The top lawmakers in Rhode Island’s House and Senate both say marijuana legalization in “inevitable” in the state—but nevertheless, there’s still uncertainty about the prospects of passing the reform this year.

As the legislature considers separate legalization proposals from the governor and legislative leaders, both House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (D) and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio (D) have said that the writing is on the wall when it comes to ending prohibition. That said, concerns about the certain provisions of the measures have left the leaders unsure of when exactly marijuana prohibition could end.

“I am not philosophically opposed to the legalization of recreational marijuana,” Shekarchi told The Providence Journal this week. “I don’t want people to get that impression, because I am not.”

However, the specifics of the legislation have faced opposition, creating “a lot of uncertainty around it.” Legalization is “inevitable” and “going to happen,” he said, but the deal isn’t done yet, in part because legislators need to nail down the rules and regulations around licensing, taxation and the role of the state’s existing medical cannabis market.

The speaker said in a separate interview that while the House Finance Committee is slated to take up Gov. Daniel McKee’s (D) legalization proposal on Thursday, it’s “very possible it might not get done this year.”

A competing legalization bill—one that was put together by Senate Majority Leader Michael McCaffrey (D) and a key chairman at the behest of Ruggerio—is also in play this session.

“As far as marijuana goes, I want to be steady and slow. I want to study it more, and take a deliberative approach,” Shekarchi said. “I’m not in a rush to do it.”

Ruggerio echoed the speaker’s point and characterized the reform move as “inevitable” in an interview with the Journal. But while advocates would generally prefer for that inevitability to come to fruition sooner rather than later, the Senate leader also tempered expectations and said legalization might not happen in 2021.

“Do we need to pass it this year? Not necessarily, but I think we have worked pretty hard on this and the governor has, the governor’s office,” he said. “The House doesn’t really have a plan at this point in time so we will see where it goes.”

There is not yet a standalone legalization bill in the House this session. But beyond considering the governor’s proposal on Thursday, the Finance Committee will also be taking up a bill from Rep. Scott Slater (D) that he’s described as establishing a “de facto recreational program.”

The legislation would eliminate a series of existing regulations for the state’s medical cannabis program such as the plant-tagging system for patients and caregivers who want to cultivate marijuana. Annual dispensary license fees would be reduced from $500,000 to $5,000 and the cap on the number of shops that could operate would be removed.

Further, the definition of who could qualify as a medical marijuana patient would be significantly expanded to include “any serious health condition a reasonable practitioner believes, based on their experience, knowledge, and reasonable judgment as a health care provider, could be alleviated or treated through the use of medical marijuana.” Nurse practitioners, and not just doctors, would be allowed to recommend cannabis.

The committee is also slated to consider two other medical cannabis-focused measures. One would earmark marijuana tax revenue for a “distressed communities relief fund,” as well as charitable organizations that legislative leaders would select each year. The other bill would require the state Department of Business Regulation to analyze the licensing system from a social equity and racial perspective and move to eliminate barriers to entry for people most impacted by prohibition to participate in the industry.

Thursday’s House meeting comes weeks after the Senate Judiciary and Finance Committees heard testimony from administration officials on McKee’s budget measure as well as legislative leaders sponsoring the competing bill. While the panels didn’t vote on either proposal, members generally discussed legalization as an inevitability in the state, especially with neighboring states enacting the reform.

Both the governor and the leaders’ legalization plans are notably different than the proposal that former Gov. Gina Raimondo (D) had included in her budget last year. Prior to leaving office to join the Biden administration as commerce secretary, she called for legalization through a state-run model.

McKee gave initial insights into his perspective on the reform in January, saying that “it’s time that [legalization] happens” and that he’s “more leaning towards an entrepreneurial strategy there to let that roll that way.”

Shekarchi, meanwhile, has said he’s “absolutely” open to the idea of cannabis legalization and also leans toward privatization.

Late last year, the Senate Finance Committee began preliminary consideration of legalization in preparation for the 2021 session, with lawmakers generally accepting the reform as an inevitability. “I certainly do think we’ll act on the issue, whether it’s more private or more state,” Sen. Ryan Pearson (D), who now serves as the panel’s chairman, said at the time.

The growing momentum in Rhode Island also comes as lawmakers in neighboring Connecticut are also moving toward legalizing marijuana this year. Gov. Ned Lamont (D) included a cannabis legalization plan in his budget request last month.

