Senate pot law rewrite sure to spark challenge
The state Senate nipped and tucked the state’s marijuana legalization law, passing a scaleddown rewrite last night and setting up an intense showdown with the House to reconcile changes with its far more sweeping legal overhaul.
The Senate passed an omnibus bill 30-5 that, even with a number of amendments, largely left intact many pillars of the law that 1.8 million voters passed at the ballot last November. It kept the 12 percent tax rate on marijuana sales and left the power with local voters to decide whether to allow pot shops in their town and cities.
The House bill differs on both accounts, and has sparked cries from legalization advocates. It calls for a 28 percent tax — a figure Senators warned could undercut efforts to tamp down the black market — and gives the power of so-called local control instead to elected local officials, such as selectmen or a city council.
The differences will be sticking points when lawmakers from both chambers meet in a to-benamed conference committee, where they’ll be staring down a June 30 deadline to get a bill to the desk of Gov. Charlie Baker. Officials have said the state needs a year to set up a regulatory structure ahead of July 2018, when approved pot shops are allowed to begin sales.
“The Legislature did not act, the voters did,” state Sen. Pat Jehlen said from the Senate floor at the start of a day-long debate. “We should not repeal and replace any of the referenda that have been passed as others have recommended. We should amend and improve. That’s what this bill will do.”