THANK YOU NOTES to the Joint Committee on Marijuana Legislation (that explain everything)
Thank You Note to Sen Jason Lewis for visiting home grow
Thank you so very much for visiting my homegrow. Besides being a lot of fun (you are definitely invited back again!), this is how we do democracy and I am honored to be a part of it. I think the visit and our conversation went quite a ways to fostering greater understanding of each other’s points of view. I also think a significant landmark has been passed in general – now cannabis legalization can be discussed with scientific awareness and less reefer-madness fearmongering. We have indeed turned a corner.
I have been talking about our conversation and now everyone is googling ‘Spanish co-op/grow-ops’ and are thrilled at the entrepreneurial opportunities on the horizon.
Thank you for taking this seriously and I think we are really going a good job. I’m proud of Massachusetts.
Sincerely, Kathryn Rifkin Private Citizen (and full disclosure, Clerk at MassCann)
Thank You Note to Rep Mark Cusack
Thank You Note to Prohibitionist Senator Ross (Linda drops bomb
LOBBY DAY DEUX, JUNE 7, 2017
and GAY PRIDE PARADE, JUNE 10, 2017
We handed out a one-page flyer;
Support H.3195
H3195 An Act Improving the Taxation and Regulation of Marijuana
Lead Sponsor: Representative Denise Provost
What H.3195 would do:
- Give Massachusetts Farmers the right to grow marijuana by:
-
- Reversing the exception for marijuana cultivation from the zoning definition of “agriculture”
- Removing the state-imposed caps on the number of marijuana growers
- Reducing permits fees for growers from $15,000, to an annual $100 fee
- Reduce restrictions on the personal use of marijuana by:
-
- Removing limitations on how much marijuana an individual over the age of 21 may grow or possess for personal use
- Requiring employers to treat off-duty marijuana consumption just like off-duty alcohol consumption
- Treating the regulation of marijuana much as we do alcohol1
- Reduce Marijuana Bureaucracy by:
-
- Relying on our existing Department of Agriculture, Department of Revenue, and the Department of Public Health to oversee the marijuana industry
- Avoiding the creation of new agencies or regulatory bodies
- Optimize the economic development potential of marijuana by:
-
- Providing for local option licensing of Cannabis Cafés
- Authorizing marijuana farmer’s markets
- Shrink the Marijuana Black Market by:
-
- Retroactively applying provisions of the law to pending civil citations and actions with regard to marijuana possession, cultivation, and distribution
- Reducing the new marijuana sales tax by 1.75%
- Sensibly regulate marijuana advertising and packaging by:
-
- Prohibiting methods designed to appeal to youth (near schools, using cartoon characters, or vending machines, etc.)
- Requiring strict warning labels and sealed purchase containers, retailers’ employee training, and a “secret shopper” program to monitor retailers
- Discourage inappropriate behaviors by:
-
- Directing 12.5% of revenue to the Commonwealth Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Fund.
- Establishing criminal penalties for supplying marijuana to underage persons, or administering it to any person without their knowledge or consent.
For more information or to request complete citations please contact:
Representative Denise Provost at 617-722-2263 or denise.provost@mahouse.gov
Call Your Representatives Today! Tell Them to Keep It Legal!
Support H 3195 An Act to Improve Taxation and Regulation of Marijuana
Eliminates Home Grow Limits, Allows farmers to grow Cannabis and Hemp, Provides superior protection for children!
Support S.1062 An Act Relative to Expungement for Repealed Crimes
Support H.3197 An Act Authorizing Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers to begin selling Recreational Marijuana on July 1, 2017
Support H. 2385 An Act to protect patients approved by physicians and certified by the Department of Public Health to access medical marijuana
Call Joint Committee on Marijuana Co-Chair Senator Patricia Jehlen
Call Joint Committee on Marijuana Co-Chair Representative Mark Cusack (617) 722-2637
Call Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo (617) 722-2500
Call Senate President Stan Rosenberg (617) 722-1500
Go to malegislature.gov/search/findmylegislator
And CALL YOUR OWN LEGISLATORS TODAY!!!!!
