Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
Massachusetts lawmakers, toiling behind closed doors, could vote as soon as Thursday on an overhaul of the voter-passed marijuana legalization law.
The state House of Representatives has scheduled a formal session for June 15, and one of the bills expected to be on the docket is a pot law rewrite.
Meanwhile, discussions about marijuana are heating up. A regularly scheduled meeting Monday afternoon between Governor Charlie Baker, Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, and top aides has been canceled at the behest of the Speaker’s office, according to DeLeo spokesman Seth Gitell. He said the House will use that time to work on the omnibus marijuana legislation and other matters.
But what a rewrite would do remains opaque. Even though the joint House-Senate committee on marijuana policy has been working on the issue for months and has held several public hearings, it has not yet released any draft language.
That’s unusual even by the secretive standards of the Massachusetts Legislature because lawmakers are tinkering with a ballot question passed by more than 1.8 million voters in November.
That referendum legalized growing, buying, possessing, and using limited amounts of cannabis for adults 21 or over. It set a January 2018 timeframe for retail pot shops to open. But, in the quiet week after Christmas, with no public hearings and no formal public notice, lawmakers delayed the likely opening date for recreational marijuana stores in Massachusetts by half a year — to July 2018.
Possible changes that could come out of the Legislature including raising the tax on retail marijuana sales, clarifying language about how cities and towns can ban pot facilities, and changing the makeup of the agency that will oversee pot sales.
Under the voter-passed law, the pot tax rate is 3.75 percent — in addition to the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax, and municipalities can impose an additional two percent tax. That would mean a $100 pot brownie purchase could carry a state and local tax of $12.
Current law says that if municipal officials want to stop a particular type of establishment — for example, marijuana cultivation facilities — or all retail pot establishments, they must go to their voters. Local officials also need to hold a referendum if they want to sharply limit the number of marijuana shops. If a city has 100 retail stores that sell alcohol, for example, it will need to go to voters if it wants fewer than 20 marijuana retailers.
And the ballot language calls for a three-person Cannabis Control Commission appointed by the treasurer with sole regulatory authority over the new industry. The treasurer’s office already houses the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, which was a main reason the authors of the marijuana law placed the marijuana watchdog under the treasurer’s authority.
But some lawmakers are keen to change that structure because they feel it gives too much authority to one official.
Beyond Massachusetts, voters in seven other states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use.
But the drug remains strictly forbidden under federal law
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: State lawmakers poised to vote on pot law rewrite this week - The Boston Globe
Author: Joshua Miller
Contact: Support Home Page
Photo Credit: Keith Bedford
Website: The Boston Globe
The state House of Representatives has scheduled a formal session for June 15, and one of the bills expected to be on the docket is a pot law rewrite.
Meanwhile, discussions about marijuana are heating up. A regularly scheduled meeting Monday afternoon between Governor Charlie Baker, Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, and top aides has been canceled at the behest of the Speaker’s office, according to DeLeo spokesman Seth Gitell. He said the House will use that time to work on the omnibus marijuana legislation and other matters.
But what a rewrite would do remains opaque. Even though the joint House-Senate committee on marijuana policy has been working on the issue for months and has held several public hearings, it has not yet released any draft language.
That’s unusual even by the secretive standards of the Massachusetts Legislature because lawmakers are tinkering with a ballot question passed by more than 1.8 million voters in November.
That referendum legalized growing, buying, possessing, and using limited amounts of cannabis for adults 21 or over. It set a January 2018 timeframe for retail pot shops to open. But, in the quiet week after Christmas, with no public hearings and no formal public notice, lawmakers delayed the likely opening date for recreational marijuana stores in Massachusetts by half a year — to July 2018.
Possible changes that could come out of the Legislature including raising the tax on retail marijuana sales, clarifying language about how cities and towns can ban pot facilities, and changing the makeup of the agency that will oversee pot sales.
Under the voter-passed law, the pot tax rate is 3.75 percent — in addition to the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax, and municipalities can impose an additional two percent tax. That would mean a $100 pot brownie purchase could carry a state and local tax of $12.
Current law says that if municipal officials want to stop a particular type of establishment — for example, marijuana cultivation facilities — or all retail pot establishments, they must go to their voters. Local officials also need to hold a referendum if they want to sharply limit the number of marijuana shops. If a city has 100 retail stores that sell alcohol, for example, it will need to go to voters if it wants fewer than 20 marijuana retailers.
And the ballot language calls for a three-person Cannabis Control Commission appointed by the treasurer with sole regulatory authority over the new industry. The treasurer’s office already houses the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, which was a main reason the authors of the marijuana law placed the marijuana watchdog under the treasurer’s authority.
But some lawmakers are keen to change that structure because they feel it gives too much authority to one official.
Beyond Massachusetts, voters in seven other states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use.
But the drug remains strictly forbidden under federal law
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: State lawmakers poised to vote on pot law rewrite this week - The Boston Globe
Author: Joshua Miller
Contact: Support Home Page
Photo Credit: Keith Bedford
Website: The Boston Globe
