Massachusetts issues final recreational pot sales licenses

BOSTON – Marijuana regulators have issued final licenses to operators planning to open Massachusetts’ first commercial pot shops.

The Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday voted to issue the licenses to Cultivate Holdings in Leicester (LES’-tuhr) and New England Treatment Access in Northampton. Both companies operate medical marijuana dispensaries in those locations and had earlier been granted provisional licenses by the commission to sell recreational marijuana.

It will likely be a few more weeks before either pot shop can open, as there are several procedural steps that must still occur before regulators give permission to begin operations.

Massachusetts voters legalized recreational marijuana for adults in November 2016, but nearly two years later there is still no place in the state to legally purchase the drug.