LOBBY DAY, MARCH 22, 2017
Lobby Day was fantastic! The cannabis community rallied and delivered 200 educational folders to every one of our legislators, while talking up our bill, H3195. Here attached are the documents and thank you letter we delivered.
TALKING POINTS for activists while delivering packet
TALKING POINTS for activists while delivering packets
TALKING POINTS expanded
TALKING POINTS expanded
• Keep Taxes Low The tax in the law (6.5% sales tax, 3.75% excise plus 2% local for a total of 12.25%) must be kept low to eliminate the black market. As we have seen with the cigarette tax, increases beyond a point merely encourage smuggling. With Maine set to tax at a rate of 10%, increasing our tax beyond it’s current rate will just encourage people to drive across the border, as they do with alcohol and tobacco (to Rhode Island and New Hampshire).
• No Limits on Home Grow Any limit on personal home grow amounts perpetuates the police state mentality. The voters have decided that cannabis use is no longer a crime. Having police officers enter a private residence to count plants is a violation of the spirit of legalization. It is permissible to brew ones own beer, distill small quantities of liquor and make wine. There is a limit to how much one can produce (200 gallons of beer or wine). There is no enforcement of this limit (no one forces entry into a private residence to count gallons of beer). Some Legislators have asked what the ‘normal’ yield for a cannabis plant is. Grown outdoors, with adequate care and no pests, a grower can expect an annual yield of around 2 ounces per plant. The plant is planted outside after last frost and harvested in September or October. An indoor grow room yield will depend entirely on the amount of light, and quality of care provided. Indoor yields are generally 1 ox per square foot, with a plant requiring approximately 2 square feet and yielding around 2 oz of dried flower. From seed, It takes approximately 6 months to grow, bloom and dry a plant. Every seed will not yield a viable female plant: at least 50% will be males that are unusable. It takes 3-4 months to get to the point in the grow cycle where one can tell male from female. Under the six plant limit, and with a lot of luck, a grower could expect to end up with 3 female plants (the males would be removed and destroyed at flowering age: 3-4 months) which would yield approximately 6 ounces when harvested and dried (at age 6-7 months). Keeping to the limit, one’s maximum annual yield would therefore be approximately 12 ounces, If one were an experienced and lucky grower.
• No Delayed Start for Sales The postponement of legal sales has created a ‘legal grey zone’ where the possession of Cannabis is legal but the only place for a non-medical user to obtain it is the black market. In delaying sales, we are perpetuating the illegal profits from this market, encouraging the cartels and gangs to continue to market to potentially underage consumers, and foregoing potentially millions of dollars in tax revenue. It is in the best interest of the Commonwealth to stamp out the black market, with their marketing to underage people and pushing alternative drugs like heroine. The sooner legal sales begin, the sooner the illegal sales and exposure to more harmful substances will end.
• Record Expungement Too many of our citizens have criminal records because of simple possession charges, some many decades old. These people are discriminated against when it comes to job applications, housing, and federal student loans and grants. These people are disproportionately minorities because of the uneven application of prohibition enforcement. These people are sentenced to lives of poverty because of a record for something that is no longer a crime. All records for simple possession (no guns involved) must be expunged.
• Repeal the Hemp Zoning Exclusion (Chapter 351) Chapter 351, passed in December had a clause in it to specifically exclude Cannabis – even low THC Hemp – from the Chapter 40a Law that prohibits zoning discrimination against commercial agriculture. This portion of the bill languished and died in committee before being resurrected and passed in secret during the informal session with no debate and no public hearings. It must be stricken from the books. The farmers of the Commonwealth must be permitted to grow hemp for food, and for dietary supplements. There is already a multi-million dollar industry in this country and all the profits from the farming of hemp are going to farmers in Canada, Germany and China.
