LePage pivots on closing loophole in legal marijuana

COURTESY / MATTHEW GAGNON, WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Gov. Paul LePage, who initially balked at signing emergency legislation approved unanimously by the Legislature on Thursday, eventually signed LD 88 into law on Friday, closing a potential loophole that could have allowed Mainers under 21 to possess marijuana.

Write a Comment

By Staff

It's now legal to smoke marijuana, grow it and possess up to 2.5 ounces of it in Maine.

Today marks the implementation date for Question 1, the citizen-initiated referendum on legalizing marijuana that narrowly passed in the November election.

But emergency legislation unanimously approved by the Legislature on Thursday, which was eventually signed into law on Friday by Gov. Paul LePage, closed a potential loophole that could have allowed Mainers under age 21 to possess the drug. It also delayed the effective date for most provisions related to retail sales of marijuana until Feb. 1, 2018.

LePage initially balked at signing LD 88 into law, telling lawmakers they needed to “fix” the bill by including provisions to move oversight of retail sales from the Department of Agriculture to the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations and to add $1.6 million in funding, according to a written statement from the Senate President’s Office that was issued Friday when LePage was still refusing to sign the bill.

LePage eventually changed his mind after Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, issued a statement Friday indicating a separate bill would accomplish the shift in oversight to the Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations. Thibodeau also noted that all of the funding that LePage had requested has been referred to the Marijuana Legalization Implementation Committee with the support of both Republican and Democrat leadership.