PROVIDENCE, RI — Testimony on a bill to make Rhode Island the third state in the country to legalize and regulate the possession of marijuana by adults has been revisited by lawmakers, receiving a hearing Tuesday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee heard several hours of testimony late Tuesday on Senate Bill 334, The Marijuana Regulation, Control And Taxation Act, which was introduced by Sen. Donna Nesselbush (D-District 15) earlier this year.
The bill would regulate and tax marijuana similar to alcohol for adults 21 or older.
Sen. Nesselbush estimates that the projected tax revenue that would come from legal sales of marijuana in Rhode Island is between 20 and 71 million dollars per year.
“We don’t know exactly, because we don’t know how many people are smoking marijuana,” she said. “But, whatever revenues are raised, 50 percent of those revenues would go to the general funds, and 40 percent would go toward education and treatment of drug issues.”
A companion bill filed in the House, House Bill 5274, was READ MORE