AUGUSTA, Maine — If you only knew that Mike Damron and Benny Carrasco were licensed to grow medical marijuana in Maine, you’d assume they support the recreational legalization proposal in Question 1 on Maine’s 2016 ballot.
But you’d be wrong. Damron of Augusta is against it, saying it’ll hurt the medical market, and Carrasco, whose growing operation is moving from Hermon to Sabattus, is for it, saying he wants to scale a business yielding little profit.
That divide is emblematic of one of the biggest hurdles for marijuana advocates in Maine — finding common ground among the enthusiasts who philosophically agree with legalization, which for two generations was a white whale for starry-eyed counterculture activists and a third rail for politicians.
Now it’s neither. Maine is among the 25 states with medical marijuana laws. Four states — Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska — have legalized recreational marijuana, and Maine is one of five more voting to legalize it in November.
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But you’d be wrong. Damron of Augusta is against it, saying it’ll hurt the medical market, and Carrasco, whose growing operation is moving from Hermon to Sabattus, is for it, saying he wants to scale a business yielding little profit.
That divide is emblematic of one of the biggest hurdles for marijuana advocates in Maine — finding common ground among the enthusiasts who philosophically agree with legalization, which for two generations was a white whale for starry-eyed counterculture activists and a third rail for politicians.
Now it’s neither. Maine is among the 25 states with medical marijuana laws. Four states — Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska — have legalized recreational marijuana, and Maine is one of five more voting to legalize it in November.
Read more
