Recreational marijuana is coming to Maine as soon as the rules are finished being written. Experts predict that all maine pot laws will be finalized and recreational marijuana will finally be for sale in the Spring of 2019. While the rules that are guiding the legislation may be more conservative than many people had hoped, they are still making great progress in the state.

While there were politicians that tried to veto the legislation that was passed that legalized medical marijuana, it did not go through which brought the state a lot closer to having recreational pot on the retail market. The final voting was 28 to 6 in the Senate and 109 to 39 in the House. Voters approved legalizing recreational marijuana in Maine in November 2016.

In order to get recreational marijuana into the hands of their residents, a consultant had to be hired to help write the rules that will be surrounding it. The voters have spoken and it has become an important priority for the government and the businesses wanting to get into the industry. One of the big things that are being moved forward on is working with the operations that will be growing the marijuana for the state’s customers. There is a lot of issues dealing with licensing and regulations that are still being addressed. These issues are being addressed very soon and are expected to be completed early in 2019 which also includes plans for sales tax in the state.

There are plans for a tracking system when it comes to the weed that will document everything from the seeds to the sale of the final products. Nobody knows exactly when Maine will complete the hiring process to make sure they have enough workers to enforce the new laws that are being passed. There were some mixed reactions to the legislation that was passed even among the representatives who wanted it passed. While some are saying it’s not enough, most are happy that progress has been made at all. Voters made their wishes known about 2 years ago and won’t have to wait much longer until they can legally purchase recreational marijuana in their state.

Some of the things that were made more conservative included the number of plants that citizens will be allowed to grow on their own property. While it was originally proposed that people be allowed to grow 6 plants, this number was lowered to 3. The reasoning behind this is that they believe that it will reduce how marijuana is sold illegally through the black market that they cannot collect taxes on. In order to protect smaller marijuana-based businesses, they will only be giving business licenses to people who have paid taxes and lived in Maine for 4 years or more for three years after legalization.

Critics of the bill had a lot to say and many of it didn’t seem to be accurate according to people familiar with the legislation and marijuana. Fortunately, there were more representatives and voters who disagreed. Recreational marijuana will be in Maine soon!