Time is running out for the Legislature to pass a bill regulating the state’s new legal marijuana industry before their self-imposed deadline. The fate of the nascent industry now moves to the hands of six key lawmakers charged with compromising between two vastly different visions for how marijuana should be grown, purchased and consumed in Massachusetts.
The biggest divergence between the bill passed by House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s chamber Wednesday and the version approved by Senate President Stan Rosenberg’s branch Thursday is how much marijuana should be taxed.
The Senate voted 30 to five to keep the 12 percent  tax rate for retail marijuana outlined in the Question 4 ballot question approved by voters last November.
The House’s bill ups the tax to 28 percent and allows municipal legislatures to bar pot shops from opening in their city or town. The House also altered how the new Cannabis Control Commission would be structured and the process for issuing licences for cultivators, manufacturers and retailers.
“This is guaranteed to stall the safe and legal regulatory system approved by voters in November,” Jim Borghesani, one of the marijuana activists behind the successful Yes on 4 ballot campaign said after the House vote. Borghesani said the House went too far changing what voters said they wanted, but was encouraged with the comparatively hands-off approach taken by the Senate.
“We’re very hopeful that the Senate bill will ultimately prevail in conference committee, because the Senate bill takes a respectful approach and a smart approach by making slight changes to the law passed in November,”
In her opening remarks before debate began on the bill, Senate Marijuana Committee chair Patricia Jehlen said the Senate’s plan maintains the intent of the law voters approved while adding protections and helping minorities work in the industry.
“We are hoping to promote public health and protect consumers. We are hoping to reduce youth consumption. We are hoping to remedy the damage to people in communities who have been damaged by the drug war,” Jehlen said.
“There are rare instances where the voters of this Commonwealth take matters into their own hands and decide to make decisions at the ballot box and this is one of them,” Sen. Bruce Tarr, the Senate Republican leader, said on the floor Thursday afternoon.
Rep. Mark Cusack, the Jehlen’s House counterpart on the Marijuana Committee, defended the House’s plan after his chamber passed their bill Wednesday, saying the House delivered on the key points voters had in mind when they considered legalizing the drug on the 2016 ballot.
“The summary from the Secretary of State clearly spells out what you’re voting for is a safe and regulated marketplace and that is exactly what our legislation did,” Cusack said.
The differences between the two bills need to be worked out by a six-member committee within the next week if lawmakers are to meet their deadline to deliver a bill to Gov. Baker’s desk.
The Senate’s version of the regulation bill made it possible for people with previous marijuana infractions to seal their record and instructed the new Cannabis Control Commission to look for ways to include communities of color in the new industry.
Cusack and Jehlen will likely have to negotiate a final version of the bill with only a week to go.
“We knew from a long time out that this wasn’t going to be consensus bill,” Cusack said, “that expungement, local control and the tax rate were our sticking points,” Cusack said.
credit:news.wgbh.org
