Could RI pot shops soon advertise on billboards
Rhode Island marijuana shops could soon join their Massachusetts competitors advertising on billboards throughout the Ocean State.
The Rhode Island House of Representatives voted unanimously Tuesday to give the state's cannabis regulation office the power to make rules on marijuana advertising while the state commission, which was given that power when lawmakers legalized recreational use of the drug last year, is formed.
Rep. Scott Slater, the House bill’s sponsor, said Tuesday the purpose of the legislation was to clear the way for the office to write some regulations now that would allow the state’s seven marijuana dispensaries to soon begin outdoor advertising in some fashion.
Rhode Island marijuana dispensaries have complained for months that the Rhode Island ban on marijuana advertising was unfair since Massachusetts pot shops advertise freely in the Ocean State, many with big highway billboards along the border.
Matt Santacroce, deputy director at the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation, told The Journal last month he supported lifting the advertising ban. Unfortunately, he said, the law that legalized the sale of recreational marijuana last year “very clearly delegates that authority” to the newly proposed Cannabis Control Commission, which has yet to be formed.
Slater's bill now goes to the Senate.
Other House business
In other business Tuesday, the House voted 57-8 to pass the latest legislation in House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi's 14-bill package to speed housing construction.
The bill, sponsored by Woonsocket Democratic Rep. Stephen Casey, would prevent any city or town from denying a proposed housing development based on incompatibility with that community's comprehensive plan if that comprehensive plan has not been updated in more than 12 years.
Opposition to the bill came from the House Republican caucus.
House GOP Leader Michael Chippendale of Foster said he was voting against the bill because planners in the towns he represents have expressed concern they will not have the staff capacity to handle the work required by some of the bills.
Another housing package bill sponsored by Rep. Arthur Covese, D-North Providence, that would lower the cost of some abutter notice requirements, passed 65-1.
