Current regulations “neither explicitly allow nor prohibit” operators from selling items like potato chips. But what about used cars?
If you are a gluttonous stoner like me, then you probably look for snacks at the dispensary while you’re shopping for flower and edibles. In my experience, a few stores have displays with some choice local goodies, maybe artisanal chocolate or chips. While at some shops with a trap house vibe, I’ve seen free candy and soda, which is always a bonus, but for the most part it’s rare to find grub with your bud unless it’s off of a food truck out in the parking lot.
That omission may be in part due to a lack of clarity from on high. Currently, as the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission outlined during its meeting on Thursday, “Commission laws and regulations neither explicitly allow nor prohibit [operators] from selling non-cannabis, shelf-stable products.” Like Doritos, for example. Mmm.
With that considered, and with “a number of retail [dispensaries] attempting to sell non-cannabis shelf-stable food items”—no doubt in many cases to supplement revenue by selling ancillary non-weed products beyond the occasional hoodie to a tourist from a country where cops staple your lips together for smoking a bowl—the CCC’s Investigations & Enforcement (I&E) division asked for clarity. Members addressed the matter during this week’s meeting.
Commissioner Kimberly Roy sponsored the agenda item, and said the non-cannabis food issue came up earlier this year with the question of whether lottery tickets could be sold at pot shops. Whatever they decide to do, she said it is important to at least be more clear with licensees about what the rules are.
Proposed language to allow shelf-stable food sales in Massachusetts dispensaries
The only thing the current Mass cannabis regulations say about anything related to non-cannabis shelf-stable food is general guidance for taxpaying purposes. The law reads: “A retailer shall adopt separate accounting practices at the point of sale for Marijuana and Marijuana Product sales, and non-Marijuana sales.”
Commissioners introduced draft language that could bring more clarity: “Move that staff be instructed to integrate regulatory language that would permit retail [Marijauana Establishments] the ability to sell non-infused food and drink items that are pre-packaged and shelf-stable during the Commission’s next regulatory submission. Regulatory language shall require [Marijauana Establishments] to seek all licenses and permits to do so and adopt separate accounting practices at the point of sale for non-marijuana sales.”
Acting CCC Chair Bruce Stebbins said, “There is some consensus among Commissioner [Ava Callender] Concepcion and I to consider regulatory language.” If they follow that route and move to tweak the state law, members could include a rewrite in the next round of edits to promulgate. To that end, they agreed to revisit the topic at the next CCC meeting, on July 28.
What shall not be sold at Massachusetts dispensaries?
In a subsequent draft of the change, Concepcion added that she wants to see “firm language” included to identify what items dispensaries will not be permitted to sell under expanded permissions. “It seems like that was the issue that created this, because we did not expressly state what could and what could not be sold,” she said.
Commissioners joked that they didn’t want dispensaries to be able to sell used cars. At the same time, someone could potentially open up a used car dealership where customers can smoke weed when the body finalizes its social consumption regulations. All those intersecting concerns considered, CCC Executive Director Travis Ahern signaled a step back from the agency’s current protocol—which, based on past decisions by the commission, is to basically instruct dispensaries to eighty-six all their shelf-stable non-cannabis foods—and put the topic firmly on the table.
“The reason I like the idea of having this discussion tied to the social consumption [regulations] that we will be getting back to at the end of this month … is that that process has a public comment process baked into it,” Ahern said. “If these ‘snacks’ … are going to be allowed in social consumption [establishments], do the commissioners have the policymaking ability and regulatory authority to incorporate that for adult-use [recreational dispensaries] as well?”
