That’s because House Speaker Nick Mattiello and Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed haven’t allowed a vote on the five-year-old bill that has proven safe and profitable elsewhere, advocates said at a State House event Thursday.

“We believe that by not allowing a vote the speaker and the Senate president are implicitly endorsing the failed status quo,” said Jared Moffat, an organizer for Regulate Rhode Island, the local group calling attention to marijuana legalization’s potential to increase revenue and freedom while decreasing teen use and mass incarceration.

Regulate Rhode Island delivered a petition with more than 1,300 signatures on it to the legislative leaders. And making the case for legalizing marijuana at a subsequent press event were the doctor and lawyer who co-chair the organization.

Andrew Horwitz is a criminal defense attorney and law professor at Roger Williams Univeristy.

Dr. James Crowley is a former president of the Rhode Island Medical Society.

Regulate RI, a coalition working to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana in the state, yesterday made the business case for the idea, ahead the House Judiciary Committee taking public testimony on the bill.

Ray White, chief operating officer of the Thomas C Slater Compassion Center said that he has 60 employees at his business selling medical marijuana. If recreational marijuana were to become legal, he sees the opportunity to employ many more people.

In addition to retail outlets there is the opportunity for marijuana and hemp related research. Austin Davis and Spencer Blier both made the case for Rhode Island being an east coast leader in developing new products, including hemp ropes and boat sails. Along with the development of new products say these entrepreneurs, comes more jobs and more economic growth.

Fred Joyal, who developed and sold a successful business in California, is originally from Rhode Island and is looking to move back here. He is looking for investment opportunities, and feels that Rhode Island could be a leader, but only if our legislature chooses to move before Massachusetts passes similar tax and regulate legislation as a ballot initiative.

This relates to the first mover argument. The first state in New England to tax and regulate marijuana will have a terrific advantage in terms of money to be made from taxes and job creation. If Massachusetts beats Rhode Island to the punch, RI natives will cross the border, sending money and jobs out of state. Meanwhile, any Rhode Islanders who bring the products they buy legally in Massachusetts back to our state risk arrest, costing our state money in terms of policing and court costs.

There is no other proposal like it anywhere in the country, and under Raimondo’s proposal marijuana will be the only medicine taxed in this way. Since the proposal has been inserted into the budget, rather than submitted as a bill, there will be no opportunity for the public to comment on the idea in House or Senate committee meetings so the only route opponents can follow to stop this plan is to pressure their Representatives to remove the item from the budget or refuse to pass the budget if the tax is not removed.

Almost more pernicious than the tax, though, are the other provisions included in what amounts to a complete restructuring of the way medical marijuana is done in our state. Those who grow their own marijuana will be forced to comply with a 75 percent reduction, six plants only, drastically reducing the amount of medicine available to patients.

Caregivers, those who grow marijuana for others may only posses 24 plants.

Opponents, such as Responsible Caregivers of Rhode Island, say this will not allow caregivers to provide an adequate amount of medicine for their patients.

Then there is the financial devastation this plans wreaks upon caregivers. Purchase tags are now required for all plants. $150 per plant for patients who grow their own and $350 for each plant raised by caregivers for others. This makes the cost of farming marijuana prohibitive, and many will not be able to afford this. I earlier talked to a veteran who uses marijuana, legally, to keep himself from becoming re-addicted to opioids.

Since cultivating plants is essentially farming, a loss of a crop from infestation or power loss (marijuana is cultivated with grow lights) could mean that a person’s entire investment and crop will be lost. This will be a loss of money and vital medicine. Further, the process of farming marijuana is not an exact science. If the plants yield extra marijuana the law allows a grower to “gift” the excess to those in need. Raimondo has disallowed gifting in her proposal.

You can see Raimondo’s proposed changes to the law starting on page 194 of her proposed budget here. The reasoning behind this proposal is baffling. It is simply cruelty, and in truth, much damage has already been done to a community that uses medical marijuana to treat terrible illnesses and disabilities.

As Jared Moffat, executive director of Regulate RI said at the rally outside the State house today, rather than tax the medical marijuana that patients need, why not tax the use of recreational marijuana as is being done in Colorado with great success?

State Representative Scott Slater will introduce legislation next week that would end marijuana prohibition in Rhode Island and replace it with a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol. Senator Josh Miller will enter similar legislation in the Senate. The Senate bill already almost half the Senate as co-signers and Slater has said that in conversation with leadership, Speaker Mattiello has indicated that he is open to the idea.

