Dozens testify during Senate hearing on recreational marijuana bills

Many Rhode Islanders are in favor of legalization, but want the legislation revised before it's voted on.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – The consensus from the joint Senate Judiciary and Finance Committee hearing Thursday is that Rhode Islanders are in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, but want the legislation revised before it’s voted on.

Dozens testified during the meeting on two bills that would legalize and tax recreational marijuana in the state.

One of the bills is by Governor McKee and is part of his budget proposal. The other is a senate bill introduced by Senators Miller and McCaffrey.

Governor McKee’s bill, known as Article 11 of the budget proposal, would allow for 25 retail licenses per year, over a three year phased in approach using a lottery system.

However it does not allow for home grows, and would have a moratorium on new cultivation.

“So what we’ve got out there right now in the State of Rhode Island in terms of our 63 or so licensed cultivators is, as we see it, more than enough to service the need and the market demand in the first three years of adult use implementation,” said Matt Santacroce of the state’s Office of Cannabis Regulation.

The senate bill on the other hand would allow for home grows, and allows for more cultivators to enter the market. The latter is something current cultivators testified could put them out of business.

“This is my life and my livelihood,” said Owner of Talaria in Providence Adina Birnbaum. “And it’s no exaggeration to say that if this senate bill passes as written, it would literally put me and most of the small business cultivators in the state out of business.”

The other issue, many noted, is that they don’t believe either bill goes far enough in addressing racial and social equity, though McKee’s bill reserves license spots to go to minority owned businesses each year, and creates funding for other social services.

“It seems to me like there’s a laser focus regarding the business aspect of it, but there’s not so much thought regarding the social equity aspect of it,” said Rhode Islander Meko Lincoln.

The senate bill creates a Cannabis Equity Fund to help low income applicants, and a process by which records can be expunged for past marijuana related offenses.

But many said Thursday they believe records should be expunged automatically, because that process can be costly and burdensome to those affected.

“We really want it to be automatic because we think if it’s automatic then it impacts the most people and there’s no bureaucracy put in front of people,” said Kinverly Dicupe of Reclaim RI.

The senate bill was held for further study. A senate spokesperson says they will work on revisions and the bill will be put on a committee calendar again in the next several weeks.

Since the governor’s bill is part of the budget proposal, it will also go under revision, with the revised budget posted in June.

Senators said the plan is to get as close as possible to one piece of legislation between the two.