Massachusetts Lawmakers Reach Deal To Double Marijuana Possession Limit And Restructure Cannabis Regulations

Massachusetts lawmakers have negotiated the details of a bill to double the legal marijuana possession limit for adults and revise the regulatory framework for the state’s adult-use cannabis market.

A bicameral conference committee has spent months working out provisions of the legislation after the House of Representatives and Senate passed differing versions last year, and the panel approved a compromise approach on Monday.

Sen. Adam Gómez (D) and Rep. Daniel M. Donahue (D), who co-chaired the conference committee, said in a joint statement that the agreement “charts a more promising path forward for cannabis regulation in our Commonwealth.”

“The legislation includes a new structure that provides clear accountability and enhances the operations of the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC),” the lawmakers, who also serve as co-chairs of the legislature’s Joint Cannabis Policy Committee, said. “The bill creates new opportunities for small businesses to grow, while providing those historically harmed by marijuana laws with temporary, exclusive access to those opportunities. This bill will allow them to realize their capital and pursue innovative models such as employee-owned businesses.”

If approved in its final form by both chambers, which Gómez and Donahue said they expect to happen this week, the bill would then head to Gov. Maura Healey (D) for her signature.

Gómez said at Monday’s conference committee meeting that the agreement represents “a forward-looking approach to modernize Massachusetts’s cannabis laws at a high level.”

“This legislation recognizes that our cannabis industry has matured and that our regulatory framework must involve along with them,” he said.

“The bill strengthens oversight and accountability by restructuring the Cannabis Control Commission, streamlining its leadership and clarifying goals and responsibilities so that the agency can operate more efficiently and transparently. We also make important improvements to public accountability by creating a new portal for reporting illegal conduct, requiring updated reporting on public health impacts and tax policy and studying workplace safety standards. The bill ensures that the industry continues to operate in a way that prioritizes safety, transparency and public trust.

This legislation also supports economic opportunity and long-term sustainability by modernizing license caps and providing more flexibility in ownership structures. We help businesses—especially small and emerging operators—remain viable in the competitive market and by expanding pathways for participation by social equity businesses, including exclusive opportunities in the medical marijuana space. We reinforce our commitment to fairness and equitable access. We remove outdated and burdensome requirements such as the vertical integration mandate for medical operators that have created barriers to entry into growth. These changes help level the playing field and ensure that our cannabis economy reflects the diversity and the dynamics of the Commonwealth.

Additionally, the bill expands safe and legal access to cannabis. It updates purchase and possession limits, it clarifies delivery rules to create consistency across municipalities and also allows for more modern and reasonable advertising practices within regulated environments. Finally, we take the important steps to address emerging issues in the marketplace, such as regulation of hemp-derived products and categories by directing further study and thoughtful policy development.”

Among the proposed revisions to the state’s cannabis law is a section that would increase the personal possession limit for marijuana from one to two ounces. Colorado enacted the same reform in 2021 after that state’s cannabis market matured.

In addition to the possession increase, which was included in both chambers’ versions, H.4206 would reduce the size and revise the organization of CCC, while also updating limits on marijuana business licensing.

Under both chambers’ versions of the bill, CCC would be comprised of three members rather than the current five. The conference committee report adopts provisions from the House measure that would allow the governor to make all appointments, rather than the Senate approach to give one of the appointments to the attorney general. Under current law, the treasurer also plays a role in appointing commission members, but that will no longer be the case if the legislation is enacted.

The new legislation requires that one member of CCC to have a background in social justice, while the other two commissioners need to have backgrounds in public health, public safety, social justice, consumer regulations or the production and distribution of cannabis.

The bill will also increase the amount of licenses that a single entity can possess from three to six, while additionally raising from 10 percent to 20 percent the threshold of much equity in a business is considered ownership for the purpose of counting toward the cap on licenses.

It also directs regulators to create a list of  “delinquent” cannabis businesses that have not paid their debts to other operators for more than 60 days and prevents others from doing business with those on the delinquent list until debts are paid off.

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The cannabis regulation proposal’s advancement comes as marijuana businesses in the state have filed a lawsuit aiming to block an initiative to roll back the state’s voter-approved legalization law from reaching the November ballot.

If passed, the state wouldn’t revert back to blanket prohibition; rather, it would repeal the commercial recreational sales and personal home cultivation components of the law while still allowing adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of cannabis for personal use.

