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CONNECTICUT LAWMAKERS LEGALIZE IT!

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Connecticut’s General Assembly has approved a marijuana legalization bill. On June 17, the state Senate passed a version of the bill amended and approved by the House one day earlier. The 16-11 Senate vote sent the legalization bill to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk.

As we go to press, the governor has yet to sign the bill into law. However, Lamont supports marijuana-law reform and even introduced his own legalization measure earlier this year. Shortly after lawmakers passed the legalization bill, Gov. Lamont released a statement that read in part, “I look forward to signing the bill and moving beyond this terrible period of incarceration and injustice.”

Assuming the governor follows through and signs the bill, Connecticut’s adult-use law would allow possession of up to an ounce and a half of Cannabis beginning July 1, 2021. While the bill doesn’t specify an official launch date, sales could begin as early as May 2022.

Home cultivation would also be allowed under the law, with medical pot patients getting the first crack at growing, followed eventually by recreational consumers.

The new law includes several criminal justice reforms as well. Automatic expungements for minor marijuana convictions will begin in 2023. And starting next year, requests can be made for expungements of other pot-related convictions, including for sales and possession of paraphernalia.

Connecticut’s adult-use law offers protections for workers, tenants, students and people in need of medical care, as positive tests for pot or proof of recreational Cannabis use can’t be used against them. Additionally, police would not be allowed to use the smell of marijuana to justify a search.

Social equity was the biggest legislative hurdle lawmakers faced in creating the state’s adult-use law. However, feedback from advocates helped legislators strengthen the bill’s equity program. Under the new law, qualified equity applicants would receive 50 percent of industry licenses, including for growing, retail, manufacturing and delivery. Social equity applicants would also receive a 50 percent discount on licensing fees. Once awarded a license, equity business owners would only pay 50 percent of licensing fee renewals for the first three years.

Additionally, a large portion of retail pot tax revenue would be reinvested in communities disproportionately impacted by prohibition.

Lamont’s signature on the adult-use bill would bring an end to a tumultuous effort to legalize Cannabis in Connecticut. During his State of the State address in January, the governor pledged to work with the General Assembly on a tax and regulate plan in 2021. However, his own pot proposal was widely criticized for emphasizing pot sales tax revenue the state badly needed to help close its budget gap, and failing to establish an equity program that would benefit residents most affected by the war on drugs.

For his part, Lamont maintained that the bill was a starting point and not a finished product. His office worked with lawmakers and the bill was amended to include stronger social equity elements. While the proposal ultimately advanced through separate legislative committees, advocates favored a competing Cannabis measure introduced by Rep. Robyn Porter, which focused on equity and criminal justice reform.

The current bill, SB 1201, is a compromise measure introduced by House Speaker Matt Ritter and Senate President Martin Looney. The measure includes elements of the bills put forward by Lamont and Porter.

Yet despite the compromise, the bill required a special legislative session and multiple amendments to pass both chambers of the General Assembly. Lamont even threatened to veto the measure if language expanding social equity eligibility wasn’t removed.

The governor’s office released a statement criticizing the equity amendment, which they believe “allows just about anyone with a history of Cannabis crimes or a member of their family, regardless of financial means, who was once arrested on simple possession to be considered with the same weight as someone from a neighborhood who has seen many of their friends and loved ones face significant penalties and discrimination due to their past Cannabis crimes.”

After the governor weighed in, lawmakers removed the amendment that expanded equity eligibility and added a provision that prevents legislators, elected officials and marijuana regulators from entering the legal pot industry for two years after leaving office.

The latest version of the bill, now nearly 300 pages long, passed the House and the Senate and currently awaits the governor’s signature. Lamont has indicated his intention is to sign the marijuana measure into law.

With the governor’s signature, Connecticut would become the nineteenth state to legalize Cannabis (if you include South Dakota and Montana) and the fifth state to pass an adult-use bill in 2021, as lawmakers in New Jersey, New York, New Mexico and Virginia all approved recreational marijuana legislation earlier this year.

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FIRSTLEGAL POT DELIVERY IN MASSACHUSETTS

Asmall Cannabis business based in Taunton, Massachusetts had the distinction of making the state’s first-ever recreational marijuana delivery in early June.

Freshly Baked was awarded the first adult-use delivery license by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC). And while the inaugural delivery was a test run sent to the business’s co-owner, Freshly Baked received approval to begin delivering pot products to the public within a 15 mile radius of Taunton.

The CCC began accepting applications for courier delivery licenses last year. Businesses granted a courier license are permitted to partner with existing pot producers and charge a fee for delivering those products.

