URI Student Group to Host Pot Legalization Discussion

The University of Rhode Island chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy is hosting an upcoming panel discussion about a proposed law that would legalize and regulate recreational use of marijuana.

The panel will be held Friday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom at URI's Kingston Campus.

The event is free and open to the public and panelists include Dr. David Lewis, Professor of Medicine and Community Health at Brown University; Jared Moffat, Executive Director of Regulate Rhode Island; Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian, journalists and authors of “A New Leaf: The End of Cannabis Prohibition”; and Beth Comery, former Providence Police officer and current editor of the Providence Daily Dose.    

“We hope this event will inform the community about the importance of this legislation and will showcase the need for end marijuana prohibition in Rhode Island” said URI Chapter President Eric Casey. 

If the law is passed, Rhode Island would be the third state to legalize and tax recreational marijuana use. The bills was introduced by Sen. Joshua Miller (D-Dist. 28, Cranston, Providence) and Rep. Edith Ajello (D-Dist. 1, Providence).

The measure would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and grow up to two marijuana plants (only one may be mature) in an enclosed, locked space; establish a tightly regulated system of licensed marijuana retail stores, cultivation facilities, and testing facilities; enact an excise tax of up to $50 per ounce on the wholesale sale of marijuana flowers applied at the point of transfer from the cultivation facility to a retail store (a special 10-percent sales tax will also be applied at the point of retail sale); and require the Department of Business Regulation to establish rules regulating security, labeling, health and safety requirements.