Possession of more than one ounce but less than two ounces would be effectively decriminalized, with violators subject to a $100 fine. Adults could also continue to gift cannabis between each other without remuneration. Medical marijuana sales would remain legal.

The measure is currently before the legislature after supporters turned in an initial batch of signatures last year, and lawmakers have until May 5 to act on the proposal. If they choose not to enact it legislatively, the campaign would need to go through another round of petitioning and get at least 12,429 certified signatures by July 1 to make the November ballot.

Proponents faced skeptical questioning from lawmakers at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions last month, with several raising concerns about the motivations behind the anti-marijuana measure and its implications for consumers and businesses.

A recent Bay State Poll from the University of Hampshire’s States of Opinion Project found that a majority of Massachusetts adults oppose the marijuana sales and cultivation repeal initiative.

Meanwhile, in November, the legislature’s Joint Cannabis Policy Committee advanced a bill that would require a study into legal barriers facing first responders who wish to use marijuana in compliance with state law.

Regulators would also need to look into the efficacy of marijuana in the treatment of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They would additionally examine laws and policies for cannabis use by police officers and first responders in other jurisdictions and “any other topics the commission deems relevant.”

The bill was reported out as lawmakers in a different committee approved separate legislation to provide employment protections for people who use marijuana. Another panel advanced a similar cannabis employment protections bill in September.

Meanwhile, the head of Massachusetts’s marijuana regulatory agency recently suggested that the measure to effectively recriminalize recreational cannabis sales could imperil tax revenue that’s being used to support substance misuse treatment efforts and other public programs.

To that point, Massachusetts recently reached another marijuana milestone, with officials announcing in February that the state has surpassed $9 billion in adult-use cannabis purchases since the market launched in 2018.

A report from the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) found that legalization is achieving one of its primary goals: disrupting illicit cannabis sales as adults transition to the regulated market. It shows that among adults who reported past-year marijuana use, an overwhelming 84 percent said they obtained their cannabis from a licensed source.

Massachusetts lawmakers also recently assembled a bicameral conference committee to reach a deal on a bill that would double the legal marijuana possession limit for adults and revise the regulatory framework for the state’s adult-use cannabis market.

In December, state regulators also finalized rules for marijuana social consumption lounges.

CCC recently launched an online platform aimed at helping people find jobs, workplace training and networking opportunities in the state’s legal cannabis industry.

Separately, lawmakers are also advancing legislation to establish pilot programs for the regulated therapeutic use of psychedelics.

Marijuana Rescheduling Could ‘Unlock Research’ To Treat Rare Diseases, Father Of Terminally Ill Child Tells Congressional Committee

Congressional lawmakers were recently presented with a unique argument in favor of expanding therapeutic access to cannabis and rescheduling marijuana under federal law: Doing so could mitigate threats associated with Chinese Community Party (CCP) operatives.

At a hearing before the House Small Business Committee last month, members took expert testimony on a variety of challenges linked to CCP, including intellectual property theft, foreign investments and vulnerabilities in the supply chain that impact small U.S. companies.

The hearing—titled “Defending Main Street: Combating CCP Threats to America’s Small Businesses” Summary”—involved testimony from Sean Murphy, founder of the nonprofit organization Kompassion that focuses on palliative care and rare diseases afflicting children.

Murphy said his personal experience raising a child with a severe health condition as well as volunteering in veterans hospices informed his advocacy for cannabinoid research and reform. That includes a proposal to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to “unlock research and healing, especially for rare diseases,” he said.

Rescheduling wouldn’t federally legalize cannabis, but it would remove certain Schedule I research barriers, while benefitting state-licensed marijuana businesses by allowing them to take federal tax deductions they’re currently barred from under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E.

The incremental change “will be a monumental movement in research and development of cures,” Murphy said in a written testimony submitted to the committee. And while marijuana remains Schedule I, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in December directing the attorney general to quickly finalize its reclassification under a process that was initiated under the Biden administration.

As part of his testimony for the committee hearing, Murphy also included policy recommendations that he argued would help address lawmakers’ concerns by empowering U.S. entrepreneurs and small business owners in healthcare, while generally expanding their access to capital.

