MONTPELIER -- Members of the cannabis industry stand united behind a piece of legislation being considered.
Different facets of the industry came together to support the same bill, said Timothy Egan, chapter director of Vermont NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), and part-time faculty member and Cannabis Studies Certificate Certificate Program Internship coordinator at Vermont State University.
"It made me feel really good about where the industry is going," he said in an interview following a hearing held by the Senate Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs, and the House Committee on Government Operations on Feb. 18.
While businesses are navigating difficulties, Egan said, they "all have the same target in mind."
Egan said S.278 includes a special events license that would allow cultivators to find more shelf space by partnering with a retailer that would provide ID checks and other safety measures. He sees this having the potential to also give tourism a boost.
Other parts of the bill will enable more marketing by loosening up the threshold for age gating on publications, allow delivery of products and set higher potency caps. Another part would change the "opt-in" system in Vermont, so that municipalities would automatically opt in for cannabis sales unless they had a vote to opt out.
Egan described delivery being especially important for medical patients living in rural areas that lack access to a local dispensary.
Current potency caps are driving business to other states, Egan said.
"Depending what you want it for or your tolerance," he said of a cannabis product, "you may want something stronger."
Egan said the opt-in change would "help our density problem," as there's "a big glut of retailers" in communities that have opted in. Allowing retailers in other places would cut down on "such intense competition," he added, as retailers can serve another market and spur economic development there.
"Everything that's in this bill has been implemented in one degree or another in all of the other 25 legal states in the United States," Egan told lawmakers. "This cannabis bill creates economic development opportunities, workforce opportunities and will be able to create more revenue for the state and hopefully, therefore, reduce tax obligations on our residents."
Sam Bellavance, founder of Sunset Lake Cannabis and Cannabis Retailers of Vermont board member, called special events licensing "a really important concept here, because they give both retailers and growers the opportunity to get in front of consumers, where consumers are."
"We have a tourist economy here in Vermont," he told lawmakers. "People come here for concerts. They come here for weddings. Allowing us to interact with those consumers is very important."
Another bill supported by the industry would allow cannabis smoking to happen wherever cigarette or cigar smoking can occur. While cannabis is legal to own, Egan said, "there's no legal place for you to enjoy it."
"You can't do it in a park," he said. "Right now, those rules are sort of rigid."