Maine Legislators Decide It Is Time To Move On The State’s Commercial Cannabis Industry, Massachusetts Stealing Their Thunder?

The Marijuana Times reports ……..In the past two days, Maine legislators have made more progress implementing regulations for the commercial cannabis industry than they have in the last two years. Cannabis was legalized by voters in the November 2016 election, and since then the law allowing possession and home growing of cannabis has gone into effect. But the retail industry that would allow dispensaries to open for adults 21 and older cannot get underway until the state puts regulations in place.

Here’s their full report

Maine Lawmakers Move Forward with Plans to Implement Voter Approved Retail Cannabis Sales

This is what has obviously spurred them on

WBUR write:

However, demand from would-be marijuana growers does seem to have eased over the last quarter or two. That’s partly because Maine lawmakers have been very slow to implement legalized recreational marijuana sales, which Maine voters approved in 2016.

“Investors are saying, ‘Look, there’s no certainty around either your medical or your adult-use programs in Maine right now,’ ” said Hannah King, an attorney with the advocacy group Maine Professionals for Regulating Marijuana.

King said some cultivators and their investors have recently abandoned Maine and set their sights instead on Massachusetts, where legalization is on a faster track.

“[Growers] know that Massachusetts has essentially finalized their regulatory regime — they are planning on first sales July of 2018,” King said. “While we’d like to participate in Maine’s market, we want certainty.”

And Massachusetts brokers do see interest emerging. Austin Smith, a Boston-based broker with Colliers International, says he’s working with a handful of growers who want to secure a footprint in Massachusetts.

“There’s a ton of cultivators swirling around,” Smith says. “A lot of them looking at existing buildings, some of them wanting to build their own buildings.”

There’s plenty of vacant industrial property in Massachusetts, he added. But uncertainty remains about the ultimate shape of the state’s pot regulations. Towns might bar growing or sales within their borders — and never mind whether the federal government will decide to crack down.

Source: http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/04/10/maine-pot-laws-growers-massachusetts

 

It doesn’t look, as yet, whether the bills have been published electronically. hdre’s the most recent information we can find from  the 128th legislature  http://legislature.maine.gov/bills/search_ps.asp

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