Pot regulators are vowing to crack down on “loopers” and “smurfs” — slang for when a customer makes multiple purchases of weed products in one day at one store or many.

The state Cannabis Control Commission and state Attorney General Maura Healey’s office said they are looking to create a task force to find ways to blunt the illegal activity.

That would include crafting criminal penalties to go along with a multi-agency illicit pot squad established to clamp down on, among other things, people who go from dispensary to dispensary buying the maximum allowable amount of pot, with the intent of selling it illegally.

Going from store-to-store is called “smurfing,” and “looping” is when a customer keeps coming back to the same pot shop multiple times in a day.

“The Cannabis Control Commission … is aware of the practice of so-called ‘smurfing’ and has taken steps to protect the legal market and monitor suspicious activity,” Maryalice Curley, a commission spokeswoman, said in an email.
Curley said under state law, pot shops must report “inventory activity through Massachusetts’ seed-to-sale tracking system” to help thwart smurfs and loopers.

The commission’s adult-use regulations prohibit a marijuana retailer from knowingly selling more than one ounce of marijuana or its dry-weight equivalence to a customer within a single day. And it is unlawful for marijuana to cross state lines.

“Ultimately, enforcement against this violation and other illicit market activity remains the jurisdiction of federal, state and municipal law enforcement agencies,” Curley said.