Massachusetts
Massachusetts Cannabis Consumption Sites Remain in Limbo
For some, cannabis cafes are long-overdue recreational spots for like-minded adults to gather to smoke weed. Others see the cafes as just another way to funnel intoxicated drivers onto the state’s highways.
For more than seven years, state regulators have been trying to find the best way to allow cannabis consumption sites, including cannabis cafes, to open in Massachusetts. The Cannabis Control Commission considered a 12-community pilot program but decided against the approach last year.
State House News Service reported, “Regulators hope to present their latest framework for rules that will govern establishments where adults could use marijuana together in a social setting before the end of this year, more than seven years since the Cannabis Control Commission started wrestling with the issue.”
SHNS said the CCC plans to consult with Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and “other key stakeholders.”
Massachusetts Cannabis Consumption Sites Remain In Limbo
Massachusetts voters approved a ballot initiative in 2016 legalizing adult-use marijuana and the establishment of so-called cannabis cafes. Some liken the cafe concept to a barroom.
The CCC is considering a $500,000 public awareness campaign, training for consumption site employees, and municipal outreach.
Marijuana consumption lounges are legal in 14 states, including Massachusetts. Cannabis Creative said Massachusetts is the only state out of the 14 that has not “established a plan to implement it.”
Statista.com said Massachusetts is among the states with the highest percentage of adult marijuana users at 29.74 percent. Only Vermont, the District of Columbia, Oregon, Alaska and Washington had higher percentages than Massachusetts.
25 of the Best Names for Cannabis Shops in Massachusetts
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WBSM’s Top Stories 9/23 to 9/29
These are the top stories in New Bedford and across the SouthCoast for the week of September 23, 2024. Click the photo or title to read the complete story.
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Massachusetts
Swimmer pulled from Houghton’s Pond after search
A teenager was pulled from a pond in Milton, Massachusetts, after he went missing while swimming Saturday night.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said the teenaged male was taken to a Boston area hospital following the incident at Houghton’s Pond. It’s unclear how long the teen was under water, and there was no immediate word on his condition.
State police had said earlier that they responded to the pond shortly after 7 p.m. for a person who entered the water and didn’t resurface. State police divers, detectives, troopers, and the Milton Fire Department were all on scene involved in the search.
The DA’s office is conducting an investigation with state police that remains ongoing. Further information is not being released at this time.
This story will be updated when we learn more
Massachusetts
Mass. man charged with posing as teen, exposing himself to 12-, 13-year-old girls
A Massachusetts man is facing multiple charges for allegedly engaging in inappropriate communications and exposing himself to children.
Orate Kyle Graham, 20, of Bridgewater, was arrested this week on two counts of disseminating obscene material to a minor and one count of accosting or annoying another person.
Bridgewater police said they were made aware Tuesday of allegations involving interactions between several girls age 12 and 13 and an individual known to them only as “Jay.” The individual said he was 17 years old during conversations with the girls through FaceTime and in person.
Through an investigation, police identified “Jay” as Graham, and also found that he had regularly engaged in interactions with the minor victims. During those interactions, he allegedly exposed himself and asked the girls to expose themselves to him.
He was arrested Thursday and taken to the Plymouth County House of Correction, where he was held on $25,000 bail. The case remains under investigation by Bridgewater police and the Plymouth District Attorney’s Office.
Massachusetts
Fisherman reels in white shark off Massachusetts, then snags the hook from its toothy mouth
BILLERICA, Mass. (AP) — Elliot Sudal didn’t need a bigger boat, but he did need to find a way to get a hook out of a shark’s mouth.
Sudal, a veteran angler and boat captain, reeled in the nearly nine-foot shark — also commonly known as a great white shark or a great white — on June 7 on Nantucket. White sharks are a protected species in the U.S. and must be released immediately when accidentally caught.
That presents a nasty problem for a fisherman because the white shark is a formidable apex predator best known for the 1975 movie Jaws, in which Roy Scheider utters the famous line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” upon seeing the big fish. Sudal, who caught the shark while fishing from shore, decided to use his encounter to demonstrate how to respond to such a situation.
Sudal posted a video of himself removing the hook to his social media accounts. In the video, Sudal climbs onto the back of the shark, secures the fish in the surf, and removes the hook from its mouth. By the end of the short video, the shark is back in the water.
White sharks typically have about 300 teeth arranged into five rows, so speed was key.
“Hooks out and back on her way in 15 seconds, not sure how to do it better,” Sudal wrote in an Instagram post that included a video of the shark release.
Sudal is no stranger to sharks, and has caught and tagged hundreds of them over the years. He said in a social media post that this month’s encounter with a white shark was the first time he has ever caught one of them in more than a decade of the work.
Sudal’s practices have sometimes attracted the attention of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, such as in 2017, when the agency investigated his handling of a smalltooth sawfish, an endangered species, in Florida. The agency said in 2018 that it sent Sudal a letter “informing him of the Endangered Species Act issues and the safe handling protocol for sawfish.”
White sharks are not listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, but are subject to special federal protections. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers them vulnerable globally.
Sightings of white sharks off New England have ticked up in recent years, and some scientists have pinned that to the greater availability of the seals that they prey on. Dangerous encounters between white sharks and humans are extremely rare, and only a few dozen fatal white shark bites on people have ever been recorded.
___
Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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