The Cannabis Control Commission’s plan to have regulations for social consumption of marijuana ready in time for Halloween has been pushed back to make way for the sudden return of formerly ousted Chair Shannon O’Brien.

O’Brien returned to her job last week after two years of forced absence, following a judge’s order that she should serve out the remaining two years on her five year term. Her return has led the commission to postpone meetings planned for next week in order to go over last minute changes to a draft of their social consumption regulations, which commissioners have been working on for most of a year.

Those meetings, according to the commission, will have to wait until October to allow the newly reinstated chair to get back into the swing of things.

“To support the transition of leadership and ensure all Commissioners are prepared for the final regulatory review of Social Consumption Establishments, agent registration reform, and related policies, the Commission intends to postpone relevant public meetings originally planned for the end of September to Oct. 23 and 24,” the commission announced on Thursday.

Marijuana regulators will also hold a regular business meeting on Oct. 1 to go over the commission’s 2025 goals and provide updates from its working groups, and will hold a second meeting on Oct. 9 to review licensing and hold policy discussions.

The draft rules for regulating social consumption of marijuana — think Amsterdam-style pot cafes — were first approved on July 29 after their initial release in December of 2024.

Through the months that followed, as commissioners considered everything from appropriate dosage to ventilation requirements, O’Brien was stuck at home after her removal from the CCC in September of 2023 by State Treasurer Deb Goldberg.

Earlier this month, a Superior Court judge determined that Goldberg had failed to show sufficient cause to remove the commission chair whom she had appointed in the first place. Goldberg appealed, but dropped the matter after the appeals court denied her request to keep O’Brien from her post as the process played out.

The 2016 ballot law which legalized adult use of marijuana also included a provision which would allow those adults to use the federally prohibited substance in licensed public places. During the launch of the state’s legal marijuana industry, commissioners set the development of social consumption regulations on the back burner while they cooked up rules for retail sales.