The Legislature’s new marijuana committee will begin its work in earnest later this month with an “overview” hearing at the State House before holding similar hearings elsewhere in the state, the committee chairs said Wednesday.
The hearing, scheduled for 11 a.m. on March 20, will be the first for the committee charged with researching and vetting marijuana-related bills filed since it became legal for adults to use, possess, grow or gift marijuana in December.
Legislative leaders are looking to the committee to produce a bill changing the ballot law written by marijuana advocates and approved by Massachusetts voters in November. The Legislature delayed implementation of most of the bill by six months.
“We’re going to start with hearing from some of the people who are already engaged or who would be engaged,” Senate Co-chairwoman Sen. Patricia Jehlen said. “Some of the people we had in mind were the proponents, the treasurer, the attorney general, (the Department of Public Health), Gaming Commission, the governor, agriculture, Department of Revenue.”
The committee met as a group for the first time Wednesday, though the press and public were barred from attending the hour-long meeting, which the co-chairs described as a “meet and greet.”
Jehlen and Cusack said the Committee on Marijuana Policy hopes to visit medical marijuana cultivation facilities and dispensaries in Massachusetts, and hopes to have completed its work on the ballot law changes by June, to coincide with the new fiscal year.
But what the committee’s bill will encompass has not yet been determined. Forty-three bills have been referred to the fledgling committee, but the committee expects to receive more.