Republicans intend to send lawmakers charged with drafting Maine’s recreational marijuana rules back to the drawing board in the wake of the Gov. Paul LePage’s veto.
House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, said the Joint Select Committee on Marijuana Legalization Implementation must get tougher on people who drive high, crack down on loopholes in the medical marijuana program and kill a tax-sharing provision for towns that host recreational growing operations or retail stores if it wants the support of LePage and the House Republicans that scuttled the committee’s special session legislation Monday.
RELATED: Maine Lawmakers Vote to Sustain Gov. LePage's Veto of Recreational Marijuana Bill
“If they don’t, they’ll get more of the same: they’ll get another veto,” said Fredette on Tuesday. “Rank-and-file House Republicans are frustrated. Our districts think this is moving too fast. If they don’t reach out to House Republicans, who have been the most powerful force in Augusta for the past five years and the only group that is willing to work closely with the governor, they’ll end up with another veto, and we will sustain that one as easily as we did this one.”
The proposed implementation bill died in the House on Monday after it fell 17 votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override LePage’s veto.
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