A Rhode Island House Committee on Tuesday discussed a bill to legalize marijuana in the state, as well as the governor’s separate budget proposal that includes provisions to end cannabis criminalization and create a regulated market. The hearing on the pieces of legislation from Rep. Scott Slater (D) and Gov. Dan McKee took place in the House Finance Committee, one week after a separate Senate panel took testimony on an identical companion version of the Slater bill that’s being sponsored by Sen. Joshua Miller (D). The lawmaker-driven bill was introduced earlier this month following months of negotiations between legislative leaders. McKee released his budget proposal with the legalization components in January. “I’ve been supporting the legalization of cannabis for a number of years,” Slater told fellow lawmakers at Tuesday’s hearing. “I just think it’s the best public policy” and is “long overdue.” Referring to Rhode Island’s neighboring states that have already enacted legalization, he called Rhode Island “kind of an island of prohibition, surrounded by legal cannabis around us.” “We’re already dealing with it,” he said. “We might as well take the revenue in” by legalizing sales.
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 03/22/2022 19:12:00