Big media is about to make a huge deal about cannabis social consumption in Massachusetts, even though the finish line is months away
UPDATE (Dec. 11, 11am): “The Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday voted unanimously (4-0) to approve three new license types that will allow the on-site consumption of cannabis in Massachusetts for the first time, following months of deliberations and multiple rounds of public input.” You can read about the details of the program here, along with our media analysis of coverage of this story below.
You might say that Talking Joints Memo has patiently dated the cannabis social consumption issue for several years, while WBZ swooped in this week and got laid right at the time that the story got sexy.
Since the local radio and television giant ran a story Tuesday evening forecasting a Thursday “pass” vote on the Cannabis Control Commission regulations that will finally forge opportunities to open venues where you can get stoned in the Bay State, friends and readers spanning stakeholders to rank-and-file stoners have asked me why they got the big scoop. But there isn’t really any scoop at all, it’s just the latest new development in a slow-moving saga.
It’s kind of like if I showed up out of nowhere on the first day of Patriots training camp on Thursday, after WBZ covered every off-season trade during the summer, and then I published some shameless clickbait fooling people into thinking that opening day is on Friday. Or like a Best New Artist Grammy going to a band that city club reporters have already praised for years. It’s always remarkable how nonchalantly journalism gentrifiers disappear traces of reporting from before they showed up in their news van with a prewritten narrative.
The truth is that there is big news likely to happen on this front on Thursday. After months of painstakingly editing hundreds of pages of draft regulations that will guide the rollout of social consumption establishments, CCC members will vote on the culminating rules at this week’s public meeting in Worcester. From there, “Once the regulations are promulgated by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the Commission will undergo an implementation process that is anticipated to include several working groups with internal and external stakeholders, the launch of three new license applications in the agency’s online Massachusetts Cannabis Industry Portal, new guidance and staff procedures that will support the creation of the new establishments, a comprehensive public education, and other deliverables.”
Depending on which timeline you are following, commissioners are either a decade or about six months behind schedule.
As for WBZ, while singling out one source that you arbitrarily selected and having your correspondent cosplay as some kind of expert isn’t solid journalism, in this case it actually got me thinking. I’m a big fan of Rooted In, the Back Bay store they featured, and the interview opened my eyes. As it turns out, I may have been considering the prospects for social consumption all wrong. Because while it seems that few industry people are enthusiastically publicly talking about big plans for dab bars due to the troubles the industry’s facing in general, it could equally be true that many license holders will seek their salvation through the new program.
Meanwhile, anybody looking for the real action around social consumption should turn to the municipalities, specifically those which are actively courting the action. Somerville, for example, recently hosted forums for prospective operators as well as for residents looking for more information. It’s unlikely that many suburban and more rural towns will be as proactive, especially since they’re no longer able to extract outrageous sums from pot sellers in their borders.
But while I suspect that more than a few local officials are reluctant to embrace social consumption, they should consider heeding the message in the WBZ piece, underwhelming as their reporting may be. That is to say that pot bars, lounges, grottos, concert venues, and, if we are lucky, swap meets and arcades, are coming to Massachusetts, whether people like it or not. Unless adult-use marijuana gets repealed, but that’s a headline grabber for another day.