However, earlier this year the CCC introduced a second delivery license type that allows businesses to purchase pot products wholesale and warehouse an inventory that can be sold and delivered.

Both delivery license types were created in an effort to encourage inclusion in the legal Cannabis industry and the licenses are only available to qualified social equity applicants for the first three years of the program.

The second license type angered some established Cannabis retailers and a group of dispensary owners brought a lawsuit against the CCC. However, the suit faced backlash as it was viewed as an attack on equity, and was quickly dropped.

The CCC began accepting applications for the second license type on May 28.

Freshly Baked received a courier delivery license, meaning it must partner with pot producers to deliver Cannabis. Co-owner Philip Smith was accepted into the state’s social equity program in 2019. He must retain 51 percent ownership of the company for Freshly Baked to qualify for the delivery license.

The CCC is currently processing seven additional courier licenses, which will expand delivery options across the state.

egal Cannabis sales are soaring in Maine as the state has set records for retail in back-to-back months. Pot shops brought in nearly $5.4 million in sales in the month of May, besting the record set in April by more thanL $1 million.

After an inauspicious start to retail sales, Maine’s marijuana market has steadily increased. When adult-use sales launched in October 2020, six licensed shops serviced the entire state. Consumers also faced limited supplies and high prices. The first month of legal sales brought in just over $1 million.

Since then, the program has expanded, supply has increased and prices have dropped. The state now boasts 34 licensed retailers and the average eighth costs around $49, compared to $56 in October.

During Maine’s record setting May, pot businesses made nearly 72,000 transactions and the resulting $5.4 million in sales brought in around $536,000 in tax revenue.

Since the start of retail sales in the fall of 2020 – four years after Maine voters approved an adult-use program in 2016 – the state has taken in over $2.2 million in tax revenue from approximately $22.7 million in legal sales.

While recreational Cannabis sales are on the rise, the program is still dwarfed by the state’s medical marijuana sales, which topped $22 million in October 2020 alone. The medical pot program has helped Cannabis become Maine’s most valuable crop.

In addition to increased access to retail locations, consumers in Maine have more options than ever when it comes to purchasing pot products. At the start of sales, flower accounted for 76 percent of the market but in May, made up only 59 percent as concentrates and new infused products grabbed a larger share of sales.

Mainers are embracing legal marijuana as no jurisdiction has chosen to entirely opt out of the industry. And as the market continues to grow and sales hit all-time highs, retailers are hopeful that the state has a record shattering summer, with lots of out-of-staters visiting Vacationland and picking up some pot.

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MAINE

SETS RETAIL RECORD

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>> Continued from pg. 15 BEWARE NEW JERSEYANS BEARING GIFTS

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New Jersey’s attorney general is cracking down on crafty companies taking advantage of a loophole in the state’s recreational weed law.

A provision in New Jersey’s adult-use law allows marijuana to be gifted to those 21 and older. Some companies in the Garden State have drawn the ire of law enforcement by offering “free” pot products with the purchase of ordinary food and snacks at exorbitant prices.

For example, one company’s website lists a bag containing nuts, rice crisps, an almond bar and water for $165. Of course, the purchase comes with a “free gift” selected from a list of pot products.

While New Jersey voters approved a legal Cannabis industry in November 2020 and Governor Phil Murphy signed legislation establishing the industry earlier this year, the state has yet to implement retail sales of recreational pot. In fact, lawmakers have yet to create licensing regulations for retail shops.

While there is clearly demand for legal Cannabis, New Jersey doesn’t currently offer the supply. That situation will lead to schemes like free marijuana with the purchase of a $100 t-shirt.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has sent cease-and-desist letters to four companies his office is investigating for the pot gifting scheme.

AG Grewal explained, “Today we’re making it clear that we will not permit these entities to undermine the regulated Cannabis marketplace the Legislature created or to compete unfairly with properly licensed Cannabis businesses.”

Of course, he didn’t mention that, at the moment, there are no properly licensed Cannabis businesses in New Jersey.

OPTING OUT IN NEW YORK

New York towns intent on banning retail sales of marijuana are on the clock, as the Empire State’s new pot law gives municipalities until the end of the year to opt out of the legal Cannabis industry.

Like most states that have approved recreational Cannabis, New York’s adult-use law includes a provision that allows jurisdictions to opt out of the nascent marijuana industry. Opt out rules vary by state, but most require an ordinance banning pot to be passed by a predetermined deadline.

