Maine Addresses Newly Legalized Recreational Marijuana

Maine Addresses Newly Legalized Recreational Marijuana

At the request of Governor Paul LePage, Maine legislatures returned to the capital city to address the newly legalized recreational marijuana and rewrite the current law.

The revised marijuana bill was proposed by a bipartisan panel of legislatures. The bill will allow Maine communities to “opt-in” to sales of recreational marijuana, and add an excise tax to the 10 percent sales tax. The new law is expected to go into effect in 2019, if it is not vetoed by the governor.

LePage, along with Republican House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, requested sales of recreational marijuana be delayed until 2019. They did not ask for any other changes to be made to the current law. Although the state voted to legalize recreational cannabis in November 2016, sales were not to begin until February 2017. The governor has slowed the progression and recreational sales are still not legal.

Originally, LePage called lawmakers back to Augusta for a special session to solve issues in the food sovereignty law and finalize the funding for the Maine Office of Geographic Information Systems.
Maine Congress voted to make meat and poultry exempt from the food sovereignty law.

Written by Jeanette Smith

Source:

Sea Coast Online: Maine lawmakers address recreational pot, ranked voting

Image Courtesy of Cannabis Culture’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License

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