But a separate provision protecting state and territory medical cannabis programs from federal interference remains intact in the legislation, which is expected to get get voters in both chambers this week.
President Joe Biden’s administration didn’t help when it released its budget proposal for the 2022 fiscal year, which maintained the so-called Harris rider blocking D.C.
Rep.
A House vote on the omnibus appropriations legislation is expected to happen as early as Wednesday, just days before a government spending deadline that had been pushed back multiple times through continuing resolutions.
officials will be blocked from passing legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis sales until at least the end of September, when Fiscal Year 2022 ends.
Meanwhile, the medical marijuana protection rider that was first enacted in 2014 was again included in the omnibus legislation.
Meanwhile, separate adult-use and medical legalization bills were filed by Democratic lawmakers last month.
The bill, HB 136, introduced in January, would establish a relatively restrictive program, prohibiting both the home cultivation of marijuana and the smoking of cannabis flower.
Regulators would set many of the program’s specific rules—for example qualifying conditions for medical cannabis and personal possession limits—during an implementation period later this year if the bill passes.
The narrow approach is designed to win support among GOP leaders in the state Senate, who’ve killed past versions of Nemes’s proposal.
Patients would be able to have a 10-day supply of marijuana products outside the home and up to a 30-day supply secured at their residence.
Products would be subject to a 12 percent excise tax and taxes on gross receipts, with revenues split between state and local governments.
Democratic leaders from both chambers, meanwhile, said in January that legalizing medical marijuana will be a top legislative priority for this year’s session.
If passed, the Democratic-led bill would legalize possession of up to a one ounce of marijuana in public and up to 12 ounces in a private space.
Sales of adult-use cannabis would be taxed at six percent at the state level, with municipalities able to add fees of up to five percent combined between local jurisdictions.
Anyone ever convicted of a misdemeanor for possession, delivery or manufacture of cannabis or cannabis-related paraphernalia could petition a court for expungement.
Two House committees had previously advanced the reform proposal from Rep.
Under the legislation, a marijuana commissioner under the state Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement would have regulated the industry and overseen licensing of retailers, cultivators, manufacturers and laboratories.
“We’re disappointed HB 305 was not approved by the House today,” Olivia Naugle, a senior policy analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project, told Marijuana Moment.
At the time, Osienski pledged to bring a revised bill for the 2022 session that could earn broad enough support to pass.
After 19 months of the bill’s enactment, for example, regulators would have needed to approve 30 retailer licenses, half of which would go to social equity applicants.
Those applications would have also been allotted one-third of the planned 60 cultivation licenses, one-third of manufacturing licenses and two of five licenses for testing laboratories.
Seven percent of the tax revenue would have been used to support a new Justice Reinvestment Fund that would have provided grants, services and other initiatives that focus on issues such as jail diversion, workforce development and technical assistance for people in communities that are economically disadvantaged and disproportionately impacted by the drug war.
In 2019, Osienski was the chief sponsor of a legalization bill that cleared a House committee but did not advance through the full chamber.
As supportive lawmakers have worked to push the bill through the legislature, they also faced the challenge of winning over Gov.
Despite his wariness about adult-use legalization, Carney did sign two pieces of marijuana expungement legislation in recent years.
An analysis from State Auditor Kathy McGuiness released last year found that Delaware could generate upwards of $43 million annually in revenue from regulating marijuana and imposing a 20 percent excise tax.
The New York State Cannabis Control Board unanimously voted to formally propose the retail regulations, which will soon be open for public comment.
To qualify for the conditional license, an applicant would need to have been convicted of a cannabis-related offense prior to March 31, 2021, when the state’s adult-use legalization law was enacted.
“New York State is making history, launching a first-of-its-kind approach to the cannabis industry that takes a major step forward in righting the wrongs of the past,” Hochul said in a press release.
Existing medical marijuana operators, called “registered organizations” under the state’s cannabis code, would generally not be able to obtain the proposed conditional licenses.
Licensees would need to notify regulators of their intent to continue participating in the recreational market within 120 calendar days of the expiration of the conditional license.
Meanwhile, the state has also taken separate steps to get the industry in a position to have products available by creating provisional marijuana cultivator and processor licenses for existing hemp businesses that take certain steps to promote equity in the emerging industry.
As it stands, adults 21 and older can possess and publicly consume cannabis, as well as gift marijuana to other adults as long as they aren’t being compensated.
The governor released a State of the State book in January that called for the creation of a $200 million public-private fund to specifically help promote social equity in the state’s burgeoning marijuana market.