Recreational Marijuana Delayed Again in Massachusetts
Mass. House And Senate Hold To Delays In Retail Pot Shop Licensing
The process for licensing retail marijuana shops would exist delayed by six months under legislation that surfaced get-go on Wed in the Senate before immigration both branches, the upshot of which could push the legal sale of marijuana, authorized by a successful ballot campaign this yr, well into 2018.
The House and Senate on Wed morning during lightly attended breezy sessions passed a beak (S 2524) amended by Sen. Jason Lewis pushing out the effective dates of several key milestones in the new constabulary, including the dates by which the state volition begin accepting applications and issuing licenses for retail pot shop licenses. The land, under the bill, would accept until July 2018 to consequence the offset licenses for retail pot sales.
The move highlights a rare willingness among lawmakers to tinker with a law approved directly by voters.
The bill also directs the Baker administration to contract for a study of marijuana use, including patterns of use and methods of consumption, incidents of dumb driving and marijuana-related hospitalizations and the economic impacts on the land.
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, who presided over Wednesday's session, said the bill would not bear upon any provisions of the new police that went into issue on December. fifteen, including the legalization of possession, use, gifting and abode-growing of marijuana. House and Senate officials said the delay would give the Legislature more time to "better the ballot question, have up problems non addressed by the election question and permit the land more than time to implement the will of the voters."
"The legislature has a responsibility to implement the volition of the voters while also protecting public wellness and public condom. This brusk delay volition permit the necessary time for the Legislature to piece of work with stakeholders on improving the new law," Rosenberg said in a statement. "Luckily, nosotros are in a position where we can learn from the experiences of other states to implement the almost responsible recreational marijuana law in the country."
The bill must still be signed by Gov. Charlie Baker before condign law. The legislation would give the forthcoming Cannabis Control Commission an actress six months until March 15, 2018 to develop initial regulations, and applications for testing facility licenses and for retail sales from established medical marijuana dispensaries would be delayed until Apr i, 2018.
Treasurer Deborah Goldberg would also have until September, instead of March, to gear up upwardly the new Cannabis Control Commission.
"Our goal has always been to make sure that the intent of the voters is carried out," Business firm Speaker Robert DeLeo said in a statement. "The delay volition allow the committee process to work through the constabulary's complicated implications and provide a procedure by which we can strengthen, refine and improve it."
Will Luzier, who was part of the coalition that passed the marijuana ballot constabulary, said he was "disappointed" that lawmakers are pushing back retail sales of marijuana.
"If they need that much time to tweak the procedure, nosotros're disappointed that they take to take that much time but we empathise that that's the way information technology is," Luzier told the News Service.
Luzier said he believes the filibuster will probable be a hardship for those in the burgeoning marijuana industry.
"Sitting on an investment for that much longer is probably a trouble," Luzier said.
Luzier was also disappointed with the process of passing the change through the Legislature, proverb he only saw the new linguistic communication Midweek morning time.
"We just had almost two hours to review it. We only got it at nine o'clock this morning," Luzier said. He said, "We're disappointed that it went through in an informal session and nosotros would have liked to accept had more to review it, just the process is the process."
Asked if he was attempting to convince a pro-marijuana lawmaker to object to the bill before it is enacted, Luzier said he has been in contact with "our allies" and said, "We haven't gotten a commitment from anyone still."
Rosenberg and DeLeo said that in the coming weeks they will also set up a Committee on Marijuana comprised of Democrats and Republicans from both branches to work with stakeholders and draft additional legislation to address concerns with the new law.
This article was originally published on December 28, 2016.
Source: https://www.wbur.org/news/2016/12/28/legislature-delays-marijuana-retail-licensing
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