Attention MA residents

Attention MA residents

There's been a lot of legislative activity around legalized marijuana over the past week. The House has passed a bill that raises taxes substantially, allows towns to override voter preferences and ban weed-related businesses, requires fingerprinting for any weed-industry employees, and various other bits of legal judo that makes weed legal, but generally unavailable.

The Senate has passed it's version of the bill which is generally a lot more chill, keeps most of the November referendum intact, and their provisions add to vs. re-write the referendum.

Right now, the bill is in committee where House and Senate legislators will try and hammer out a compromise bill, which they expect will go to the Governor to sign on the 30th.

If you care about legal weed in Massachusetts, you should call your representative and you should definitely voice your opinion to the legislators on the conference committee. There's a strong push to get the bill passed by July 1st so you need to voice your opinion now.

The House Bill is H.3776 and the Senate bill is S.2097 -- though I just said I supported the Senate bill over the House bill. Be sure and let the person who takes your call know that you don't require a response (it saves time and you won't get a form letter).

Committee Members:

Representatives:

Chairman Mark Cusack -- 617.722.2637
Dem. Majority Leader Ronald Mariano -- 617.722.2300
Rep. Hannah Kane -- 617.722.2430

Senators:

Chairwoman Pat Jehlen -- 617.722.1578
William Brownsberger -- 617.722.1280
Richard Ross -- 617.722.1555

I realize there's lots of other urgent issues going on in the world today, but if this is important to you, now is the time to make your voice heard...again.