“Our current policy of marijuana prohibition has created an underground marijuana market that is entirely out of our control,” Slater said. “Most of the problems associated with marijuana stem from its illegal status. Rather than continuing to ignore these problems, let’s adopt a sensible regulatory system that addresses them.”

Slater also said, referencing Governor Gina Raimondo’s proposed tax on medical marijuana, “If Rhode Island wants marijuana to be a source of revenue, it should regulate and tax the hundreds of millions of dollars in adult marijuana sales currently taking place in the underground market. It should not impose onerous fees on seriously ill people who use marijuana for medical purposes, as our governor recently proposed.”

Senator Miller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, issued a statement saying, “We should regulate and tax marijuana in Rhode Island and treat it similarly to how we treat alcohol. In a legal market, products would be tested, labeled, and packaged appropriately, and consumers are protected from the black market where they can be exposed to other more harmful illegal substances. Our legislation would put the illegal marijuana dealers out of business while generating tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue that we can invest in our communities.”

Professor Andrew Horwitz, a criminal defense lawyer and co-chair of Regulate Rhode Island spoke about the importance of decriminalizing marijuana, noting that continued criminalization,”devastates communities of color.”

“Most Rhode Island voters support ending marijuana prohibition and regulating marijuana like alcohol, and the level of support grows every year,” Horwitz said. “We hope this year that legislators will demonstrate leadership on this issue and replace our destructive and wasteful policy of marijuana prohibition with a system that makes more sense.”

Horwitz also spoke briefly about Governor Raimondo’s plan to tax medical marijuana, calling the move, “fundamentally cruel” and an “extraordinarily misguided approach.”

The Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow one mature marijuana plant in an enclosed, locked space. It would create a tightly regulated system of licensed marijuana retail stores, cultivation facilities, processing facilities, and testing facilities and direct the Department of Business Regulation to create rules regulating security, labeling, and health and safety requirements. It would also establish wholesale excise taxes at the point of transfer from the cultivation facility to a retail store, as well as a special sales tax on retail sales to consumers.

Fifty-seven percent of Rhode Island voters support changing state law to regulate and tax marijuana similarly to alcohol, according to a survey conducted in April by Public Policy Polling. Only 35% were opposed.

Governor Gina Raimondo‘s 2016 Budget proposes a tax on medical marijuana, effectively taxing a legal prescription medication. It might behoove our state to tax and regulate recreational marijuana, and reap millions in taxes instead.

Here the press release:

Colorado’s regulated marijuana system generated more than $135 million in revenue for the state in 2015, including more than $35 million for school construction projects, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

There were just under $588 million in adult-use marijuana sales in Colorado from January-December 2015, producing approximately $109.1 million in tax revenue in addition to $4.7 million in license and application fees. The state’s regulated medical marijuana system produced more than $11.4 million in tax revenue and $9.8 million in license and application fees.

In 2014, the state’s regulated marijuana system raised just over $76.1 million in total revenue, including about $56.2 million from adult-use marijuana tax revenue and fees and $19.9 million in medical marijuana tax revenue and fees.

“There are hundreds of millions of dollars in marijuana sales taking place in every state,” said Mason Tvert, the Denver-based director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. “Colorado is one of the few where those sales are being conducted by licensed, taxpaying businesses.”

Adult-use marijuana sales in Colorado are subject to the state’s standard 2.9% sales tax, plus a 10% special state sales tax. Additionally, wholesale transfers of adult-use marijuana are subject to a 15% state excise tax. The first $40 million raised annually by the 15% excise tax is earmarked for public school construction projects. The excise tax raised just over $35 million in 2015, up from about $13.3 million in 2014.

“These tax revenue figures are truly impressive,” Tvert said. “Just six years ago, Colorado received zero dollars in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana in the state. Now it’s raising more than $100 million annually with tens of millions of dollars directed toward public school improvements.

“The additional tax revenue far exceeds the cost of regulating the system,” Tvert said. “Regulating and taxing marijuana has been incredibly successful in Colorado, and it represents a model for other states to follow. These numbers should put to rest the claims we keep hearing from opponents that marijuana tax revenue has fallen short of expectations in Colorado.”

Instead of levying hefty fees from patients like me who have debilitating health conditions, Governor Raimondo and lawmakers should tax those who use marijuana for enjoyment. For us patients, marijuana is often the only thing that eases our suffering, and it is already difficult to afford because health insurance does not cover it. Raising revenue from seriously ill patients’ medicine is wrong, but taxing recreational consumers is appropriate and could help alleviate our state’s deficit.”

