A bill proposed in Montana would eliminate adult-use cannabis dispensaries in the state and raise the tax on medical cannabis from 4% to 20%, the Montana Free Press reports. According to the bill text, the measure, sponsored by state Sen. Keith Regier (R), intends to “reduce the demand for marijuana sales” in Montana.
The measure, which carries no co-sponsors, is currently in the chamber’s Business, Labor, and Economic Affairs Committee.
Adult-use cannabis sales in Montana have generated $54 million in tax revenues since sales commenced in January 2022, the report says. Less than one-tenth of that revenue came from medical cannabis taxes, while adult-use sales are taxed at a 20% rate by the state and some counties add an additional 3% local tax.
Regier’s legislation would also cap the THC potency for cannabis flower sold in the state’s medical cannabis program at 10%; under current state law, that limit is 35%. The measure would also halve the amount of THC allowed in an edible product, from 10 milligrams to 5 milligrams, and would prohibit concentrates from containing more than 10% THC.
Zach Block, the owner of Montana Canna, told the Free Press that those THC limits on medical cannabis products “would take our collection of effective products and diminish them into something unrecognizable and not necessarily sufficient to consumers and patients.”
He added that Regier’s bill would render the state’s adult-use cannabis program “worthless” for operators and consumers.
“You’d be delivering a subpar product to a small group of people,” he told the Free Press, “and you’re ignoring the majority of the worthy demographic.”
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