Wrong for Montana (WFM), a campaign which fought against the legalization of recreational marijuana, has supported legislation intended to delay the implementation of marijuana commercialization in Monana. As written, I-190 states that rules and regulations for businesses must be in place by October 2021, and adult use marijuana sales can begin by January 2022. House Bill 457, introduced by Representative Bill Mercer of Billings, would have pushed these deadlines back by at least one year. After a public hearing last week, HB 457 was tabled by the House Business and Labor Committee in a 11 to 9.
Additionally, the same committee tabled House Bill 568, which would have limited “dispensaries to one per 1,000 county residents with a cap of 10 dispensaries per county,” which would result in only about 100 retail outlets statewide. The committee members rejected the proposal in an 18 to 9 vote.
The Montana Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee took up a different proposal, Senate Bill 341, which would limit the potency in all adult use cannabis and cannabis products to 15 percent. The measure would also impose a purchase limit for consumers at one ounce or eight grams of concentrate per week, scale back employment protections for patients and consumers, and prohibit those with past drug convictions from participating in the marijuana industry. Committee members voted 6 to 3 to move the bill forward. An amended version now awaits action from the Senate Finance and Claims Committee.
In addition to legislative attempts to restrict the will of the voters, I-190 is currently facing legal challenges in court on behalf of Wrong for Montana. Their lawsuit claims that the initiative language is unconstitutional because it earmarks a portion of tax revenues from retail marijuana sales. Plaintiffs argue that only the legislature can determine how tax revenue is spent. Their suit seeks to void the entirety of the initiative language, not just the portion of the initiative relevant to appropriating tax revenues. Litigants filed a similar legal challenge just prior to the election, but the Supreme Court declined to hear the case at that time.