• Protection for Parents Cannabis use must no longer be considered grounds for an investigation by DCF, grounds for loss of parental rights, nor grounds for loss of custody in divorce. Hospitals must no longer test infants for THC (which currently triggers an automatic investigation by DCF). Partners has already made this policy change. The other hospital systems must also.
THANK YOU LETTER
THANK YOU LETTER
FACTS, not FEAR
Attorney General Sessions wants to know the science on marijuana and opioids. Here it is. Washington Post, February 28, 2017
WAPO article re no increase in teen use, December 21, 2016
WAPO article re no increase in teen use, March 21, 2017
Here are the bills that we filed;
H3195 An Act Improving Taxation and Regulation of Marijuana
H3195
Here is H3195 with a section by section explanation of changes;
H3195 Section by Section
SECTION 1. Amends Chapter 10 of the General Laws by repealing Section 76 and Section 77, which create the Cannabis Control Commission and the Cannabis Advisory Board.
SECTION 2. Renumbers Section 4 of Chapter 334 of the Acts of 2016, dealing with the taxation of marijuana, to conform with SECTION 1 of this bill.
SECTION 3. Reduces the excise tax on marijuana sold at retail from 3.75% to 2.0 %.
SECTION 4. Ensures that 6.25% sales tax is applied evenly across new marijuana industry.
SECTION 5. Redirects 25% of monies collected by the Commonwealth from new marijuana excise tax and various fees an penalties to the Agricultural Resolve and Trust Fund (12.5%) and the Commonwealth Substance Prevention and Treatment Fund (12.5%)
SECTION 6. Renumbering of Sections.
SECTION 7. Amends definition of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act to apply to marijuana and marijuana derivatives that have psychoactive properties.
SECTION 8. Renumbering of subsections of 94G.
SECTION 9. Creates in 94G a new definition of Cannabis Cafes. Removes definition of Cannabis Control Commission. Allows marijuana cultivators to also register as marijuana retailers. Includes marijuana cafes within definition of marijuana establishments. Subjects local zoning for marijuana farms to normal restrictions for agricultural land. Defines marijuana farmer’s market. Includes Cannabis Cafes in definition of marijuana retailer. Adds definition of Medical Marijuana Treatment Center. Defines raw marijuana. Creates secret shopper program to monitor activities of marijuana retailers. Renumbers sections.
SECTION 10. Requires employers to treat off duty consumption of marijuana in the same manner they would treat off duty consumption of alcohol.
SECTION 11. Provides that local authorities may not regulate marijuana related business or use more stringently than alcohol or tobacco, as applicable. Further provides for local licensing and regulation of Cannabis Cafes. Establishes local excise on Cannabis cafes, in addition to state sales tax and local meals tax.
SECTION 12. Removes Cannabis Control Commission, and Cannabis Advisory Board, as regulatory authority and licensing marijuana establishments.
SECTION 13. Places regulation of marijuana establishments under Department of Agriculture, Department of Revenue, and Department of Public Health.
SECTION 14. Places regulation of marijuana product producers under regulation of Department of Public Health.
SECTION 15. Requires marijuana retailers to register under Department of Revenue. Allows Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers to register as marijuana retailers.
SECTION 16. Repeal of licensing procedures under Cannabis Control Commission.
SECTION 17. Further subjects regulation of marijuana farms to Department of Agriculture.
SECTION 18. Provides for restrictions on marijuana retailers. Regulates marijuana advertising. Provides for Labeling of marijuana packaging for sale.
SECTION 19. Eliminates limits on possession of marijuana for personal use. Removes restriction on cultivation of marijuana for personal use. Removes restriction on transfer of marijuana, for personal use, to individuals 21 or older. Legal marijuana use may not be considered misconduct in determination of child visitation or custody rights.
