Maine’s adult-use marijuana industry will have the strictest residency rules in the nation. Gov. Janet Mills signed a marijuana rules bill Thursday that puts Maine on track to launch recreational sales in March, 2½ years after voters approved legalization at the ballot box. The governor endorsed regulations that spell out how Mainers can grow, buy, […]
Maine
How High Are Recreational Marijuana Taxes in Your State?
As public opinion increasingly favors the legalization of recreational marijuana, a growing number of states must determine how to tax legal sales of cannabis. To date, nine states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana, but only eight of these jurisdictions have legal markets. […]
Maine, Marijuana and Mass Confusion
Maine – the land of the lighthouse and the lobster. And it almost became the first state on the east coast to adopt a regulated and taxed marijuana marketplace. Instead, the nation’s former #1 medical program is now left in chaos and cited as part of the reason why recreational marijuana implementation has been delayed. […]
Five States Will Vote to Legalize Marijuana This Fall
Recreational marijuana users can now legally light up a joint in states representing about 5 percent of the U.S. population. By the time Americans wake up on November 9, that percentage could be swelling to more than one-quarter. Measures to legalize and regulate the sale of cannabis are on the ballot in California, Arizona, Massachusetts, […]
Marijuana Polls Show Support for Legalization in States Voting This Fall
Marijuana advocates are heading into the final weeks of the 2016 campaign with the wind at their backs as the latest polling shows legalization measures currently favored by voters in all five states where they’re on the ballot. This is something of a reversal from just a month ago, when the most recent polling had […]
Referendum Proposal Meets Threshold to Appear on Maine Ballot
A referendum proposal to legalize marijuana for recreational use in Maine has met the threshold to appear on the November ballot, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap said Wednesday. The announcement means the citizen initiative will be forwarded Friday to state lawmakers, who can either enact it now or put it before voters in the fall. […]
Judge’s Ruling Open the Door to Maine Legalization Vote
An effort to allow Maine residents to vote to legalize recreational marijuana use advanced on Friday when a judge overruled a state official’s decision invalidating some of the signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot. The ruling came a month after Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap’s office disqualified almost half of the […]
Court Will Decide Fate of Maine Marijuana Legalization Initiative
Backers of a marijuana legalization effort disqualified last week by the Maine secretary of state’s office sued the state on Thursday, saying the decision should be overturned. The dispute centers on more than 17,000 signatures that were tossed out by Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap and notarized by Stavros Mendros, the president of Olympic Consulting, […]
Legalization Initiative Fails to Qualify For Maine Ballot
AUGUSTA –– An effort to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Maine did not qualify for the November ballot, according to state election officials. Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said in a statement that the proposal did not have enough valid signatures of Maine voters. The campaign needed 61,123 signatures. According to Dunlap’s office, the […]
Maine Group Says They Have Enough Signatures For Legalization Ballot Measure
The group pushing for a November referendum on marijuana legalization will submit its signatures to the secretary of state Monday, paving the way for a decision on whether Maine should join the growing number of states to accept recreational use of the drug. The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which backs a bill that […]
In 2015, Medical Marijuana Use Climbed in Maine
Mainers bought $23.6 million in medical marijuana from dispensaries last year, a 46 percent increase driven by multiple factors, including patients seeking alternatives to prescription painkillers and more doctors certifying people to use the drug, according to dispensary operators. The operators say the increase in sales illustrates the growing willingness of patients and doctors to […]
First New Hampshire Medical Marijuana Patient Will Buy Her Pot in Maine
The first New Hampshire resident to be certified as a medical marijuana patient will travel to Maine Friday to buy marijuana from a Portland dispensary. Linda Horan, a 64-year-old Alstead resident with end-stage lung cancer, last month won a lawsuit that allowed her to become certified as a medical marijuana patient so she could buy […]
Maine Marijuana Legalization Groups Agree to Work Together
AUGUSTA, Maine — The two campaigns that have been jousting to put competing marijuana legalization questions on Maine’s 2016 state ballot have coalesced behind one plan, organizers announced Monday. It ends an awkward, rancorous duel that divided marijuana advocates and potentially scared away large national donors who would already have given to the effort to […]
Could Maine Be a Leader in the Recreational Marijuana Industry?
Maine is poised to be a leader in the recreational marijuana business because of its success with medical cannabis, the head of the state’s largest medical marijuana dispensary group said Wednesday. Patricia Rosi, CEO of the Wellness Connection of Maine, said the state could benefit financially by allowing recreational marijuana sales and joining the country’s […]
Maine Legislators Reject Marijuana Legalization Bills
AUGUSTA, Maine — If Maine is going to “free the weed,” the Legislature wants no part of the process. Lawmakers in the House and Senate overwhelmingly affirmed on Monday that they would not pass a law to legalize, tax and regulate recreational use of marijuana. The House rejected LD 1380, a bill by longtime legalization […]
Bill to Legalize Marijuana Falters in Maine Legislature
AUGUSTA — Members of a legislative committee voted Thursday to reject a bill seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use in Maine. However, one of the bill’s sponsors said the real fight will be on the House floor and then likely at the ballot box in 2016, regardless of how things play out in the […]
Groups in Maine Clash Over Legalizing Adult-Use Marijuana
AUGUSTA — Law enforcement officials, public health organizations and critics of the “war on drugs” clashed Wednesday over bills seeking to legalize marijuana, offering a potential preview of statewide debate over recreational use of the drug. Sponsors of the two bills — Democratic Reps. Diane Russell and Mark Dion of Portland — argued that marijuana’s […]
Walk-In Medical Marijuana Clinics Now Operating in Maine
BANGOR, Maine — A health care company that operates walk-in clinics in five states that specialize in qualifying people to use medical marijuana recently expanded into Maine, with locations in Bangor, Augusta, Biddeford, and a fourth planned for Auburn. “There is such a need in the state. There are very few practitioners writing medical marijuana […]