While some legal Cannabis states require residents to approve the ban, others allow local officials or the city council to pass an ordinance outlawing the industry without approval from the public. Montana is the only state thus far to consider requiring jurisdictions to opt in to the marijuana industry.

New York towns that wish to bar retail pot sales must do so by December 31, 2021. In order to opt out in New York, jurisdictions need approval from voters, meaning towns must create an ordinance banning sales and the measure must pass by direct referendum by the end of the year.

In New Jersey, where opt outs are becoming increasingly common, jurisdictions don’t need voter approval. City councils and committees are ignoring the will of the voters and making the decision to ban the Cannabis industry, despite the widespread support for pot seen on Election Day 2020 and in numerous polls before and after.

New Jersey’s adult-use law set the deadline to opt out at 180 days from the date the bill was signed into law. That date, August 21, 2021, is fast approaching. If a jurisdiction doesn’t have a ban in place by the deadline, it will be governed by state law for a period of five years.

In both New York and New Jersey, towns are only allowed to opt out of the marijuana industry, prohibiting sales, cultivation and manufacturing. Municipalities cannot ban other aspects of the adult-use law like personal possession, home cultivation or even Cannabis deliveries.

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HALL OF FAMER PAUL PIERCE UNVEILS POT LINE THE TRUTH

ormer NBA player and Boston Celtic great Paul Pierce is giving fans in Massachusetts something new to cheer about – his own brand of Cannabis products. The pot line, which includes flower, edibles, lotions and more, is dubbed “The Truth,” after Pierce’s nickname from his F playing days.

Pierce is teaming up with Massachusetts-based The Hub Craft for the

Cannabis line and Truth-branded products are expected to hit shelves later this year. Pierce’s own pot strain will be available in 2022.

“I’m excited to bring the brand [to Boston] first and educate people on the plant – how it can help in everyday life and also in sports and recovery,” Pierce told The Boston Globe.

Despite NBA restrictions on Cannabis consumption, Pierce acknowledges using pot during his playing days. He found it particularly effective in helping him recover from a stabbing incident that nearly claimed his life in 2000.

For Pierce, choosing Cannabis over addictive opioids was worth the risk.

“I was dealing with a lot of depression and anxiety and sleep issues … So I really leaned more on Cannabis. … I took an edible or smoked a joint just to get some sleep, and had to deal with the consequences.”

When it comes to his new line of pot products, Pierce says, “My name, my reputation is on the line and I just want … the best product out there to help who are in need.”

Pierce has had an eventful year thus far. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in May, a month after losing his job as an on-air analyst at ESPN. Pierce was fired after streaming video of himself smoking a blunt and drinking while playing poker surrounded by scantily clad women.

Pierce spent 15 seasons with the Boston Celtics, during which he made 10 All-Star teams, won a championship in 2008 and was named Finals MVP. Pierce is also known for an infamous incident during those Finals when he appeared to suffer a serious injury that required him to be taken to the locker room in a wheelchair. However, he quickly returned after just over a minute of game time looking no worse for wear. The sudden return led to a slew of scatological conspiracy theories.

Eleven years later, during the 2019 NBA Finals, The Truth told the truth. It wasn’t an injury, but rather an emergency. “Something went down. I just had to go to the bathroom,” Pierce explained on the ESPN broadcast.

The Truth isn’t the only former player to launch a pot brand through The Hub Craft, as the company recently announced it’s also partnering with The Glove, Hall of Famer Gary Payton, on a new Cannabis line.

Rhode Island Makes Marijuana History

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awmakers in Rhode Island made history in June when the Senate Judiciary Committee approved a marijuana legalization bill. The committee approval marked the first time a recreational legalization bill l ever advanced in Rhode Island.

Both Gov. Dan McKee and Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey introduced competing adult-use proposals. Yet despite those proposals being weighed by legislators, legalization in Rhode Island appeared to be in limbo just last month when House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi told reporters that lawmakers were not happy with either of the two bills.

And even worse, Shekarchi hinted that legalization would be put off until the fall, or might not happen at all this year.

Nonetheless, the Judiciary Committee passed Majority Leader McCaffrey’s bill with a 6-2 vote. And, as unlikely as it seems, the Senate is suddenly anxious to put the bill to a floor vote, which could happen before the end of June.

McCaffrey’s bill was amended to put a hold on approving new cultivators and earmark a third of retail licenses for social equity applicants before it passed the committee.

The adult-use measure would allow for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. It would also allow personal cultivation of up to six plants.

The bill includes an option for expungements of past Cannabis convictions. The revised version of the measure increases the possession limit for expungement from one to two ounces.