Ajello – RI Future

February 13, 2014February 13, 2014

Should we tax and regulate marijuana, or let law enforcement seize and keep revenue?

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Marijuana made it into the local news in two very different ways yesterday.

At the State House, two legislators announced they will again push a bill to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Meanwhile, far away from the state capital near the Connecticut border, three young men were arrested for growing and selling pot.

Sen Josh Miller and Rep Edith Ajello spoke about how regulation can help keep cannabis away from kids and create revenue for the state and small businesses.

“Marijuana prohibition has been a long-term failure,” Miller said yesterday. “Forcing marijuana into the underground market ensures authorities have no control of the product. Regulating marijuana would allow the product to be sold safely and responsibly by legitimate businesses in appropriate locations.”

Earlier in the week, Rhode Island and Connecticut police seized more than a half million dollars in cash and product from a group of entrepreneurs who had evidently put together a not-so-small agricultural operation in spite of the law.

“In total, the search warrants resulted in the seizure of 248 marijuana plants, over 46 pounds of processed marijuana and $312,678 in United States Currency,” said a press release from the Rhode Island state police.

Miller and Ajello’s bill would put a $50 excise tax on every ounce of wholesale marijuana sold to a state-sanctioned store (much like liquor stores in Rhode Island). That means Rhode Island missed out on more than $30,000 in revenue from this one bust. The bill would also put a 10 percent tax on the retail sale of marijuana. That’s another $30,000 in revenue the state missed out on, assuming the confiscated cash was from the sale of said marijuana.

“Taxing marijuana sales will generate tens of millions of dollars in much-needed tax revenue for the state, a portion of which will be directed towards programs that treat and prevent alcohol and other substance abuse,” Ajello said at yesterday’s State House press conference.

Meanwhile, Rhode Island state police said more than 10 law enforcement agencies worked since January to arrest three people for growing and selling a plant. No guns and no other drugs or contraband was identified. Police did say Rhode Island medical marijuana cards were being misused, but that may be an indication that the three men are willing to comply with the law if the law were to recognize their very profitable business model.

“Marijuana prohibition is a failed policy, and when a law is broken it needs to be fixed,” said Jared Moffatt, of Regulate Rhode Island, the grassroots group working to take pot off the streets and put it onto the tax rolls. “Regulating marijuana is the solution because it will take control away from illegal dealers, and it will improve the Rhode Island economy by generating tax revenue and creating jobs.”

Even though a recent poll shows a majority of Rhode Islanders support legalizing marijuana, pundits have said politicians are unlikely to act on the tax and regulate bill this year because it is an election year.

February 6, 2013February 7, 2013

The Case For Taxing, Regulating Marijuana

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Rep Edith Ajello and Senator Donna Nesselbush. (Photo by Rebecca McGoldrick)

Representative Edith Ajello and Senator Donna Nesselbush are submitting bills that will legalize the use of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older.

Under the Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act, criminal penalties for the private possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and for the home growing of up to three mature marijuana plants would be removed; a tightly regulated system of marijuana retail stores, cultivation and research facilities would be established; and the Department of Business Regulation would establish rules regulating security, labeling, health and safety requirements.

Advertising of marijuana products would be regulated as well, and are to be no less restrictive than tobacco advertising. When pressed on this point, Ajello felt that they would be quite a bit more restrictive.

Marijuana would be a taxable commodity. An excise tax of $50 per ounce on the wholesale sale of marijuana from the cultivation facility to retail store will be exacted as well as sales taxes taken at the point of sale to the consumer.

Rep Ajello. (Photo by Rebecca McGoldrick)

Similar bills are being considered in other states, including Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Also, national legislation has been been proposed to legalize marijuana by US Representatives Jared Polis (D-CO) and Earl Blumenauer (D-CO).

When asked about former US Representative Patrick Kennedy’s opposition to legalization and his search for a “third way” between criminalization and legalization, Rep Ajello noted the lack of particulars in Kennedy’s plan. She suggested that her bill does fall between Kennedy’s dichotomy of criminalization and legalization by making marijuana a tightly controlled substance.

Michelle McKenzie, a public health researcher and spokesperson for the Rhode Island-based Coalition for Marijuana Regulation said that research shows that over 20 years of regulation and education have reduced teen cigarette use by 50%, and she hopes that the same can be done with marijuana use among teens if the product can be regulated and taken off the black market.

