PROVIDENCE – It’s not a matter of whether recreational marijuana will be legalized in Rhode Island, it’s a matter of when.
That conclusion emerged from panelists at Providence Business News’ Business of Cannabis Summit on Wednesday morning at the Omni Providence Hotel.
While panelists were certain legislation would happen, the timing remains up in the air. The General Assembly and Gov. Gina M. Raimondo have been wrangling over regulations for medical marijuana, which is already legal in Rhode Island. At the same time, legislative leadership has been unenthused about making recreational cannabis legal, with Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio saying he will not support it in the 2020 legislative session.
At the PBN summit Wednesday, panelist Mitzi Hollenbeck, a certified public accountant with Citrin Cooperman’s Cannabis Advisory Services practice, said Rhode Island missed an opportunity to be the first state out of the gate to legalize marijuana.
“Now [the state] doesn’t even know where the gate is,” she said.
Several panelists suggested a ballot referendum will be necessary to move the issue forward in Rhode Island, although when that could happen no one knows.
Besides Hollenbeck, panelists at the summit were attorney Benjamin L. Rackliffe, partner at Pannone Lopes Devereaux & O’Gara LLC; Kristyn Glennon, BayCoast Bank vice president; and Karyn Rhodes, vice president at Complete HR Solutions.
The keynote speaker was Steven Hoffman, chairman of the Cannabis Control Commission in Massachusetts, where voters approved a 2016 referendum to legalize recreational marijuana, 53% to 47%.
But it wasn’t until the end of 2018 that the first retail store opened in Massachusetts. Hoffman said there are now 37 marijuana stores open in the state.
“This is, and will be in the future, a controversial topic,” Hoffman said. “You could argue that 47% of the state thinks it’s the worst thing that ever happened.”
To make matters tougher, Hoffman said, key state officers in Massachusetts opposed legalizing marijuana, including Gov. Charlie Baker and Attorney General Maura Healey.
Hoffman said there are formidable obstacles for anyone entering the cannabis business, in no small part because the federal government still considers marijuana an illegal drug, which has implications for banking and taxes.
Hoffman offered some lessons that Massachusetts has learned since the 2016 referendum.
One is to get started with education and data collection before anything else. The other is to anticipate conflicts between legalizing marijuana and existing laws, including employment and landlord/tenant regulations.
Hoffman said state marijuana officials need to set expectations quickly and explicitly. In Massachusetts, he said, many eagerly anticipated marijuana retail stores to simultaneously open all over the state shortly after the referendum passed.
Particularly key is the role of cities and towns in permitting marijuana establishments. Hoffman said there are 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts; 104 of them have enacted complete or partial bans on marijuana establishments.
Even when a marijuana establishment is allowed, it must execute a “host community agreement” with the municipality where it is located.
In Rhode Island, Rackliffe said, some towns have also set up municipal barriers to medical marijuana centers, sometimes restricting them to certain zones, or requiring distance buffers to keep them away from schools, houses of worship, and youth centers. Others have just zoned them out entirely.
“If you’re considering investing in a cannabis enterprise, real estate is going to be a gating issue,” he said.
Andy Smith is a PBN contributing writer.