SECTION 20. Removes penalties for possession of marijuana of over one ounce. Removes penalties for cultivation of more than 12 marijuana plants for personal use.
SECTION 21. Provides that individuals under the age of 18, who procure marijuana in any way, shall undergo substance abuse treatment evaluation, and a report of the evaluation will be provided to parents or guardians. Establishes further penalties for providing marijuana to a minor. Provides penalty for administering of marijuana to an individual without his or her knowledge or consent. Establishes evidence of sale of marijuana. Sets conditions for marijuana search warrants.
SECTION 22. Provides that rules for unpaid citations and criminal actions to be applied retroactively.
SECTION 23. Commissioner of Banks to promulgate rules for marijuana industry.
SECTION 24. Amends child custody statute to provide that lawful marijuana use cannot be considered misconduct.
SECTION 25. Provides definition of common nuisance, as pertains to illegal gaming or sale of alcohol, be applied to illegal sale of marijuana.
SECTION 26. Provides that cultivation of marijuana will be considered the same as other agricultural cultivation for local zoning purposes.
SECTION 27. Restricts employment in marijuana related businesses to those age 21 and over.
SECTION 28. Provisions of General laws applicable to adulteration of food, misbranding of food or drugs, samples, and manufacture shall apply to marijuana.
SECTION 29. Amends warning label requirements. SECTION 30. Subjects motor vehicle operation under influence of alcohol to same provisions for marijuana use.
SECTION 31. Severability
H3199 An Act Repealing Chapter 351 (the 6 month delay and 40a Zoning on hemp)
H3198 An Act Relative to Marijuana and Marijuana Concentrate in Primary Residences (repeals homegrow limit)
H3197 An Act Authorizing Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers to Sell Recreational Marijuana on July 1 2017.
And the bill from Massachusetts Growers Advocacy Council = H2385 An Act to Protect Patients Approved by Physicians and DPH to Access Medical Marijuana
March 22, 2017
Massachusetts State House
Beacon Street, Boston
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
On March 22, activists from around the state will join forces at the Statehouse to insist that our Representatives and Senators respect the will of the people in the implementation of Chapter 334 (formerly known as Question 4) – The Law to Tax and Regulate Marijuana. We will set up teams of activists who will visit every Representative and Senator and deliver a package of information about the bill Representative Provost sponsored that stakes out our position on how legalization should be implemented in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Every Constituent Visit is crucial to let the legislature know the Voters are watching and they support Legalization.
There will be a Preparation Meeting on Sunday, March 19, 2017 at High Noon at 976 Main Street, Waltham, MA 2nd Floor (Offices of CBD Please). We will go over talking points, what to expect when you get to the Statehouse, tips on talking to Representatives and their aides, and answer any questions you may have.
On Lobby Day, we will meet at the Café (cafeteria) on the 4th Floor at 10:00 am.
We will divide into teams, with a seasoned activist leading each group of people. A Map of the Statehouse will be provided, with the Offices clearly marked. We will provide a folder of information to leave at each office, with a nice thank you letter enclosed. Groups will visit the Offices of their own representatives who will be notified ahead of time to expect their constituents. After all the groups have completed their missions, we will meet up on the Grand Staircase for a photo op, then again at the KOP bench to salute our fallen activist, then to High Spot Deli for a debrief.
If you wish to call your representatives office and make an appointment to meet with them, by all means do so. Try to get the appointment between 11:30 and 4:00 if possible. If you do not wish to or are shy, we shall notify your representative to expect their constituents. If you do get an appointment, please email the time and representative’s name, along with your information, to clerk@masscann.org and we will arrange your team’s schedule to accommodate it.
The legislature is intent on rewriting the new law, and they need to hear from YOU about whether you approve. Every letter and phone call helps, but a visit is worth 100 phone calls. When a person takes the time to actually visit the State House and speak to their Senator or Representative, that person knows that there are many more who feel the same and they will actually take notice.