Massachusetts Regulators Mull Landscape for Cannabis Clubs, Budtenders

Allowing adults to purchase and use marijuana at some retail facilities--think cannabis clubs--could reduce the risk of children getting a hold of the drug and may limit how much legal marijuana is illegally transported out of state by visitors, a Cannabis Advisory Board subcommittee recommended Tuesday.

“The package store model is old fashioned and the consumer really wants an outlet, a place to consume cannabis and do it safely,” Michael Latulippe, an official with the Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance and a member of the Cannabis Advisory Board, said.

Latulippe presented the CAB’s Cannabis Industry Subcommittee’s recommendations for social consumption, which the Cannabis Control Commission is expected to incorporate into its draft regulations for the legal marijuana industry. He said he pulled from existing regulations governing the alcohol and tobacco industries as he developed his recommendations.

The basic idea of onsite 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 onsite consumption would provide legal locations for tourists staying in hotels and renters who are prohibited from smoking in their apartments to consume marijuana. They could also give parents a place to smoke or consume marijuana without ever bringing it around their children, officials also said.

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