Straight to the Dome

BY NICK MURRAY

PHOTOGRAPHED BY SEAN PAVONE

There is hope the state government will begin to deliver on its responsibilities to facilitate a legal, adult-use cannabis market this year. After all, this is what voters passed in 2016.

In full disclosure, I worked for the “Yes on 1” campaign as deputy field director, based in Bangor during the general election season. I had thousands of conversations with folks about cannabis in 2015, gathering signatures to put legalization on the 2016 ballot, and thousands more once we made the ballot as Question 1. We worked really hard to make it happen over those years, and at some points it felt like Janet Mills was working against us.

Late in October 2016, within two weeks of Election Day, then-Attorney General Janet Mills released a statement saying that Question 1 would make marijuana legal for children. Her office argued that since the juvenile code reflects the criminal code, in this regard, repealing the criminal statute would leave a legal gray area for minors to possess cannabis. Proponents saw this as a cynical “October surprise”—an 11th-hour attempt to sink the campaign. It nearly succeeded. The margin of victory on Election Day was within 0.5%, and after an extensive recount, the results were certified and cannabis was legal for adults to possess, grow at home, and give as a gift.

Cannabis reformers were critical of the previous governor, Paul LePage, for dragging the process out as much as he could during his last two years in office. It’s hard to tell how much Gov. Mills will defer to Democratic leaders in the House and Senate on cannabis policy. She is a tough, shrewd politician but, like Democratic party leaders in D.C., she could have a tough time reining in a caucus much more progressive than she is and could be influenced to support opening up Maine’s new legal cannabis market sooner than later. By early 2017, it seemed that then-Attorney General Mills had accepted that Mainers want a regulated cannabis market. She called on Congress to allow banks to work with state-sanctioned cannabis businesses. This has been a notorious sticking point for many in the state-legal cannabis industry. From accepting credit card payments to opening bank accounts and paying bills, proprietors have been stonewalled by traditional financial institutions. Mills’ willingness to speak out on this issue showed she understood a crucial part of the struggle for cannabis entrepreneurs.

During her campaign for governor, Mills was quoted as saying, “I’m not opposed to adult-use recreational marijuana...you’ve got to do three things with marijuana, cannabis: test it, track it and tax it.” In the same forum, she said that without moving quickly on implementing regulations, the black market would continue to prosper.

In late January of this year, Gov. Mills mentioned to the news outlet WGME that she is paying attention to what is happening in Massachusetts. One can only imagine that the fat tax receipts are catching her eye. The structure of the adult-use cannabis market in Massachusetts is very different from what has been proposed in Maine, including a local sales tax option for towns that allow adult-use shops.

On Tuesday, November 20, 2018, the first day of legal cannabis sales in Massachusetts, customers spent $440,000 on cannabis products, contributing about $70,000 in taxes to state and town coffers. In the first week of sales, customers spent over $2 million. Keep in mind, this was the week of Thanksgiving, so the first week of sales numbers only covers five days.

In the four weeks Massachusetts stores were open in 2018, legal cannabis retailers sold $9.3 million worth of product, the vast majority at only two stores, both located west of Worcester. At this pace, 2019 sales are expected to top $14 million, while more stores are likely to open. A third store opened in Salem on December 15, 2018 and more are slated for 2019.

Meanwhile in Maine, cannabis users live under limited legalization. Adults 21 and older can grow up to three flowering plants, 12 plants in vegetative state, and unlimited seedlings for their own personal use. The state requires that each plant for “personal adult use” is tagged with the person’s name and state ID number. Personal cultivation can take place outside of one’s residence, but requires permission from the property owner.

Adults can legally possess up to 2.5 ounces of flower or five grams of concentrates outside of the home and gift it to another adult. But, without a commercial sales permit, adults who sell or trade cannabis—outside of the medical program—are breaking the law.

Multiple delays have plagued the process in deploying Maine’s commercial market. After the legislature’s Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee spent the better part of a year holding hearings to draft rules around licensing, marketing, packaging, etc., the Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) began accepting bids for a consulting company to help write more regulations. DAFS initially granted the contract to a company from Los Angeles, but another applicant’s appeal forced the state to restart the process. They say that once a consultant is hired, it will take “no less than nine months to draft, finalize and fully implement the rulemaking process,” at which point they will offer another contract to develop the state’s seed-tosale system.

This all but ensures that adult cannabis consumers will not be shopping in Maine this summer, or even before the end of the year.

The economic cost of this drawn-out process is extraordinary. Of all the states that voted to legalize in 2016, Maine will be the last to market. We will lose out on thousands of new canna-tourists who will visit other legal states instead of “Vacationland.” We will turn away thousands of new residents here to work for the industry. And we will forgo millions of dollars in wages and taxes from cannabis sales.

Great strides have been made, however. In Maine and in New England overall, cannabis use among adults is becoming more accepted. Ten years ago, no U.S. state allowed adults to possess or grow cannabis without participation in a medical program. Twenty years ago, just a few states permitted medical use or decriminalized possession. Maine was only the third state to decriminalize possession of cannabis—after Oregon and Alaska—in 1976.

Although the industry is still developing here, it is starting to explode across the country. There is still time for the seasoned growers of the Pine Tree State to showcase their craft in the open. Eventually, the legal green rush will hit Maine, but it requires policymakers to pick up the pace.

NICK MURRAY lives in Auburn, Maine and works as a fundraiser in the non-profit world. He has been an activist for causes related to drug policy reform and individual liberty since he founded the first chapter of NORML at the University of New Hampshire in 2010. Views expressed in his writing are his alone.