CO official meets with RI lawmakers on legalizing pot

March 29, 2016 7:16 pm

By: Rebecca Turco

Email: rturco@abc6.com

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island is looking to Colorado as lawmakers again consider whether to legalize recreational marijuana.

Andrew Freedman with Colorado’s Marijuana Coordination Office met with several lawmakers at the Rhode Island State House on Tuesday, discussing how his state has changed since pot was legalized there in 2012.

Freedman cleared up some misconceptions on Colorado, saying there hasn’t been a significant spike in underage usage, but that the tax revenue hasn’t been too significant either. Colorado rakes in roughly $100 million a year in marijuana taxes, but that’s compared to a $27 billion state budget. “It’s not a trivial amount of revenue that’s come into Colorado but it certainly isn’t the reason to create recreational marijuana,” he explained.

Rep. Scott Slater (D-Providence) invited Freedman to come, saying his trip was paid for through private funds. Slater has put forth marijuana regulation bills modeled after Colorado for the past three years. The senate is also introducing a similar bill.

"There’s tons of people that are using marijuana right now in an unsafe environment,” Slater explained. “You have a black market out there that’s benefiting from this policy. I think we should tax [marijuana] and regulate it [to] provide a safer environment."

House Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Patricia Morgan (R-District 26) begs to differ. "We need to protect the people here and I do get it – people smoke marijuana here, but we decriminalized it,” she countered. “We have other states that are [legalizing marijuana]. Let’s look at them first.”

Freedom’s advice for if Rhode Island decides to legalize marijuana: collect enough data before legalization so you can compare pros and cons after, and crack down on the illegal trade so it doesn’t spike when pot becomes legal.