Jared Moffat, Director of Regulate Rhode Island, issued the following statement:

We tax alcohol, but not prescription medications. Similarly, it makes little sense to extract revenue from sick people who need marijuana as a medicine while keeping marijuana that is used for fun untaxed and in the illicit market. I suspect most recreational marijuana consumers would be happy to pay taxes if only the state would make it legal for them to do so. In addition to generating more revenue, regulating marijuana like alcohol would erode the illicit marijuana market and create new businesses and jobs all over the state. It’s time to get our head out of the sand and move forward like our neighbors in Massachusetts and Vermont.”

[From a press release]

Jared Moffat, director of Regulate RI, a group advocating legislation to tax and regulate marihuana like alcohol, delivered nearly 500 postcards from constituents within Speaker Nicholas Mattiello‘s district in favor of the legislation to the Speaker’s office on Wednesday.

“We hope the House Speaker and Senate President will agree with the majority of voters that it’s time to start regulating and taxing marijuana like alcohol in Rhode Island,” said Moffat. “At the very least, they should allow a vote on the bill before the session ends.”

According to Regulate RI’s press release, “S 510/H 5777, the ‘Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act,’ would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow one mature marijuana plant in an enclosed, locked space. It would create a tightly regulated system of licensed marijuana retail stores, cultivation facilities, and testing facilities and direct the Department of Business Regulation to create rules regulating security, labeling, and health and safety requirements. It would also establish wholesale excise taxes at the point of transfer from the cultivation facility to a retail store, as well as a special sales tax on retail sales to consumers.”

“Regulating and taxing marijuana in Rhode Island would give our state’s economy a much-needed boost,” Moffat said, “It would generate revenue, foster new businesses, and create jobs. S 510/H 5777 should be included as part of the General Assembly’s initiatives to rebuild Rhode Island’s economy.It’s hard to imagine why the legislature would end the session without voting on a widely supported proposal that is intended to bolster the economy and improve public safety.”

A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday showed overwhelming support for legislation that would legalize marijuana in Rhode Island after its economic successes in both Colorado and Washington.

Jordan Wellington, a lawyer with Vicente Sederberg LLC in Colorado, came to speak in support of the legislation, S 510. Wellington has worked closely with Colorado’s state government to implement the retail and regulation of marijuana, and now works in their Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division as the single policy analyst.

“Instead of should or shouldn’t we, we discussed how to move forward with this responsibly,” he said.

Wellington said Colorado gained more than 20,000 jobs and saw $900 million in sales that brought in $125 million in tax revenue. The cost of enforcement, he said, was less than $10 million.

Money from the extra revenue was invested in educational programs about cannabis to teach youth about its effects and consequences.

“We have found that some of the messaging to youth has been very effective,” Wellington said. “A very cautious message has been given to Colorado’s youth.”

According to Wellington, Colorado has not been without its challenges by taking this step forward. Regulation and education has been key in making the policy work. “One of the biggest things we did was we put a lot of different restrictions on potency in edibles,” he said.

The question of youth cannabis use was touched upon several times throughout the hearing. Andrew Horwitz, an assistant dean at Roger Williams Law School, who also testified in support of 510, said the prohibition approach aken towards marijuana is completely ineffective, and disingenuous to children.

“We are fundamentally dishonest in the way we talk to our children about marijuana,” Horwitz said. “We talk to them like it’s crack, like its heroin. They know now to believe us, that marijuana does what we claim.”

Horwitz also stated that reforming juvenile use starts from the top, with how the state looks at marijuana as a whole. “We are doing terrible damage by the use of our criminal justice system to deal with a public health issue,” he said.

One of these damages includes a racial disparity in the number of African Americans who are arrested for marijuana related crimes, due to police saturation in communities of color, as well as racial profiling.

“We’re doing a number of things wrong,” he said. “We’re arresting people for distributing marijuana. If you legalize the distribution of marijuana, you eliminate the whole line item of law enforcement.”

Jared Moffat, director of Regulate Rhode Island, also came in support of 510, with an entire binder of studies regarding the legalization in Colorado. The most accurate study of youth use, called Healthy Kids Colorado, looked at 40,000 middle and high school children, and is re-done every two years.

“The best available data on youth marijuana in Colorado shows that the use has remained flat,” he said, especially when in comparison to alcohol and tobacco, which has continually fallen in recent years. Moffat, like Horwitz and Wellington, pointed to education as the key to reducing youth cannabis use. Looking at the context of use is important as well.

