Legislators in Massachusetts are eyeing sweeping edits to the state’s voter-approved recreational marijuana law that would more than double the total tax on retail pot sales, strip the treasurer’s office of its existing oversight role and give broad new authorization to Beacon Hill over the state’s legal weed program.
The proposed revisions were released Tuesday and are slated to be discussed by the state’s Marijuana Policy Committee on Wednesday afternoon ahead of a House vote currently scheduled for Thursday.
If passed in the state House and Senate, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker would be given a chance to authorize dramatic changes to the recreational marijuana measure approved by Massachusetts last November, including a double-digit tax hike and an overhaul of the state’s oversight role.
Recreational marijuana sales would see a 16 percent tax increase if the bill is approved, meaning non-medical pot products may soon be subject to a total tax of 28 percent instead of 12 percent. The proposal would also revamp the state’s Cannabis Control Commission, the group tasked with oversee recreational marijuana regulations in accordance with last year’s vote, by stripping the treasurer of their existing unilateral authority and expanding the body’s membership from three people to five.
An additional provision, meanwhile, would allow local elected officials to unilaterally limit or ban recreational marijuana shops, cultivation centers and other weed-related facilities, rather than by ballot referendum as current law allows.
The House bill’s author, Democratic State Rep. Mark Cusack, said the initial ballot measure legalizing marijuana was “fundamentally flawed,” and that his bill “establishes a level of integrity to the commission that the ballot question lacked.”
“The voters voted to allow people 21 years of age and above to be able to access a regulated and safe marketplace. That is exactly what this bill does,” Mr. Cusack told the Boston Globe Tuesday.
In the wake of November’s 54-46 vote, however, critics of Mr. Cusack’s bill say his proposal is a slap in the face for the nearly 2 million Bay State residents who legalized recreational marijuana last year and already approved a framework for taxing and regulating weed.
“The House proposal in no way improves the measure passed by voters,” added Jim Borghesani, a representative for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project. “It weakens it and it insults voters in the process. Its irrational tax increase will give drug dealers the ability to undercut the legal market, and its removal of ban authority from local voters will give a handful of selectmen the ability to overrule the opinion of their own constituents.
Voters in Massachusetts and three other states — California, Maine and Nevada — passed measures in November legalizing recreational marijuana, notwithstanding the federal government’s prohibition on pot. Voters previously passed similar measures in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and D.C., while 29 states and the nation’s capital have passed laws letting doctors recommend marijuana to patients suffering from certain medical conditions.
Recreational marijuana sales are currently slated to begin in Massachusetts next year. Medical marijuana would remain untaxed under Mr. Cusack’s proposal, the Globe reported.
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