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Rhode Island lawmakers introduced a new bill to legalize marijuana on Friday, with just weeks left to go in the 2021 legislative session.<\/p>\n
Two sources familiar with the situation told Marijuana Moment that because time is running out, lawmakers are likely to reconvene in September to tackle the legislation, in addition to separate legalization proposals that have been filed by the governor and Senate leaders.<\/p>\n
The new House bill from Rep. Scott Slater (D) and several cosponsors includes similar policies to tax and regulate cannabis for adult use, but in some respects it seems to contain a greater focus on addressing social equity than the other measures\u2014even if it doesn\u2019t contain everything advocates want.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it will be good and something that can pass which tries to address many of the concerns of interested parties,\u201d Slater told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n
According to a summary, the goals of the measure are to gradually establish a recreational marijuana market, build consensus from \u201ca majority of stakeholders\u201d and prevent the market from being oversaturated as has happened in the state\u2019s existing medical cannabis program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to learn from past mistakes in the [medical] marijuana program. In 2016, licensed cultivators were allowed to enter the market with no analysis of what our market could support,\u201d Slater said. \u201cBecause there was no limit on applicants, dozens of people spent enormous sums of money to enter a market that could never support them. Cultivators are still struggling today from that decision that set them up to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the new bill, adults 21 and older could purchase and possess up to one ounce of marijuana in public. The could also grow up to six cannabis plants at home, with a maximum of 12 plants allowed in residences where more than one adult lives.<\/p>\n
Unlike the governor\u2019s measure and the one filed by Senate leaders, Slater\u2019s proposal calls for automatic expungements for people with prior cannabis convictions.<\/p>\n
The Department of Business Regulation, which would oversee the marijuana program, could initially license 15 recreational retailers, five of which would be reserved for social equity applicants. Another license would be issued to a worker-owned cooperative.<\/p>\n
The state\u2019s three current medical cannabis dispensaries, as well as six additional operators set to be awarded in a planned lottery this summer, would get the remaining adult-use licenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re encouraged to see that Rep. Scott Slater is taking social and economic justice seriously in his proposal for recreational cannabis in Rhode Island,\u201d Tyler Brown, an activist with the group Reclaim RI, told Marijuana Moment. He said the bill\u2019s provisions on expungements and licensing \u201cwill go a long way in helping individuals and communities that have been directly impacted by the long war on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown added, however, that \u201cthere is still room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecifically, we would like to see the number of additional social equity and worker cooperative licenses be equal to existing and approved medical retail licenses, raising the proposed number from six to nine, at least three of which should be coops, as well as strong union protections for employees of cannabis businesses through labor peace agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Slater\u2019s legislation as introduced, the definition of who constitutes an equity applicant would be left completely up to regulators to decide. Additional licenses could be issued in 2025 based on market factors.<\/p>\n
In addition to the state\u2019s general sales tax, cannabis sales would get an added 8 percent state excise tax and a local excise tax of 5 percent. Revenue generated from those taxes would go to the state\u2019s general fund.<\/p>\n
\u2014 A new social equity assistance fund\u2014supported by marijuana licensing and penalty fees\u2014would be created to support restorative justice, jail diversion and cannabis industry workforce development, among other services. But the money would be subject to appropriation\u2014a point of concern for advocates who feel those dollars should be explicitly earmarked and not put at risk of being redirected by lawmakers.<\/p>\n Individual municipalities would be allowed to ban cannabis businesses from operating in their area under the bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n To address concerns about oversaturation of the market that have been expressed by existing growers in the state\u2019s current medical cannabis program, no additional cultivation licenses could be issued until 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not want to repeat that same mistake of the past by opening this marketplace way beyond what it can support,\u201d Slater said. \u201cI want to create a stable marketplace and then analyze where we are at over time and make better decisions into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions remain about whether lawmakers will have time to take up the new bill and other legalization proposals as they continue to focus on the annual budget. There is also uncertainty about whether legalization will earn the support of top legislators like House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (D), who has been relatively quiet on the issue.<\/p>\n Shekarchi said recently that he views legalization as \u201cinevitable,\u201d<\/a> but he told<\/a> Politico that there are \u201cmany pressing matters before us\u201d and he\u2019s not sure if the chamber will have time to consider the cannabis reform measure.<\/p>\n Gov. Daniel McKee\u2019s (D) legalization plan, which was unveiled in March as part of his budget proposal<\/a>, would also allow commercial cannabis sales to adults 21 and older. It was considered before a House panel last month<\/a> but was not acted on.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Senate leaders introduced their own legalization bill days before the governor\u2019s announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n On the Senate side, both measures were\u00a0heard in a joint committee hearing in early April<\/a> but they were not voted on, and they\u2019ve remained in a holding pattern since.<\/p>\n Both the governor and the leaders\u2019 legalization plans are notably different than the proposal that former Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) had included in her budget last year. Prior to\u00a0leaving office to join the Biden administration<\/a>\u00a0as commerce secretary, she\u00a0called for legalization through a state-run model<\/a>.<\/p>\n McKee gave initial insights into his perspective on the reform in January, saying that \u201cit\u2019s time that [legalization] happens\u201d and that he\u2019s \u201cmore\u00a0leaning towards an entrepreneurial strategy<\/a>\u00a0there to let that roll that way.\u201d<\/p>\n Shekarchi, meanwhile, has said he\u2019s\u00a0\u201cabsolutely\u201d open to the idea of cannabis legalization<\/a>\u00a0and also leans toward privatization.<\/p>\n Late last year, the Senate Finance Committee\u00a0began preliminary consideration of legalization<\/a>\u00a0in preparation for the 2021 session, with lawmakers generally accepting the reform as an inevitability. \u201cI certainly do think we\u2019ll act on the issue, whether it\u2019s more private or more state,\u201d Sen. Ryan Pearson (D), who now serves as the panel\u2019s chairman, said at the time.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Senate approved a bill in March that would allow safe consumption sites<\/a>\u00a0where people could use illicit drugs under medical supervision and receive resources to enter treatment. Harm reduction advocates say this would prevent overdose deaths and help de-stigmatize substance misuse.<\/p>\n The Senate Judiciary Committee also held a hearing in March on legislation that would end criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of drugs<\/a> and replace them with a $100 fine.<\/p>\n Bill To Federally Legalize Marijuana Reintroduced In Congress As Senate Prepares Separate Measure<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post New Rhode Island Marijuana Legalization Bill Filed With Weeks Before End Of Session<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Rhode Island lawmakers introduced a new bill to legalize marijuana on Friday, with just weeks left to go in the 2021 legislative session. Two sources familiar with the situation told Marijuana Moment that because time is running out, lawmakers are likely to reconvene in September to tackle the legislation, inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":47965,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47964"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47966,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47964\/revisions\/47966"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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