A<\/span>fter numerous missed deadlines, the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has reached an agreement on how deep they will cut into Question 4, last November\u2019s successful ballot initiative legalizing recreational cannabis.<\/p>\n Beacon Hill and Boston City Hall had been the centers of dissent around Question 4 long before election day with Governor Charlie Baker alongside Boston Mayor and former union hobnobber Marty Walsh leading the charge. Now down the hall from Baker\u2019s office, officials have come together to create something that resembles what voters passed more closely than recent attempts to chop up the law even further.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAfter weeks of intense advocacy from Massachusetts<\/a> voters, legislators have decided to respect the will of the people,\u201d said Matthew Schweich, director of state campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project and one of the leaders of the 2016 campaign. \u201cWe are relieved that the legislature has dropped the House\u2019s \u2018repeal and replace\u2019 bill introduced last month, which would have made damaging changes to the law.\u201d<\/p>\n According to a statement released by Question 4\u2019s backers when word of the compromise dropped today, the bill\u2019s most significant changes relate to local control and taxes. The legislation adjusts the local control policy, allowing government officials in towns that voted \u201cno\u201d on the 2016 ballot initiative to ban marijuana businesses until December 2019.<\/p>\n More interesting is what it did for towns that voted \u201cyes\u201d in 2016, any bans must be placed on a local ballot for voters to approve. Meaning just because a municipality might have an old school city hall run by people nuns hit with rulers back in the day, they won\u2019t be able to block the will of the voters and hence the industry.<\/p>\n The maximum sales tax rate will increase from 12 to 20 percent. Under the bill, the state tax will be 17 percent and the local option will be 3 percent. The state house had long been expected to increase the tax rate, with the Boston Globe calling for it last October<\/a> before \u201cthe industry could hire lobbyists.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe law passed by voters was well-crafted and required no alteration,\u201d said Schweich. \u201cHowever, we respect the need for compromise, and while we don\u2019t approve of every provision of this bill, we are satisfied that the outcome will serve the interests of Massachusetts residents and allow the Commonwealth to displace the unregulated marijuana market with a system of taxation and regulation.\u201d<\/p>\n June saw the House and Senate pass very different plans for the implementation of Question 4 before entering a conference committee to resolve all their differences. The state budget then through another wrench into the mix when officials decided to halt the resolution of the two bills in order to get that done. During this, Massachusetts residents made over 1,000 telephone calls to their lawmakers urging rejection of the House approach, while advocacy organizations put additional pressure on the legislature.<\/p>\n \u201cWe commend the Senate for holding the line on a number of important issues,\u201d said Jim Borghesani, spokesperson for the 2016 Yes on 4 campaign and the subsequent advocacy effort to defend the law. \u201cNow it\u2019s time to provide funding that will allow the regulators to establish the rules that will govern marijuana cultivation and sales.\u201d<\/p>\n The progress in Massachusetts is a huge win for cannabis reform in New England which has seen some hiccuping this year in Vermont<\/a>, Connecticut<\/a> and New Hampshire<\/a> \u2014 all efforts are considered well positioned for next year\u2019s push.<\/p>\n \u201cMaine is in the process of implementing its marijuana regulation law passed by voters, while legislators in Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut all seriously considered bills to make marijuana legal for adults this year,\u201d Schweich said. \u201cThe fact that marijuana sales will begin in Massachusetts in just one year will place added pressure on Rhode Island in particular. If legislators fail to take action, the Ocean State will soon be senselessly forfeiting significant and sorely-needed tax revenue to its neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n We reached out to Shaleen Title, one of the drafters of Question 4. We asked her if she felt the compromise was closer to the vision of her and the fellow authors had in mind.<\/p>\n \u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Title said. \u201cIt\u2019s gratifying to see that the flood of phone calls, emails, visits, rallies and strong engagement by our communities has led to a compromise bill that is very close to the will of the voters and adopted nearly all of the equity provisions recommended by the Equitable Opportunities Now coalition and the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus. Looking at how the worst parts of the disastrous bill introduced by the House have largely disappeared, the takeaway is that when we unite and fight, we win.\u201d<\/p>\n Regulated marijuana sales are set to begin in Massachusetts in July 2018.<\/p>\n TELL US, <\/strong>are you happy to see Massachusetts moving forward to implement recreational cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Compromise: Massachusetts Pot Sales Start July 2018<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Lawmakers reach compromise on recreational cannabis in Massachusetts. After numerous missed deadlines, the legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has reached an agreement on how deep they will cut into Question 4, last November\u2019s successful ballot initiative legalizing recreational cannabis. Beacon Hill and Boston City Hall had been the centersContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,80,707,81,708],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17803,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17802\/revisions\/17803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Compromise: Massachusetts Pot Sales Start July 2018<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"