Meanwhile, the Rhode Island Senate approved a bill last month that would allow safe consumption sites where people could use illicit drugs under medical supervision and receive resources to enter treatment. Harm reduction advocates say this would prevent overdose deaths and help de-stigmatize substance misuse.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also held a hearing last month on legislation that would end criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of drugs and replace them with a $100 fine.

Key Senate Chair Shifts Stance On Tying Marijuana Banking Bill To Sentencing Reform

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When it comes to the fate of marijuana banking legislation in the Senate, there are more questions than answers at this stage, with the chairman of a key committee walking back his insistence that the bill to be tied to sentencing reform. Nonetheless, the senator is saying he’s still in talks with leadership about incorporating it into a broader cannabis decriminalization proposal.

On Tuesday, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) was pressed on next steps for the Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which cleared the House on a bipartisan vote last week. Specifically, he was asked about the possibility of attaching language to provide protections for banks that work with state-legal cannabis businesses to a more comprehensive piece of marijuana legislation.

Brown told MarketWatch that he’s talking to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about the issue, but it’s “not clear what we’re going to do there.”

“There is interest certainly from both parties. There is interest in sentencing reform as part of it,” he said. “There is some interest in decriminalization generally, not legalization.”

Schumer, who said he will put a bill to end federal prohibition on the floor “soon,” recently told Marijuana Moment that he’s not interested in passing the banking legislation as a standalone bill before the chamber advances his proposal. Doing so could undermine support for his bill, he suggested.

“We will hope to include things that deal with banking and finance” in the legalization measure, Schumer said.

Brown, for his part, has made clear that he’s not eager to move on the SAFE Banking Act, citing reservations about certain provisions. “I think we need to look at a number of things,” he said in an earlier interview, adding that “I will look at this seriously. We’re not ready to move on it.”

One thing the chairman previously said he wanted to do was tie the cannabis banking legislation to sentencing reform. That’s fine by Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), sponsor of the House version of the SAFE Banking Act who said he’s fine with making it a “bigger bill,” but now it seems Brown is being open to dropping that condition.

“I’m pretty open on it. It’s not something I’ve done a lot of work on yet,” he said last week. “I know there’s committee interest in both sides.”

As it stands, the banking legislation has 34 cosponsors in the Senate, plus its sponsor Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), which means more than a third of the chamber is already formally signed on.

The vote in the House last week marked the fourth time the chamber has approved the SAFE Banking Act. Lawmakers passed it as a standalone bill in 2019 and then twice more as part of coronavirus relief legislation. At no point did the measure move forward in the Senate under Republican control last session, however.

The legislation would ensure that financial institutions could take on cannabis business clients without facing federal penalties. Fear of sanctions has kept many banks and credit unions from working with the industry, forcing marijuana firms to operate on a cash basis that makes them targets of crime and creates complications for financial regulators.

After it passed the House last Congress, advocates and stakeholders closely watched for any action to come out of the Senate Banking Committee, where it was referred after being transmitted to the chamber. But then-Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) did not hold a hearing on the proposal, despite talk of negotiations taking place regarding certain provisions.

Crapo said he opposed the reform proposal, but he signaled that he might be more amenable if it included certain provisions viewed as untenable to the industry, including a two percent THC potency limit on products in order for cannabis businesses to qualify to access financial services as well as blocking banking services for operators that sell high-potency vaping devices or edibles that could appeal to children.

When legislative leaders announced that the SAFE Banking Act was getting a House vote in 2019,  there was pushback from some advocates who felt that Congress should have prioritized comprehensive reform to legalize marijuana and promote social equity, rather than start with a measure viewed as primarily friendly to industry interests.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus and an original cosponsor of the bill, said last month that the plan is to pass the banking reform first this session because it “is a public safety crisis now,” and it’s “distinct—as we’ve heard from some of my colleagues—distinct from how they feel about comprehensive reform.”

As Schumer works with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) on legislation to federally legalize cannabis, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said recently that he plans to reintroduce his reform bill, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which cleared the chamber last year but did not advance in the Senate under GOP control.

Texas House Approves Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Program And Reduce Penalties For Concentrates

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For the second day in a row, the Texas House of Representatives has advanced marijuana reform legislation, approving a bill on Wednesday to significantly expand the state’s medical cannabis program and a separate proposal to reduce penalties for possessing marijuana concentrates.

A broader cannabis decriminalization measure is also set to be taken up by the chamber on Thursday.

Advocates have been closely monitoring the House as members consider a slew of reform bills this session. This week is proving especially busy for drug policy in the Lone Star State, where legislators in the House Public Health Committee on Monday also approved a measure requiring the state to study the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA.