One of the recommendations involves targeted funding for energetic medicine, palliative care and cannabinoid research through the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

With funding for ARPA-H currently at $1.5 billion for the 2026 fiscal year, a portion should be side aside to “explicitly” support initiatives such as cannabinoid research, “including new therapeutic pathways made possible by marijuana’s rescheduling from Schedule I to Schedule III,” the testimony says.

“All mammals possess an endocannabinoid system (ESC) that plays a central role in inflammation reduction and homeostasis; targeted research in this area would unlock breakthrough whole-health approaches that treat the body’s nervous and endocannabinoid system, while supporting veteran and family care, all while keeping IP and data 100 percent secure from foreign exploitation,” it says.

Cannabis policy also intersected with a congressional hearing focused on foreign threats last year, when a GOP-led House committee looked at challenges associated with Chinese criminal organizations behind large-scale illicit marijuana grows.

Leveraging the increasing attention to the issue, the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) put out an ad in July arguing that if President Donald Trump moved forward with a pending cannabis rescheduling proposal, it would empower Chinese cartels.

In 2023, a major marijuana lobbying firm apologized after sending a letter to Senate committee leadership concerning a bipartisan cannabis banking bill that contained “inappropriate” references to investments from China in a “misguided attempt” to push for amendments expanding the legislation.

Hawaii Senators Push Congress To Federally Legalize Marijuana And Clear Past Convictions

Hawaii senators have approved a pair of resolutions calling on Congress to federally legalize marijuana, support state efforts to clear people’s conviction records and take steps to facilitate access to banking services for companies in the cannabis industry.

“Even though states have made significant policy changes with respect to cannabis, the federal Controlled Substances Act still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I substance,” the measures advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee in a 5-0 vote on Thursday say, “which means that medical cannabis dispensaries and other cannabis-related businesses continue to face the prospect of federal seizures, forfeitures, arrests, and other enforcement and prosecution actions.”

The legal recreational cannabis industry could generate more than $1 billion in sales in Hawaii by its fifth year of operation, according to a recent state-commissioned study, the resolutions point out.

Current medical marijuana businesses in the state “are hampered by their inability to obtain the full spectrum of private banking services under federal law,” the measures sponsored by Sen. Joy San Buenaventura (D) say, adding that “arrests and convictions for cannabis possession remain on record and often impact the ability of a person to obtain housing and employment.”

SR58 and SCR64 call on Congress to:

(1) Remove cannabis from the federal Controlled Substances Act;

(2) Provide support to states that are in the process of clearing defendants’ records of cannabis offenses; and

(3) Facilitate access to the full spectrum of banking services for cannabis-related businesses.

The legislation as introduced noted that alcohol and tobacco don’t fall under the Controlled Substances Act, “even though the regular use of those substances often leads to physical injuries, psychological and social harm, the onset of chronic and fatal illnesses, and other negative impacts on individual and public health.”

But the panel removed that language, with Sen. Karl Rhoads (D), the chair of the committee, saying that the arguments about other substances “seem irrelevant” to the marijuana resolutions.

If passed by the legislature, the resolutions will be transmitted to President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, as well as the top Democratic and Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and each member of Hawaii’s congressional delegation.

Earlier this week, the Senate Health and Human Services Committee adopted separate resolutions calling on the state attorney general and health department to request an exemption from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stipulating that Hawaii is permitted to run its medical cannabis program without federal interference.

—Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.—

Although Hawaii senators recently approved a bill to legalize low-dose and low-potency marijuana, the legislation didn’t advance through required steps before a key deadline, and so it is dead for the year.

A separate marijuana legalization bill that contained provisions making the reform contingent on changes to federal law or the state Constitution, SB 2421, was deferred for action. Both Senate and House panels additionally deferred action on a measure to allow for the sale of certain hemp-derived cannabinoid products.

Those actions comes after key House lawmakers signaled that cannabis legalization proposals would not be advancing in the 2026 session, citing a lack of sufficient support in their chamber.

Last month, a Hawaii Senate committee separately passed legislation to allow patients to immediately access medical cannabis once their registrations are submitted, instead of having to wait until their cards are delivered as is the case under current law.

Meanwhile, a Hawaii House committee last week approved a Senate-passed bill that would create a psychedelics task force responsible for studying and making policy recommendations on providing access to breakthrough therapies such as psilocybin and MDMA.

Legislation to allow qualifying patients to access medical marijuana at health facilities is also advancing this session.