By Duke London

 

Wednesday night, Bill H3768 was passed in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and if enacted as law, will significantly modify the ballot question voters approved last November.

The amended bill was passed in landslide fashion, winning approval in the House by a final tally of 126-28. A less drastically revised version of the original legalization bill is due to be voted on in the Massachusetts Senate today. Critics of the House bill claim that it goes against the voters’ wishes in a number of key areas, including diversity-driven provisions, the tax rate on sales, and a local government’s ability to ban the legal market from entering their city or town.

“This bill is wrong on taxes, wrong on local control, weak on social justice, and irresponsible on regulatory efficiency. Our hope is that the Senate bill prevails in the coming conference committee,” contested Jim Borghesani of pro-legalization group Marijuana Policy Project.

Leading up to the House vote, minority lawmakers were not pleased with the bill’s lack of language safeguarding opportunities in the burgeoning legal market for communities and individuals affected most deeply by the War on Drugs. In response, the House reinstated original line items from the ballot question version of the legalization bill and added directives that require regulators to “adopt diversity licensing goals that provide meaningful participation of communities disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition and enforcement, including minority business enterprises.”

While voters initially approved a 12 percent tax rate on recreational sales of cannabis, the House bill raises that tax to 28 percent. Many expected the rate to increase, but this proposed rate could have undesired consequences. Despite differences in quality and safety, if the price of legal marijuana climbs far above the price of the illegal substitute, the black market will continue to thrive.

Read: The Need for Medical Marijuana Delivery in Massachusetts

The House-passed H3768 also included provisions to increase viability of local cannabis farming, tighten restrictions on dispensaries located near school zones, and provide transparency into how the state will oversee industrial hemp farming energy consumption by cultivators.

The competing bill that is expected to move through the state Senate refrains from giving up local cannabis ban controls to local governments and raising the ballot-approved tax rate, among other distinct variations between the two legalization efforts. If the state Senate does pass their cannabis regulation bill, members of the separate chambers will gather in a closed-door meeting to attempt merging the House and Senate versions into one suitable bill for Governor Charlie Baker’s review.

The vast separation in bills between the House and Senate is concerning because Massachusetts lawmakers placed a self-imposed deadline of June 30, 2017 to decide on a cannabis legalization bill. This deadline was established to ensure the state met its already-delayed onset of the legal market, now set for July 1, 2018. The voter-approved ballot question called for an opening date of January 1, 2018 for recreational sales but complications in ironing out the regulatory framework caused the December decision to push legalization back six months.