Massachusetts Senator Patricia Jehlen has officially been tapped to lead the new Committee on Marijuana Policy, according to The Common Wealth Magazine. The pro-pot lawmaker will be in charge of the Senate side of the state Congress, and charged with looking at how ‘revamp’ the new marijuana law.
The committee’s Vice Chair isn’t 420-friendly at all. Sen. Jason Lewis is known as the lawmaker who spearheaded the Senate’s marijuana policy research last session, eventually emerging against the plant. The Boston Globe reports that his concerns arise from his role as both a father and a public official.
“I am opposed to the likely ballot question because this is the wrong time for Massachusetts to go down this road, and a commercial, profit-driven market is the wrong approach to take,” said Sen. Lewis in the Boston Globe report.
Meanwhile, the House chair has yet to be named, but the duo will eventually take on issues like taxes on retail sales of marijuana, the local control over dispensary locations, and the potency of edibles.
The committee is quickly taking shape, even though the recreational sale of cannabis isn’t.
State legislators passed a bill behind closed doors that overturns parts of the state’s marijuana legalization law. The most apparent change is in the delayed opening for recreational marijuana stores. From January 2018, to July of that same year.
Nearly two million voted ‘yes’ to Question 4 on Election Day. The Marijuana Policy Project called the win ‘historical as Massachusetts became one of the first states on the East Coast to legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana for adult use.
The Marijuana Policy Project played a leading role in the campaign to pass Question 4, which faced vigorous opposition from the outset. Gov. Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo campaigned against the measure, but voters ultimately rejected their arguments and voted to end marijuana prohibition.
