If I'm correct these are her currant proposals. But don't quote me on it. I live in Oklahoma and 788 was a good bill. Now some are trying to take the teeth out of it but it won't happen. Now FDA wants to get in to regulating CBC so they will have to have some kind of legalization if the feds want involved. I definitely think there is a strong wind pushing towards federal legalization.
Massachusetts Names Legalization Advocate Shaleen Title to Commission
10 Must-Haves in Any Cannabis Legalization Bill
1. Allow homegrown. Let consumers grow a limited number of their own plants at home and gift a limited amount to other adults. In Massachusetts, adults can grow up to six plants per person, with a maximum of 12 per residence , and can give away up to an ounce. This serves as a check on monopolies, delays to store openings, and more.
2. Automatic expungement for cannabis convictions—in the same law at the same time as legalization. Period.
3. Diverse representation in regulation. Ensure as a non-negotiable, never-expiring statutory requirement that people from disproportionately harmed communities are represented at the very top of the regulating agency. (Yes, there are plenty who are qualified.)
4. Transparency in regulation. Ensure that the regulating agency is diverse, independent, subject to full transparency, and appointed by different people. This is something I’m incredibly proud of in Massachusetts, and I recommend adopting it. Brand new agencies take time and resources to start up, but it’s worth it.
5. Dedicated tax revenue. Don’t allow legislators to divert cannabis tax revenue. Demand that it be reinvested into disproportionately harmed communities. Give this measure teeth; don’t let that revenue be “subject to appropriation,” and don’t require bureaucratic application processes that only privileged communities will be able to tap into.
Sidenote: The Minority Cannabis Business Association model state bill, which I worked on before becoming a commissioner, creates an Office of Justice Reinvestment to fairly distribute such revenue. You can find the model bill on the MCBA website,
https://minoritycannabis.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/MCBA-ModelLegislation_2017.pdf
6. (a) Establish equity assistance programs. Separate from that reinvestment, invest a specific percentage of tax revenue into technical assistance, hiring programs, and interest-free loans for disproportionately affected communities with a funding mechanism for initial programming and outreach as soon as the law passes.
6. (b) Deadlines must be met. It is very important that you hold the agency or agencies in charge to specified deadlines. Impose consequences for missing those deadlines. I think every existing equity program thus far, including the one I designed, underestimated the need for
immediate outreach and education.
7. Limit licenses and require diversity goals. Require state regulators and local governments to ensure diversity in the industry at ownership and employee levels, with goals, measurement, and accountability for the regulators (it may be best for them to design their own goals). Impose and enforce limits on the number of licenses a single entity can control. (In Massachusetts, an entity can control up to three of each license type.
8. Tie tax revenue to met mandates. Make this a statutory requirement: Tax revenue flows only to municipalities that have honored these mandates. Leave it up to the municipalities to figure out how to make their local laws and processes inclusive to disproportionately harmed communities
before receiving any local taxes.
My recommendation to anyone seeking an equitable cannabis program would be to not compromise an inch on this one. Doing so could easily undermine the rest of your work. There are good and bad local examples throughout Massachusetts and California.
9. License holders must contribute to government-set goals. Require every licensed cannabis business to contribute to these goals in addition to
but not instead of the government’s role. One option is to require diversity plans and positive impact plans as requirements for licensure and renewal, as in Massachusetts, but there are many ways to accomplish this.
10. Demand regular data reporting. Require the regulating agency to collect data on each of these items, report the data regularly, and take remedial measures when the data is not satisfactory. Give the regulating agency broad flexibility and authority to accomplish this.
