We count five different bills that seek to amend Act 164 this legislative session, so far, and this past Tuesday, February 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee convened to discuss the status of Act 164's formation and implementation process, along with an overview of S.25, one of the amendment bills for the new taxation and regulation law.

The five different bills relating to Act 164, and cannabis in general, this 2021 legislative session are H.24, a health insurance-related bill that would allow CBD to qualify for coverage; S.25, an amendment bill to Act 164; a Racial Justice Omnibus bill, an amendment bill to Act 164; H.164 a bill to allow towns to prohibit all licensed cannabis establishment from operating; and Senator Ram has a bill that amends tax revenue under Act 164. The session is still early and not all pieces of legislation have come out of the legislative council office, where bills are written, so some don’t have numbers assigned to them, yet.

Act 164's Formation and Implementation Process Update

Act 164 is, at least, two months behind schedule, and it may impact the rollout of the market in 2022. In Tuesday’s Senate Committee hearing, Senator White, a member of the Nominating Committee, shared that on Monday, February 15, the Nominating Committee officially sent 10 candidates to the governor for him to select the Cannabis Control Board (CCB). Under Act 164, the governor has the final say in selecting members of the CCB. Governor Scott requested three candidates for each of the three positions on the board, a chairperson, and two commissioners, but the legislators sent him one additional name. In our last Legislative Update, we reported the Nominating Committee received 94 applications for three positions, so there was no shortage of candidates. The CCB was to begin work by January 19, 2021 and is now expected to begin work no sooner than mid-March.

There seems to be a bit of a political back-and-forth between the executive branch and the legislative branch surrounding the two-month delay in the rollout of Act 164, some say the governor acted late and some say the timeline in the law was impractical, to begin with – we tend to believe there's some truth to both sides of that argument.

The Cannabis Control Board is tasked with developing several extensive reports and proposals for legislators to act on this year, in preparation for the 2022 rollout. Some of those proposals the CCB is tasked to deliver include working with the Department of Health to determine how food processing and edible manufacturing should be regulated, working with the Department of Justice to develop a plan on advertising, drafting a proposed fee structure for the State and municipalities, and much more. Under Act 164, the CCB was to deliver all these reports and proposals to the legislator by April 1, 2021 – which we clearly will not meet. Watch the entire hearing from Tuesday’s Senate Committee on YouTube.

Overview of S.25 and Related Bills

We overviewed S.25 and the Racial Justice Omnibus bill in our last Legislative Update, please check out that post for an extensive review of those bills, below we review the 3 other bills this legislative session relating to Act 164, and cannabis in general. H.24, a House bill sponsored by Rep. James McCullough, is a health insurance-related bill that would allow alternative health care services to qualify for health care coverage, this could mean CBD could be paid for by your health insurance provider. H.164, is another House bill, this one sponsored Rep. Arthur Peterson, is a bill that would allow towns to include all license types under the opt-in, not just retailers, effectively allowing towns to flat-out ban all cannabis establishment from operating. This bill is not expected to go anyway. Finally, the last new bill is one from Senator Ram, a freshman Senator from Chittenden, who introduced a bill that seeks to appropriate 20% of tax revenue for criminal justice reform. Senator Ram testified before the Senate Judiciary, this past Monday, as it appears her bill may get added as an amendment to bill S.25.

The 2021 legislative session is still getting off the ground, not all bills have numbers assigned to them, yet, and the process is too early and too fluid to determine where a bill is headed – lot’s of amending and discussions are happening, and we will continue to update you as things fall into place and as Act 164’s formation and implementation process rolls on.