Maine legalizes recreational cannabis

On Tuesday June 27, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed into law a framework for the sale of recreational cannabis. This law was in writing courses for almost three years, The substance was legalized in 2016. It took the Democratic governor taking office earlier this year to move the project forward. Her office has indicated that the law should be effective as early as September 2019, that it would begin distributing sales licenses at the end of 2019, and that cannabis would be available in stores from spring 2020.

Strict regulations

Despite these advances, however, radical change is unlikely. Maine is preparing to introduce very strict regulations. You'll need to have lived in the state for at least 4 years to obtain a license, and 51% of each cannabis business must be owned by a local resident. It is common practice in the USA for each state to allow municipalities to decide locally if they don't want to take part in the commercialization of recreational cannabis, on the assumption that towns will accept if they don't indicate otherwise. Where Maine is an exception is that towns will have to specify that they want to be part of it. As a result, only 15 of Maine's 455 communes have so far agreed to sell cannabis, which means that consumers will have to go out of their way to buy it. There are also practical problems: although Maine allows the prescription and possession of medical cannabis since 1999, The state still lacks a viable distribution network, which makes it difficult to obtain.

This explains why there are so few towns selling cannabis, even though a majority of voters voted for legalization in 2016. Still, members of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) are confident: in the past, other states that have legalized recreational cannabis have had to contend with sluggish administration and defiant mayors, as in Colorado in 2012. Eric Conrad, a spokesman for the association, points out that 'Over time, many cities that initially wanted to ban establishments selling cannabis have changed their laws and now accept these businesses in their municipalities».