Happy 10th, Massachusetts!
The state's Cannabis Control Commission kicked off a campaign on Oct. 8 to mark a decade since voters approved adult-use cannabis in November 2016. The first two stores opened two years later in Northampton and Leicester. Today, the commission counts:
- $10 billion in gross adult-use sales
- Nearly 800 operating businesses
- $1.6 billion in state cannabis excise and sales taxes since 2018, plus $287 million in local taxes
The commission is also rewriting many of its rules after a new state law restructured the agency this year. The part travelers will like best: regulators say social consumption licenses are coming. Those would let people use cannabis inside venues the commission regulates. The commission expects to start taking applications for that license type "in the coming months."
The celebration comes with a cloud overhead. Question 8 on this November's ballot asks voters whether to roll back legal adult-use sales, as we've covered here before.
What it means for travelers: adults 21+ can shop at hundreds of licensed stores across the state today. Keep an eye out for the first legal consumption lounges once licenses start rolling out.