We are halfway through July and there are still no recreational cannabis dispensaries in Massachusetts. Though slated for a July 1 opening celebration that was a long time coming already, the shops are yet mired down by delays and it’s still unclear when they’ll be able to start opening.
Steve Hoffman is the chairperson for Massachusetts’ Cannabis Control Commission and he told reporters last week that a completed application for a cannabis testing laboratory had been received. The first completed application in the state and one of the main reasons why recreational pot shops still haven’t opened.
Hoffman predicts that if the three existing medical marijuana testing labs apply for the positionings that they should be ready to hit the marketplace along with the newest application in a relatively timely manner. The commission’s next vote on such things is July 26, but even if everything goes smoothly and testing facilities are at the ready, recreational cannabis is still a month or more away. And that’s optimistic.
Locally, things aren’t much better in the hurry up and wait department. Recreational and now even medical cannabis dispensaries are required to get a Host Community Agreement to be signed off on by local officials. Unfortunately, the community isn’t held accountable to complete the agreements in any sort of timeframe, so some have chosen to really drag their feet.
Dragging their feet is better than digging them into the dirt and not giving an inch, however. As is written in the law, if a community wants to ban cannabis operations from taking place inside their little borders, they can do so, thus another lack of licences to be signed off on.
Representative Mark Cusack and Senator Patricia Jehlen, both chairs of the Joint Marijuana Policy Committee, wrote a letter to Hoffman and the commission as a whole regarding the committee’s concern for both the delays and the communities opting out of the marijuana marketplace.
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“Of particular concern to us is what we understand to be the wide-spread practice by municipalities and prospective applicants to enter into host community agreements that undermine state statute and our collective efforts to disincentivize and successfully migrate the illicit substance of marijuana within the Commonwealth into a legalized, well-regulated, tested, and taxed system,” they wrote in no uncertain terms.
Indeed, the Commonwealth, for the most part, still waits with great anticipation, and likely will continue to do so for the foreseeable near future.
