After a Green Light for Testing Labs, We’re One Step Closer to Massachusetts’ First Pot Shops
The Cannabis Control Commission just OK'd two of them.
Photo via iStock.com/CasarsaGuru
If you’re yearning for a chance to stroll into a recreational pot shop and walk away with some fully legal buds or THC-laced snacks, Massachusetts just took one step closer to making that a reality.
The Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday finally approved licenses for two marijuana testing labs, helping fulfill a previously unmet requirement that has kept the state’s first pot shops from opening their doors. CDX Analytics of Salem and MCR Labs of Framingham, both of which conduct tests for medical marijuana dispensaries, can now begin analyzing products meant for recreational sales.
The commission has already licensed both growers and retailers. Per state law, though, stores are not allowed to sell any marijuana products until they can be examined at a state-licensed independent facility.
Initially, the CCC had been working toward letting the first pot shops open on July 1, when it became legal to sell recreational marijuana in the state. But that date, clearly, came and went. It’s not clear exactly when the first legal, recreational marijuana transaction will take place.
Sensing some unease about the delay among marijuana users, the cannabis business community, and the media, commissioners have urged the public to be patient. “oh look at that, labs are on the agenda,” Shaleen Title, a commissioner and longtime marijuana advocate, wrote on Twitter Tuesday. “you can all chill the hell out.”
Pretty soon, you’ll be able to chill out with some fully licensed, tested, store-bought weed.
