Massachusetts Begins Adult-Use Cannabis Sales

Friday, November 23, 2018

Voters in Massachusetts legalized adult-use marijuana back in 2016, and two long years later, the state’s first recreational dispensaries opened Tuesday.

Adult-use pot shops opened in Leicester and Northampton, making them the first retail stores on the East Coast to have legalized recreational sales. The first customer at the dispensary in Northampton was Mayor David Narkewicz, who said that he would be displaying his purchase “because it is historically significant.”

“There has been marijuana use going on in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for a long, long time. What’s changing is it’s now being regulated. It’s now being tested. It’s now being strictly monitored. That’s really the major change that’s happening,” Narkewizc said.

The first customer at Leicester’s recreational marijuana shop was Stephen Mandile, a disabled Iraq War veteran treating PTSD, a traumatic brain injury and chronic pain with cannabis.

“It’s an honor, something amazing. I probably dreamed about it back in high school that this day would happen sometime. I’ll be smoking some history later on today,” Mandile said.

Under Massachusetts law, adults 21 and older can buy up to an ounce of flower or its equivalent in concentrate, or 20 servings of edibles. Edibles can contain no more than 5 milligrams of THC for a single serving, and a package of edibles can contain no more than 20 individual servings.

Recreational marijuana is subject to a 6.25% state sales tax, 10.75% state excise tax, and 3% local tax. Medical marijuana is untaxed in Massachusetts.

The rollout licensed adult-use dispensaries in Massachusetts will continue to be slow. Massachusetts’ Cannabis Control Commission issued licenses to two more dispensaries in Salem and Easthampton, and a third dispensary is expected to open in the near future in the town or Wareham near Cape Cod. More than half the state’s population lives in the greater Boston area, but as of now, there are no retail cannabis shops nearby.