WORCESTER — In some ways, The Summit Lounge has the feel of a bar: dank and dimly lit, the sound of bustling conversation wafting over Top 40 melodies.
But here, the vice of choice is cannabis.
Without the backbar display of bottles of booze and a high-top bar with tap handles, the Summit is more akin to a private club, where patrons share joints over colorful ashtrays or smoke from bongs with friends and strangers alike. Some hunch over high-top tables; others recline on couches. Everywhere, a thick, skunky haze hangs in the air.
“There’s a lot to be said for selling an experience to a person,” said owner Kyle Moon, gesturing to the crowd of dozens gathered to indulge on a recent Wednesday evening. “This is what can be possible in Massachusetts on a bigger scale.”
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By “this,” Moon means social consumption businesses, an all-encompassing term for gathering places where people can use marijuana products, such as cannabis cafes, infused dinners, or even canna-yoga classes.
Voters OK’d the practice in the 2016 ballot question that first legalized marijuana. And it was touted then as a tool to reduce stigma around the legal substance, foster innovation, and help Massachusetts shed its dreary after-hours reputation.
But eight years later, Massachusetts regulators have yet to formalize a license for social consumption businesses, even though some entrepreneurs such as Moon already operate with fuzzy legality. (The Summit Lounge, for example, functions as a private membership association, which frees it from stringent smoking laws that apply to most public establishments.)
Finally, there are signs that state regulators are preparing to make social consumption licensing a priority this year.
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The Cannabis Control Commission, the state’s marijuana regulatory body, last year held three public meetings about social consumption and administered a survey to over 1,000 cannabis businesses statewide, said commissioner Bruce Stebbins. Momentum picked up again in May when the commission scrapped a proposed pilot program that would have initially limited social consumption to 12 communities.
Stebbins said terminating the pilot will “speed up the introduction” of social consumption and encourage the possibility of Massachusetts being a leader, rather than a follower, on cannabis cafes. He offered few details about the timeline of its rollout or the particulars of what will — and will not — be allowed, citing the need for regulators to further deliberate on the issue.
Yet, Stebbins said, “2024 is going to be a very active year” for social consumption. Businesses have “appreciated our message that we want to find a license type that focuses on public health and safety, promotes equity, and at the same time, is lucrative for them to pursue. Because if we go through this process, and we come out with a license type that nobody applies for, it seems that we were on the wrong track to begin with.”
Still, it’s unclear when commissioners will next discuss the licenses.
In meetings, commissioners nodded to existing social consumption establishments they visited in other states that allow cannabis-centric events, such as “tasting rooms” that are attached to licensed dispensaries, and innovative options such as arcades, massage parlors, or farmers markets that allow marijuana.
Currently, people are barred from smoking, vaping, or eating pot products anywhere besides private homes in Massachusetts — a challenge for tourists, tenants, and others without a legal place to consume.
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Entrepreneurs eager to break into social consumption see the commission’s deliberations now as a show of progress, as similar spots pop up in Colorado and California.
But skepticism abounds: The commission first approved draft regulations on social consumption in 2017, only to decide a year later to postpone such licensing after hearing concerns from Governor Charlie Baker and others about impaired driving, second-hand smoke inhalation, and local communities’ control over hosting cannabis cafes and the like. Then came the introduction of the pilot program, aimed in part at testing whether police departments saw increases in impaired driving, and a litany of obstacles stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many entrepreneurs are now wondering, “Is this for real? Are we going to see this happen quickly, efficiently, and in a way that makes sense for businesses?” said Devin Alexander, the founder of cannabis delivery company Rolling Releaf.
Concerns are rampant, too, among business owners who tiptoed into social consumption over the past decade by circumventing the rules.
Many remain wildly popular, and the questions of legality have done little to hamper their concept so far: The Summit Lounge, for one, frequently hits its capacity of 60-some people most evenings, offers co-working space for cannabis companies in the daytime, and hosts performances and private parties. (A Worcester police spokesperson added that the spot has “not been a source of complaints of criminal activity,” such as impaired driving.)
Its membership is free, but members pay $10 per visit to use the lounge and bring their own supply, Moon said. Only milkshakes and an assortment of snacks are available for purchase.
That structure means the lounge is “outside of regulation” from the Cannabis Control Commission right now, though the future is uncertain, Moon said.
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Samantha Kanter, the founder of Dinner At Mary’s, said she also functions in “a legal gray area” when offering in-home infused tasting menus, cannabis comedy shows, CBD Thanksgiving pies, and more. What comes next for the business, she added, hinges on legislators and how they choose to handle licensing pre-existing social consumption businesses.
“Right now, in Massachusetts, we have no rules to follow,” she said. “They have very little leg to stand on pursuing anybody that is hosting social consumption events.”
Stebbins, the commissioner, said the existing businesses may be included in the types of license the commission eventually authorizes, but that specifics have yet to be hammered out.
Former commissioner and longtime drug policy advocate Shaleen Title said the transition to a legal social consumption landscape does not come with a “need to have a crackdown” on the businesses already out there. Instead, she added, “once you have a licensing process, the shift to a regulated market happens rather naturally.”
Regardless, some voiced fears about bureaucracy and the equitable distribution of social consumption licenses to disadvantaged business owners. Businesses like cannabis cafes may have a lower financial barrier to entry than a cannabis cultivation facility or a dispensary. But that benefit evaporates if future applicants are mired by lengthy community processes and fees, said Tito Jackson, a cannabis operator and former Boston city councilor.
“If we do that, we have doomed the license type,” said Jackson, who owns the adjoined dispensary and bar in downtown Boston, Apex Noire — a seven-story space he dreams will one day include a cannabis lounge.
Like some other cannabis license types, social consumption opportunities would be exclusively available for three years to economic empowerment and equity applicants, entrepreneurs with past marijuana criminal convictions, or those from communities targeted by the war on drugs.
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Yet even that strategy can set up entrepreneurs of color to be the “guinea pigs” of the license type, left to suffer through its kinks, said Christopher Fevry, an early recipient of cannabis delivery licenses for his business, Your Green Package.
Still cannabis advocates across the board are clamoring for the license to launch. Hopefully, that happens in time for Massachusetts to gain a national advantage in social consumption, said cannabis chef David Yusefzadeh, who hopes to expand his popular weed-infused events and cannabis ice cream brand, Cloud Creamery.
“Really, we should have done this yesterday,” he said. “Because if we cannot move this license forward, if we are not able to make innovative products, we are going to get left behind.”
Diti Kohli can be reached at diti.kohli@globe.com. Follow her @ditikohli_.