An Act to Tax and Regulate Marijuana
Bill Overview
Personal Adult Use
- Use and possession of limited amounts of marijuana legal for adults 21 years of age or older.
- Limits personal possession to 2.5 ounces and six plants, plus the marijuana grown from those plans, if stored where it is grown.
- Prohibits public smoking of marijuana.
- Personal cultivation of marijuana must occur in an indoor or outdoor enclosed, locked space.
- Allows transfer from one adult to another adult without compensation.
Commercial
- Establishes four types of licenses: cultivator, marijuana product producers, retailers and labs. A person may have multiple licenses, except for laboratories.
- Excise tax of $50/ounce.
- Caps licenses fees at $5,000.
- Allows for local regulation, bans, and restrictions on the number of each kind of marijuana licensee.
- Retail licenses are allocated by population, similar to Maine’s current liquor allocation. with roughly half the licenses in each population category.
Tax Revenue
- 10% for implementation of the act, to the Marijuana Regulation and Licensing Fund.
- 10% for substance abuse.
- 5% to a new marijuana research fund (first eight years of the law).
- 75% to the general fund.
Miscellaneous
- If passed, the bill will go to the people of Maine for approval via referendum.
- Marijuana resin/concentrate included in the bill.
- Authorizes the farming of industrialized hemp.
- The bill is consistent with current medical law, avoiding any interruption or change.
- Authorizes cities and towns to license marijuana establishments if the state does not.
- Regulated by the Department of Administrative and Financial Services, including an MOU agreement with law enforcement for inspections.
