After nearly a month of negotiations, a compromise bill designed to help the legal marijuana industry grow and make it more equitable emerged just before midnight Sunday and quickly passed the House and Senate.
The bill (S 3096) aims to promote greater diversity in the legal cannabis industry, strengthen oversight of host community agreements that cannabis businesses must enter into with municipalities, and give towns the green light to establish cannabis consumption venues within their borders.
The bill would direct 15 percent of the money to the Marijuana Regulation Fund, which comes from the state’s marijuana excise tax, application and license fees, and industry fines, to set up a new social equity trust fund. The fund will provide grants and loans to promote participation in the cannabis field among people who have been severely harmed in the war on drugs. The House bill calls for 20 percent, and the Senate passed a bill that would put 10 percent into the new fund; The participants all agreed.
The bill would also give the Cannabis Control Board the power to review and approve host community agreements before a business receives a final license, and clarify that HCA community impact fees cannot exceed 3 percent of total sales and must be “consistent with the operation of Cannabis facilities critical to the municipality.” This is caused by the authorities.” HCA is only allowed for the first eight years of a cannabis company’s operation.
Post time: Aug-03-2022
