The Marijuana Policy Project and Regulate Rhode Island Release Comprehensive New Report Outlining Policy Options for Legalizing and Regulating Marijuana in Rhode Island

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, March 6, 2018

 Contact
Morgan Fox, Marijuana Policy Project
(202) 905-2031, mfox@mpp.org

 The Marijuana Policy Project and Regulate Rhode Island Release Comprehensive New Report Outlining Policy Options for Legalizing and Regulating Marijuana in Rhode Island

The organizations are submitting the report to state lawmakers to help facilitate more informed discussion on legalization; the report is available at www.regulaterhodeisland.org/regulation-report

 PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Marijuana Policy Project and its local partner Regulate Rhode Island have released a new report entitled, “How should Rhode Island legalize marijuana: Asking the right questions.” The 42-page document features detailed discussion of different models for regulating marijuana for adults based on other states’ experiences and urges policymakers to consider the benefits and costs of various approaches.

Covering a wide variety of topics like supply structure, taxation, and product regulations, the far-reaching analysis outlines the choices state policymakers face when considering how to legalize marijuana. The report also urges participants in the legalization conversation to consider the impact on a wide range of stakeholders in Rhode Island such as local governments, people with prior marijuana convictions, and medical marijuana patients. As stated in the document’s introduction, the Marijuana Policy Project and Regulate Rhode Island hope the report “will serve as a useful resource to legislators and others as Rhode Island continues to have a broader and more nuanced discussion about this important topic facing the state.” 

“Now that three New England states have ended marijuana prohibition, Rhode Island lawmakers must seriously consider whether they want to keep wasting resources punishing their constituents for behavior that is legal for adults throughout the region,” said Matthew Schweich, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “We know that a strong majority of Rhode Islanders support legalization. The debate in the General Assembly should not focus on whether we regulate marijuana, but how we regulate marijuana.”

In an effort to understand various viewpoints on issues related to regulating marijuana, Regulate Rhode Island conducted interviews with more than a dozen issue stakeholders throughout the state, including current and retired police officers, government officials, and health experts. A full list of those interviewed can be found on page 7 of the report.

A legislatively created study commission that has been meeting since October to analyze whether marijuana should be legal in Rhode Island was expected to release its recommendations on Thursday, but two separate bills have been introduced that would delay release of its report. Meanwhile, a bill that would place a non-binding legalization initiative on the November ballot was introduced on Wednesday.

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The Marijuana Policy Project is the nation’s largest marijuana policy organization. For more information, visit http://www.MarijuanaPolicy.org.

Regulate Rhode Island is a coalition of community leaders, organizations, and residents committed to ending the failed policy of marijuana prohibition and replacing it with a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol. Member organizations include the Rhode Island NAACP, Rhode Island ACLU, Rhode Island Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Rhode Island Working Families, Rhode Island Sierra Club, Rhode Island Young Democrats, Clergy for a New Drug Policy, Law Enforcement Action Partnership, and the Marijuana Policy Project, among others. For more information, visit http://www.regulaterhodeisland.org.