There was no shortage of comments as scores of Mainers filled a hearing room and two overflow rooms at the State House to express their concerns with proposed legislation to regulate the recreational sale of marijuana in Maine. And those testifying were not shy about spelling out what they don’t like about the bill.
Members of the special committee set up to draft legislation were told the draft bill needs plenty of changes, and some, like Joanne Reese of Bryant Pond, think the committee has strayed too far from the measure that voters approved last fall by just under 4,000 votes.
STATE BY STATE: Maine Cannabis News
“I oppose this bill because I am concerned it doesn’t uphold the will of the voters, as others have noticed. And I encourage you to keep the original language of the bill intact whenever possible,” she says. “I also oppose this bill because it compromises the integrity of the medical program.”
Maine has allowed the use of marijuana for medical purposes since voters approved it at referendum in 1999. And several people questioned the committee’s decision to propose changing that program, too.
“This would make plants that are currently legally being grown by patients that may have been in compliance with the law for over a decade, all of a sudden as soon as this went into effect they would in effect become criminals,” says Hilary Lister, a former medical marijuana caregiver who now advocates for cannabis patients.
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