Cannabis chairman: Pot sales are `weeks away'

Legal marijuana sales are “weeks away” in Massachusetts, the chairman of the Cannabis Control Commission said yesterday after regulators approved final business licenses for shops in Leicester and Northampton.

The CCC granted final business licenses for Cultivate Holdings LLC to grow between 5,001 and 10,000 square feet of marijuana, to manufacture marijuana products and to sell nonmedical marijuana at 1764 Main St. in Leicester and for New England Treatment Access LLC to sell non-medical marijuana at 118 Conz St. in Northampton.

Though the CCC approved the final licenses, the commission attached to its approval a series of conditions that must be met before retail sales may begin. The commission must also approve a final license for an independent testing lab, since all marijuana must be tested and approved before it is sold. And because both businesses given approval yesterday operate as medical dispensaries, they must obtain additional approvals from the Department of Public Health.

“We have to go back and make sure they have entered all their inventory on our tracking system . ... They have to get a DPH waiver in terms of access to their facility so that you can come in with just proof of age, as opposed to a medical card. They also have to get permission from DPH to transfer some of their current medical inventory into the adult-use inventory system,” CCC Chairman Steven Hoffman said after yesterday’s meeting. “As soon as that happens, we’ll go out and double-check that everything is in the (tracking) system and then give them the right to operate. I think it’s weeks away.”

Asked about when the CCC might issue a final license for a testing lab, Hoffman said he hopes that will be on the agenda when the CCC meets in two weeks.

“We know that’s a critical part of the puzzle to get this to all work so we’re working very hard to make that happen,” he said.

The CCC had hoped to launch the retail marijuana industry in Massachusetts by July 1 but did not meet that target. Since then, Hoffman has said only that consumers will be able to legally buy marijuana in “late summer/ early fall.” Voters approved the legalization of non-medical marijuana in November 2016 and it became legal in December 2016 to grow, possess and use marijuana.

Among the conditions the CCC attached to its approvals yesterday was a requirement that both businesses provide commissioners with copies of the materials the companies are using to train their employees and copies of any informational material made available to consumers.