Next, lawmakers have to appoint a conference committee with senators and representatives to iron out details of the controversial multi-part legislation
After working through dozens of amendments, the Senate voted in favor of a major marijuana industry reform bill last week.
The House already approved its own version of the bill back in June, and now Democrats in each chamber will need to reconcile differences between the measures before they can send a final version to Healey.
Both bills would overhaul the Cannabis Control Commission, which has been marked by a series of controversies, and shrink its membership from five to three. They would also increase the number of cannabis licenses a single retailer could hold and boost the purchase and possession limit for recreational users.
“This legislation is not about starting over,” Sen. Adam Gomez, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Cannabis Policy Committee, said Wednesday. “It’s about building on what we’ve learned. It’s about making sure that our laws keep pace with the current industry while protecting consumers, supporting small businesses, and advancing equity.”
Lawmakers have not yet appointed a so-called conference committee of representatives and senators that would be tasked with ironing out a compromise version. They could do that this week, or legislative leaders could instead work more informally to come to an agreement on what to ship to the governor.
This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