Sen. Nesselbush. (Photo by Rebecca McGoldrick)

Nesselbush talked of the money that would be taken away from drug cartels and criminal gangs, and the savings that can be found in law enforcement as they concentrate on violent crime rather than targeting casual marijuana use. When asked how her more conservative, working class constituents will react to her support of the bill, Nesselbush mentioned the taxes that the bill could raise, money that could offset housing and income tax for citizens.

Ajello mentioned that Rhode Island was the only state not to ratify the 18th Amendment prohibiting alcohol some eighty years ago, because we had the wisdom to see what the rest of the country did not: Prohibition does not work.

Supporting the legislation were Rhode Island citizens, members of the Rhode Island -based Coalition for Marijuana Regulation, and Protect Families First, “a grassroots Rhode Island-based organization that raises public awareness and promotes policy change to advance progressive family issues.”

It’s time for sensible marijuana policy in Rhode Island.

Ajello Nesselbush — Rep. Edith Ajello and Sen. Donna Nesselbush. (Photo by Rebecca McGoldrick)

November 16, 2012November 16, 2012

Progress Report: Legalized Pot’s Economic Benefits; John Loughlin and the Future of the GOP; Rabies on Prudence

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It’s interesting to note that the potential piece of 2013 legislation that has garnered the most media attention since the election isn’t tax equity, marriage equality or pay day lending reform … it’s marijuana legalization. At least it’s the only bill to get front page ProJo coverage so far (though I think that story’s lede is somewhere shy of being unbiased).

Now, some may argue that making it easier to get high isn’t as important as dealing with our struggling economy, but there’s no shortage of economic benefits to legalization.

Rhode Island spends $40 million annually on marijuana prohibition – that’s more than it costs to have a state legislature! The public defenders office estimates legalization would save taxpayers $12 million a year (read this letter the office sent legislators last session for more info). Does anyone want to argue that Rhode Islanders needs to punish pot smokers more than we need $12 million?

John Loughlin tells RIPR that the local GOP needs to move left on the same day that party chairman Mark Zaccaria said he won’t seek another term. I speculated last night that he might make a good fit to replace Zaccaria. GoLocal adds some to it this morning.

Scott MacKay has more on why the Republican party is in such dire straights: because they don’t even seem to realize just how out of touch they have become with the American people. (Plus he throws in an awesome Catamount reference).

Dan McGowan also chimed in on the tales of woe for the local GOP. Some quick thoughts on his piece: Demographics were not the problem for the GOP, nor was it the national brand. To put it real simply, Rhode Islanders are on balance more liberal than Republicans.

ICYMI, you may also want to read Sam Howard’s thoughts on this topic that we ran earlier this week.

The lesson in the dispute between Providence and the labor union that represents municipal workers there: get it in writing.

Prudence Island is a really bad place for wildlife rabies, ecologically speaking.

NPR: “Want to help Sandy victims? Send cash not clothes.”

Thanks to my buddy Bill Felkner for sending along this article about the Westerly firewood dealer who charges more for a cord to Obama voters than Romney supporters. The lesson here for wood stove owners might be to get your supply in the spring, when both political and economic forces drive the price down…

March 21, 2012March 21, 2012

Committee Considers Legalized Marijuana

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Marijuana would be legal, and available at designated stores, if a bill being heard at the State House tonight were to become law.

“It would be a brave new world,” said Rep. Edith Ajello, a Providence Democrat who is sponsoring the legislation. “It would be taxed. There would be stores that sold marijuana, legally licensed by the state just as stores are licensed to sell alcohol.”

Ajello, it should be noted, doesn’t think that brave new world will come to fruition this session. Not only does she not think her bill would pass this year, she doesn’t think the federal government would allow the change.

But a related bill, which would decriminalize marijuana, might. This bill, she said, has healthy support in both chambers and is similar to the law in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

That decriminalize bill, sponsored by Rep. John Edwards, D- Tiverton, Portsmouth, would lessen the punishment for possession of less than an ounce of pot a ticket and a $150 fine. Oh yeah, and “forfeiture of the marijuana,” according to the bill that will also be heard tomorrow night.

Law enforcement is expected to oppose the legislation.

Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York have all decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot. In total, 13 states have such reduced penalties for possession.

Ajello said she expects marijuana will be legal in the near future once more people realize how harmless it is.

I do think it is where we will be,” she said. “Marijuana is not thought to be any more dangerous than alcohol and we have legalized and taxed alcohol. I think ultimately we can move through decriminalization to legalizing and taxing.”