“If we are acknowledging that marijuana is available in our schools, we need to acknowledge that is readily available from drug dealers,” Moffat said.

Moffat said many of the studies that opponents brought up against the legalization of marijuana have cherry picked their data in order to make it look like youth use has risen. One such study compared the city of Denver to the United States as a whole.

“If you take any metropolitan area, you’re going to find higher use,” he said.

Youth use was definitely the biggest worry of both legislators and the few opponents who did come out to speak against the bill, such as Debbie Paragini, who came as a Rhode Island parent.

“I feel really upset living in a state that is thinking about legalizing yet another recreational drug. For an economic basis? I don’t understand that,” she said. “As a parent, I think this is a really bad idea.”

Jared Moffat, executive director of Regulate RI, a coalition favoring to make Rhode Island the first state in New England to embrace a plan similar to Colorado, said at a press conference that the poll shows “a clear majority” of Rhode Islanders agree that “prohibition is the worst possible policy” and support legislation to tax and regulate.

“The Marijuana Regulation, Control, and Taxation Act creates a responsible alternative that proactively controls for public health concerns while allowing adults 21 and older the freedom to legally use marijuana if they choose,” said Moffat, “Taking the marijuana market above board will create taxpaying jobs and allow the state to tax the distribution and sale of marijuana.”

Moffat also introduced several new collation partners, including the Green Party, represented by RI Future contributor Greg Gerritt, and Jordan Seaberry representing the Univocal Legislative Minority Advisory Committee.

As an advocate for people of color, said Seaberry, he sees the “devastation” that prohibition wreaks on communities. The failed war on drugs, said Seaberry, results in mass incarceration, prisons and the militarization of the police.

The Reverend Alexander Sharp said that “Drug use is a health and education issue” that is not going to be solved by punishment.

Rebecca Nieves McGoldrick, executive director of Protect Families First, says that prohibition “separates parents from children” and “exposes families to drug war violence.” she pointed out that Rhode Island has “already had a marijuana related homicide” this year, a death that taxing and regulating the product might have prevented.

Greg Gerritt said that the Green Party has supported legalized marijuana for over 30 years. Taxing and regulating marijuana would save money in the state by reducing the prison population, and that the taxes generated would allow the state to build things. As a crop, marijuana has many other uses besides as a narcotic, including clothing, food and machine oil.

The first state to do this in New England will have an advantage over the other states, said Moffat towards the end of the press conference. Rhode Island would reap big benefits in terms of jobs and taxes if we strike first.

Representative Scott Slater introduced a bill (H5777) in the RI House of Representatives yesterday to tax and regulate marijuana. Senator Josh Miller introduced identical legislation in the RI Senate. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, both legislators were optimistic that this might be the year the legislation passes.

Though a pair of cranks attempted to hijack the press conference by insisting that the speakers use the word “cannabis” instead of “marijuana,” Jared Moffat, executive director of Regulate Rhode Island, a coalition of groups in support of marijuana regulation, showed remarkable poise and kept the presentation on track.

Representative Slater said that Colorado, the first state to tax and regulate marijuana, “has one of the fastest going economies in the country.” Money spent on legal marijuana products is money denied to organized crime, says Slater, who asked, “Do we allow criminals to control the market? Or do we want the sales to be regulated and taxed?”

• Mattiello open minded on marijuana reform
• Paiva Weed still skeptical on regulating marijuana
• Rhode Island has the most per capita marijuana users
• Legalizing marijuana enjoys ‘tripartisan’ support
• Legalizing marijuana could mean $82 million in revenue for RI

Senator Miller cited justice, public safety and revenue issues as reasons for a growth in support for the idea. Many more groups have joined the call for regulation, and the governor, the Senate president and the speaker of the House have all said that they are open to considering such an idea.

Dan Harrop, the recent Republican candidate for mayor of Providence, was to speak at the press conference, but an auto accident, in which Harrop was unharmed, prevented his attendance. Instead Dr. James Crowley spoke about the current laws regarding marijuana prohibition as being “fundamentally wrong, and a tremendous waste of resources.”

Crowley also spoke of the “first mover advantage.” The first state in New England to tax and regulate marijuana, Crowley maintains, will have early and sustainable marketing advantages that should last even as other states follow suit. Massachusetts activists have already managed to get legislation onto the ballot, and Rhode Island has “a small window of opportunity” if we want to be first, and reap the financial rewards.

Senator Miller says that a majority of Rhode Islanders are in favor of taxing and regulating marijuana, saying, “I think this is the year to do that.”