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Committee reviews revised cannabis bill: higher transaction limits, pilot permits and public-health concerns
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Summary
The committee reviewed a revised cannabis bill that raises transaction/possession and package limits, creates event and delivery pilot permits, and drew Department of Health testimony urging retention of potency caps and stronger prevention funding.
Senate Health & Welfare on March 17 reviewed draft 3.2 of a revised cannabis bill that trims earlier potency and advertising provisions while raising packaging and transaction limits and authorizing two two-year pilot programs for event permits and delivery.
Tucker Anderson of the Legislative Council told the committee that the committee-recommended draft removed earlier potency caps and advertising changes from the introduced bill but increased transaction and single-package limits and expanded permitted package sizes. Sections 2–4 raise individual transaction and possession limits (for example, some flower limits were raised from 1 ounce to 2 ounces) and adjusted proportional limits for concentrated products.
The bill also creates two pilot programs: up to 20 event permits per year (10 public, 10 private) to allow on-site sales at organized events, and up to 15 delivery permits per year allowing licensed retailers to deliver to customers age 21 and over. The Cannabis Control Board (CCB) would oversee both pilots, set training for delivery personnel and use procedural authority to adopt rules for the permits. Holders of permits issued during the pilot would remain subject to excise taxes.
Delivery permit details prompted discussion about how age verification would occur in practice. Anderson said the statute does not expressly call out an ID-check procedure for delivery but that employee training approved by the CCB would include identity verification; he agreed that the committee could add explicit ID-verification language if members wished.
Local-government changes in the draft would allow voters to petition to place an opt-in vote on municipal ballots and would extend a nuisance-abatement exception to indoor cultivators and tier-1 manufacturers. The bill also contains appropriations for business development and other items, including a $1,000,000 transfer to a Cannabis Business Development Fund; several senators stressed that prevention-fund revenues derived from the excise tax should remain available for prevention programs.
Department of Health advisory commissioner Sheila Livingston told the committee the department appreciated that potency caps and advertising limits had been removed from the draft introduced in a prior committee, but urged the Senate to retain single-serving package and possession limits and to preserve advertising and purchase restrictions that protect children and public health. "We would really like to maintain the existing purchase and possession limit and single serving package limits," she said.
Tony Folland, clinical manager in the Division of Substance Use, presented state and national survey data and described public-health associations: adult use has risen markedly since decriminalization, and higher-frequency use among adolescents and use of higher-potency products are associated with increased risks of dependence, suicidal ideation and cannabis-use disorder. Folland described these as correlational findings and encouraged the committee to consider prevention and education investments as access expands.
The committee pledged a follow-up conversation focused on prevention funding and school-based resources. No formal votes were taken on the bill draft during the session.
