The Maine Legislature last week moved Maine a major step closer to launching a legal retail market recreational marijuana, by overturning a veto by Governor Paul LePage that would have again stalled the legal sale of the drug.

While possession, sharing, and home cultivation have been legal in Maine since last year, LePage’s veto had delayed the opening of marijuana farms and stores.  But both chambers voted last week to override the governor, setting the state on a path to the legal sale and production of recreational marijuana.

The state Department of Administrative and Financial Services will now hire a consultant to help develop regulations governing inspection and licensing of wholesale commercial growing facilities, licensing of retail sellers and collection of sales taxes. The rules will have to be approved by the next Legislature, which will next convene in January 2019.  It will likely be the spring of 2019 before the first retail shops can open for business.  (Medical marijuana has been available in Maine since 2010.)

It is not clear how quickly the state will move to hire workers to administer and enforce the new law.

HP 1199 (LD 1719) does alter the prior voter-approved regulations in some respects.  While Question 1 allowed home cultivation of up to six flowering plants at a time, LD 1719 draws the line at three.  Legislators tacked an excise tax of $335 per pound (about $21 per ounce) onto the 10 percent retail sales tax described in Question 1.  They also imposed some temporary restrictions in the industry for the first three years, such as requiring all licensees to have been Maine residents and taxpayers for at least four years.

The bill further eliminates provisions allowing “marijuana social clubs” where cannabis can be bought and consumed.  In the absence of marijuana social clubs, consumption will be permitted only “on private property” that is “not generally accessible by the public” with the owner’s explicit permission.