It’s been a month since the Senate passed a bill to overhaul the Cannabis Control Commission and marijuana laws. The House passed its reform bill in June but leaders have not tried to start House-Senate negotiations.
“We’ll talk about it. It’s the Christmas season. We haven’t, we haven’t focused on it,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said Wednesday when asked about appointing a six-member conference committee to resolve the differing bills. “Matter of fact, I didn’t even know that – we’ve done it, the Senate’s done. So we’ll get on it.”
On Nov. 19, the last day of formal sessions before a six-week break, the Senate voted 30-7 to approve its bill (S 2749). The House passed its version (H 4206) on a 153-0 vote.
After the House vote in June, Mariano recounted how he went to Cannabis Policy Committee Chairman Daniel Donahue last year to say “we’re going to have to fix this.” Treasurer Deborah Goldberg’s removal of CCC Chair Shannon O’Brien had been dragged into court by that point, and O’Brien has since been reinstated. That directive to Donahue led to a series of hearings and conversations that resulted in the House bill.
Frustration with the slow pace of regulatory changes, headline-grabbing internal conflicts at the CCC, and a plea from the inspector general for the Legislature to intervene at the “rudderless agency” combined last summer to get lawmakers thinking more seriously about a response.
Last week, the CCC voted to approve a framework envisioned under a 2016 voter law for social cannabis use sites.
The House and Senate have conducted minimal business during their six-week holiday season recess.