The medical cannabis expansion proposal that passed the chamber on second reading on Wednesday would add cancer, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as conditions that could qualify people for the state’s limited medical cannabis program. It passed in the House Public Health Committee earlier this month.

The legislation would further allow the Department of State Health Services to add more qualifying conditions via administrative rulemaking. And it would also raise the THC cap for medical marijuana products from 0.5 percent to five percent.

As originally brought to the floor, the bill would have only allowed PTSD as a qualifying condition for military veterans, but its sponsor, Rep. Stephanie Klick (R), introduced an amendment to allow anyone with PTSD to access medical cannabis. That was approved without objection.

“Believe it or not, the number [of people with PTSD] is actually higher for survivors of sexual assault, than it is for veterans,” she said. “And we need to include them, in that sexual assault is more likely to cause PTSD than any other event.”

But advocates want even broader expansions to the medical cannabis law than would be brought about under the current bill.

“HB 1535 expands our state’s current program, but still leaves behind most patients who can benefit from cannabis,” Heather Fazio, director of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, told Marijuana Moment. “Texans deserve a comprehensive medical cannabis program similar to what New Mexico, Oklahoma, and 34 other states have established for their citizens.”

Jax Finkel of Texas NORML said that the PTSD expansion is an “extremely important” change for patients and she hopes advocates “will be able to further improve this legislation with recommended amendments in the Senate.”

Klick said her floor amendment also “clarifies chronic pain as a qualifying condition” by removing the possibility medical cannabis could be recommended for “acute” pain.

The House approved the amended measure in a voice vote. Another vote on third reading is expected in the coming days to formally send it to the Senate.

The other bill, which cleared the chamber by a vote of 108-33, would create a new drug schedule for products containing THC that would carry slightly lower penalties compared to where they are currently classified. But possession of up to two ounces of concentrates would still be a class B misdemeanor that does still carry the threat of jail time.

The bill cleared the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee earlier this month and was approved on a second reading on Tuesday before getting final approval Wednesday.

Advocates have been encouraged with the progress they’ve seen this session, and there’s still more to come this week.

On Thursday, the House will vote on another reform bill that would decriminalize possession of up to one ounce of cannabis, making the offense a class C misdemeanor that does not warrant jail time. Beyond that, the legislation would end the threat of being arrested for the low-level possession and gives people the opportunity to avoid a conviction by providing for deferrals and dismissals.

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The full House approved a cannabis decriminalization bill in 2019, but it did not advance in the Senate that session.

Earlier this month, the House Agriculture and Livestock Committee also discussed legislation that would make certain changes to the state’s hemp program, including imposing rules related to the transportation and testing of consumable hemp products.

While the Texas legislature has historically resisted most cannabis reforms, there are signs that this session may be different.

House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) said during a Texas Young Republicans event last month that while he wouldn’t be able to distinguish marijuana from oregano, he said, “I understand the issue.”

The speaker said that he voted for a limited medical cannabis legalization bill during his freshman year in the legislature, and his support for the reform is partly based on the fact that he has a “sister with severe epilepsy, and small amounts of CBD oil makes a big difference in people’s lives.”

Phelan also noted that he was a “joint author—no pun intended” of cannabis decriminalization legislation last session.

“I was able to go back home and explain it, and it wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “To me, it’s a reasonable criminal justice reform issue.”

Texans’ support for legalizing marijuana has grown significantly over the past decade, according to a poll released last month.

Sixty percent of state voters now back making cannabis legal “for any use,” the University of Texas and Texas Tribune survey found. That compares to just 42 percent who said the same back in 2010.

Leaders in both chambers of the legislature have recently indicated that they anticipate more modest proposals to be taken up and potentially approved this session, particularly as it concerns expanding the state’s limited medical cannabis program.

Phelan said he thinks “the House will look at” reform measures this year, including bills to legalize for adult use. He said the lawmakers will likely “review those again, and some will get traction, some will not.” However, the Senate remains an obstacle for comprehensive reform.

Legislators in the state prefiled more than a dozen pieces of cannabis legislation ahead of the new session. That includes bills that would legalize recreational marijuana, allow high-THC cannabis for medical use and decriminalize low-level possession of marijuana.

That said, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who presides over the Senate, has killed prior efforts to enact reform in the state, raising questions about the prospects of far-reaching changes advancing in the chamber.

Louisiana Governor Says He Has ‘Great Interest’ In Marijuana Legalization Bill Advancing In Legislature

Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.

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