At Massachusetts Smoke Shops, Customers Can Now Say 'Bong'
BOSTON (CBS) -- You can possess it, you can use it, and you can even home grow it--but you still can't legally buy marijuana in Massachusetts just yet without a doctor's prescription.
But with recreational pot legalized in the Bay State as of midnight, for some, the new law brings a certain freedom of speech.
Looking at the pipes in Bryan Such's Allston smoke shop, Buried Treasures, there's a new vocabulary that can be spoken out loud.
"Customers can say bong, and they can actually discuss what they're putting in their pipe," said Bryan Such.
Until Thursday, smoking marijuana was illegal in the state, and Such took the restricted language seriously in order to keep Buried Treasures in business for so long.
"It just wasn't discussed, and if it was brought up, you were asked to leave," he said.
But now, Massachusetts residents can possess up to 10 oz of pot at home, up to 1 oz in public, and up to six marijuana plants per adult at home with a maximum of 12 plants.
Pot still isn't legal to sell in the state until 2018, and it is illegal to smoke it in public.
At Grow Your Own Stuff in Cambridge owner Eli Constantinou says customers are now excited to have some of the stigma taken away from home growing marijuana. "There's still a little stigma, but that's fading as people are coming out of the closet, the grow closet." Business was booming at GYO and free seeds were being handed out.
Still, there's concern about legal gray areas for law enforcement--and earlier Thursday, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said he'd support a reasonable delay in the legal sale of marijuana if the legislature sought it.
"On the public safety piece and the public health thing, I think there are legitimate concerns and issues that have been raised by many people," Baker said. "The details obviously matter on that."
For now, Such doesn't see a new, budding marijuana business just yet.
"I think that everybody who smokes already smokes," he said. "There's not a big population that's going to go out and try it. There's going to be a small amount of people who will go out and try it."
Retail stores aren't set to open until January 2018, but that is the date some legislators are looking to possibly change before more details in the law can be worked out.
