenses for existing cannabis businesses to add consumption spaces.
Hospitality licenses for stand-alone venues.
Event organizer permits for temporary gatherings.
“Social consumption is really still in its infancy,” Acting Chair Bruce Stebbins told attendees at a Dec. 5 public meeting in Worcester. “This framework and the accompanying regulations represent our exhaustive and thoughtful work.”
The rules require operators to also provide food and to have transportation plans in place for impaired customers. Venues must also stop cannabis sales 30 minutes before closing. Alcohol and tobacco products will be banned at the locations.
The commission will also create a specialized responsible vendor training program focused on recognizing customer impairment and implementing “cool down strategies” for adverse reactions, according to officials.
Medical marijuana patients will have special accommodations under the proposed rules, including the ability to bring their own products or have them delivered to consumption sites, though regulators acknowledged these details still need refinement.
Cities and towns must opt in through local ordinance changes or voter referendums. Boston, Cambridge and six other municipalities have expressed early interest, according to commission documents.
The plan reserves licenses exclusively for social equity businesses for five years after the first facility opens, extending the current three-year window. Massachusetts recently established a $25 million fund to help disadvantaged entrepreneurs enter the cannabis industry.
“These folks are going to want to do businesses in your town,” Commissioner Ava Callender Concepcion told municipal officials at the meeting. “We’re going to do our part. Y’all gotta do your part and think.”
The commission developed the framework after consulting with regulators in California, Colorado and six other states, holding public listening sessions across Massachusetts, meeting with law enforcement, health officials and cannabis businesses, and visiting existing consumption establishments. Detailed draft regulations will be presented Dec. 17, followed by a public comment period. The commission aims to finalize rules allowing the first facilities to open by mid-2025.
Event organizers could host up to 24 cannabis consumption events annually, with each lasting up to five days. The commission will also create working groups focused on public education, vendor training, municipal guidance and technical assistance to support implementation.
“We think from what we’ve heard from some of you in this room, what we have heard from our listening sessions, is that there are folks who are looking for more innovative opportunity,” Stebbins said.
Massachusetts voters approved adult-use cannabis in 2016. The state’s dispensaries have generated more than $6 billion in sales since opening in 2018. The proposed expansion follows similar moves in other states. However, even mature markets like California continue adjusting their approach to social consumption venues, regulators noted.
Commissioner Kimberly Roy stressed public safety considerations.
“I’m willing to entertain and listen to any idea as long as it doesn’t jeopardize public health and safety,” she said. “I see economic opportunity. I see more jobs.”
The social consumption announcement comes shortly after the commission approved other big industry reforms. In October, regulators unanimously passed new rules expanding delivery services, testing protocols, and medical marijuana access, which took effect Nov. 22, according to the commission.
Stebbins indicated at that time that social consumption would be the “next major step forward for the industry,” with the Dec. 5 framework presentation representing that promised advancement.
Massachusetts regulators will require cannabis businesses to use a single laboratory for all compliance testing in an effort to prevent companies from shopping around for favorable test results.
The state’s Cannabis Control Commission voted 3-0 to require licensed businesses submit testing samples to one independent laboratory starting April 1, 2025, according to an administrative order advanced Thursday. The new rule is meant to close loopholes that some say have allowed companies to shop around for labs to juice their numbers for market share.
“This administrative order continues our mission of being a strong regulator,” Acting Executive Director Debbie Hilton-Creek said in a statement.
Under current rules, companies can split testing among multiple labs. The practice has led some facilities to report suspiciously high THC levels or overlook contamination to attract business.
The commission’s enforcement team said the changes would reduce risks of noncompliant products reaching consumers and improve audit capabilities. The move follows a November listening session in which testing concerns were raised, according to the announcement.
If an original testing lab needs to subcontract work, they must first obtain commission approval and demonstrate they are “incapable of performing certain required tests due to a hardship.” Labs also can only subcontract with one other facility at a time.
“The commission shall only approve subcontracting agreements when the Originating Independent Testing Laboratory is incapable of performing certain required tests due to a hardship relative to its facilities, instrumentation, personnel, or required consumable materials or in the event of an actual or potential conflict of interest,” according to the order.
Results must be uploaded to the state’s tracking system within 72 hours, with all certificates of analysis containing the complete testing results, including any subcontracted work, it said.
The commission will also begin publishing THC test results on its public data platform and establishing regular meetings with licensed laboratories to improve oversight.
The commission thus far has struggled to implement effective testing oversight. Earlier this year, the agency contracted with a private lab for a “secret shopper” program to verify retail products’ test results, Green Market Report previously reported. Unlike other major cannabis markets such as California and Colorado, Massachusetts lacks a state reference lab to independently verify commercial lab results.
Analysis of testing data by MCR Labs found that across multiple states, laboratories reporting higher THC concentrations tend to increase their market share while those reporting average failure rates lose business, according to Chemical & Engineering News.
Florida-based Cansortium (CSE: TIUM.U) (OTCQB: CNTMF), which does business as Fluent, has finalized its megamerger with New York-based RIV Capital, (CSE: RIV) (OTC: CNPOF), creating a new multistate operator that has a footprint in four states with 42 operational dispensaries.
The move gives Cansortium immediate access to New York, one of the fastest-growing legal marijuana markets in the nation, along with its existing portfolio of cannabis shops and grows in its home state, Pennsylvania and Texas. The company now owns eight total cultivation and processing facilities, which it said in a press release would allow it to bolster the Fluent brand even more going forward.
The company reportedly has $33 million in the bank with which to finance further acquisitions, it said in a Thursday announcement.
Another major winner in the deal is Scotts Miracle-Gro, which has a sizable stake in RIV Capital through its subsidiary The Hawthorne Collective. Existing shares will be converted into 1.245 shares of the newly formed Fluent, eliminating $160 million in company debt.
Shareholders of Cansortium will own 51.25% of the new Fluent, while shareholders of RIV Capital will own 48.75%, the company said. The company will continue trading under Cansortium’s existing ticker symbols on the Canadian Securities Exchange and the Over-The-Counter markets.
Cansortium CEO Robert Beasley will continue to lead the new company, and RIV Capital interim CEO David Vautrin will serve as the new company’s chief commercial officer.
Beasley said in the release that Fluent intends to scale up wholesale operations in New York to boost its Moods brand of marijuana products and “gain additional shelf space in dispensaries across the state,” which he said has “immense potential.”
The merger could prove key to the long-term prospects for both Cansortium and RIV Capital. Cansortium posted an $11.7 million net loss for the third quarter of 2024, and RIV Capital reported a $63.4 million net loss for the same period.
“Looking ahead, we remain focused on sustainable, long-term growth and will continue to drive efficiencies across all areas of the business to achieve our profitability and cash generation goals,” Beasley said.
Greenway Greenhouse Cannabis Corp. entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire all of Choice Growers’ consumer packaged goods brands, SKUs and listings of the brands, trademarks, goodwill and other associated intellectual property. This acquisition encompasses all of Choice Growers’ brands, including Grapefruit God Bud (also known as Grape God), The Jeffrey, Watermelon Pebbles, Pink Lemonade, Duke Nukem, Tangerine Dream and Blackberry Cheesecake.
Innocan Pharma Corp. intends to complete a non-brokered private placement of up to 3.5 million units of the company at a price of C$0.20 per unit for gross proceeds up to C$700,000 plus 15% overallotment options. The offering is expected to close on or around Dec. 31.