© Sandor Bodo Spain in Cranston was the site of two fundraisers, one for Governor McKee and the other for a pair of Democratic state representatives.
Marijuana cultivators and dispensary representatives have been busy this month hosting fundraisers for the governor and other lawmakers supporting proposals to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
On April 6, about 30 cultivators held a fundraiser for Gov. Dan McKee at Spain Restaurant, in Cranston.
And this past Wednesday, Joseph Walsh, the former mayor of Warwick and lobbyist for the Summit dispensary in Warwick, hosted a virtual fundraiser for McKee on Zoom. About 20 business representatives appeared via computer, including those from the state’s existing three dispensaries.
More: State Budget: McKee proposes legalizing recreational marijuana
Mike Trainor, spokesman for McKee’s election campaign, said the governor sees the cultivation and dispensing of marijuana as emerging small businesses and he “is interested in learning from participants in both sectors.”
At the Spain event, attendees underwent rapid tests for COVID-19 prior to being seated at socially distanced tables, Trainor said.
The governor took questions from the growers and explained his legalization bill, which projects 75 retail marijuana stores opening over three years beginning next spring (25 stores licensed each year) and supplied by the state’s current number of cultivators, about 63.
In contrast a bill proposed by Senate leaders would allow for a minimum of three stores in every community (unless a town or city votes against hosting them) and would create a new cannabis control commission that, among other regulatory responsibilities, would determine the number of cultivators.
More: Senate bill could lead to dozens of stores selling recreational pot in RI
That has some cultivators worried.
The state created a system of cultivators several years ago to supply a more regulated product to the state’s medical marijuana program — and with an eye toward having an established supply network in place if recreational use was approved in the future.
Katie Sokol Ratkiewicz, president of the Rhode Island Cannabis Association trade group, says some growers are concerned the Senate bill might create more cultivators than the market needs, putting established growers out of business before they’ve had a chance to financially benefit from their hefty investments.
“We currently have enough square footage to supply both the medical and recreational use needs,” she said Friday. And “bringing [on] another layer of bureaucracy at this time doesn’t make sense to us.”
Currently the Office of Cannabis Regulation within the Department of Business Regulation oversees marijuana laws.
Ratkiewicz said the association itself didn’t officially sponsor the McKee fundraisers, nor another one held this week at Spain for Democratic state Representatives Raymond Hull and Scott Slater.
Slater said about 25 people attended this week’s shared fundraiser, where he reiterated his longstanding support for legalizing recreational marijuana and for the cultivators, particularly.
The growers’ very existence has been threatened, he said, over the last couple of years as lawmakers have pushed one marijuana expansion plan and then another, with the cultivators’ participation sometimes uncertain.
“I’m sympathetic to a lot of them,” he said. “They have made investments under state assurances that they were to get a chance to participate in any legal [recreational] program and so far, haven’t been able to get the return.”
While McKee and Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio have voiced support for adult use passage this year, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi has said only that he is open to debating the issue.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Marijuana cultivators, dispensaries contribute to McKee and lawmakers who support legalization
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