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A lawmaker has filed a bill to allow Maine to enter into interstate cannabis commerce agreements with other legalized states.<\/p>\n
The legislation from Rep. Joseph Perry (D) would make Maine one of a small but growing number of states to allow for marijuana imports and exports, pending a federal policy change.<\/p>\n
Under the proposal, the governor would be able to forge agreements with other legal cannabis states \u201cauthorizing the transportation, cultivation, manufacture, testing, purchase, sale or distribution of cannabis or cannabis products into and out of this State,\u201d the bill text says.<\/p>\n
But the interstate commerce activity could only proceed under one of four circumstances: if federal law changes, if congressional lawmakers restrict agency funding so that the feds won\u2019t be able to enforce the ban on interstate commerce, if the federal Justice Department issues a memorandum tolerating the commerce or if the U.S. attorney general issues a written opinion that authorizing the marijuana imports and exports wouldn\u2019t put the state at increased risk of enforcement action.<\/p>\n
Those requirements are similar to the laws that have been enacted<\/a> in California and Oregon, though California\u2019s policy also gives the governor authorization to enter interstate commerce agreements if the state attorney general determines that the state would not be put at greater risk<\/a> of being penalized.<\/p>\n \u2014 Washington State lawmakers also recently sent similar interstate marijuana commerce legislation<\/a> to the governor\u2019s desk. If signed into law, all states along the western coast of the U.S. would be set up to buy and sell marijuana across their borders if the federal policy changes.<\/p>\n On the East Coast, New Jersey\u2019s Senate president filed a similar interstate proposal<\/a>\u00a0last year, but it has not yet been enacted.<\/p>\n The new bill<\/a> in Maine stipulates that out-of-state marijuana businesses need to comply with the state\u2019s regulations on \u201ctracking, tagging, testing, identifying and destroying adulterated or misbranded cannabis products, labeling, marketing and advertising.\u201d<\/p>\n Those contracting businesses would also need to \u201caddress public health and safety emergencies concerning cannabis and cannabis products and agree to assist in investigations of\u00a0 noncompliance with the agreement or Maine\u2019s laws or rules.\u201d<\/p>\n Maine is a uniquely isolated state, only bordering New Hampshire. The bill says that marijuana can\u2019t be transported through states that don\u2019t permit it, so that may create additional regulatory complications given that New Hampshire has not yet legalized recreational cannabis.<\/p>\n A federal appellate court ruled last year that Maine\u2019s law prohibiting non-residents from owning medical marijuana businesses in the state violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Some legal experts believe the same rationale invalidating the residency restrictions could come into play in challenges against state-level bans on marijuana imports and exports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Disallowing imports and exports of medical cannabis between consenting states could be construed as similarly protectionist and unconstitutional, the thinking goes.<\/p>\n In November, an\u00a0Oregon marijuana business filed a lawsuit in federal court<\/a>, declaring that the state\u2019s current ban on cannabis exports and imports to and from other states violates the Constitution.<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Maine, state cannabis regulators released a report last year finding that the launch of an adult-use cannabis market in the state has already exceeded expectations when it comes to driving down illicit sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n Top Pharmacists Association Endorses Drug Decriminalization<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Maine Lawmaker Files Bill To Allow Marijuana Interstate Commerce When Federal Policy Changes<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A lawmaker has filed a bill to allow Maine to enter into interstate cannabis commerce agreements with other legalized states. The legislation from Rep. Joseph Perry (D) would make Maine one of a small but growing number of states to allow for marijuana imports and exports, pending a federal policyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":64242,"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\/64241"}],"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=64241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64243,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64241\/revisions\/64243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Maine Lawmaker Files Bill To Allow Marijuana Interstate Commerce When Federal Policy Changes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"