Michigan House Passes Medical Pot Rules with Wide Support

With support from both sides of the aisle, the Michigan House of Representatives, on Wednesday, Oct 7th, 2015, passed bills that regulate the sale and production of marijuana in both smokable and non-smokable varieties.

The House also passed a similar bill the year before but that bill eventually died in the Senate. The new and improved legislation would implement a 3% excise tax in addition to the state’s 6% sales tax. An additional bill would provide for medical marijuana such as brownies and various pot-infused oils.

A third bill introduced would allow the tracking of medical marijuana from seed to the eventual sale. These three bills were passed with incredible margins of at least 96 votes.

There are those that support the bill and those that don’t. Patient advocates widely backed the measures while some medical marijuana supporters opposed the bills due to the taxes imposed on the various products. As a result of negotiations in the House, the excise tax was reduced from 8% to the level of 3% that was eventually agreed upon.

Representative Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor testified earlier than other types of medicine are not taxed by the state and the medical form of marijuana should be no different. However, he also said Wednesday that the current bills were a fair and equitable compromise.

“It’s a good compromise, but I personally find this solution to be imperfect,” he said. “I hope the Legislature will ensure that this evolving market is something that we continue to get right.”

Supporters of the bills stated that monitoring the growing and sales of medical marijuana provided in these bills required the need for the additional taxes.

The bills are up for final vote in the House today and with the successful passage, the bills will move to the Senate.

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For more information about the Michigan Cannabis Laws or to learn how Quantum 9’s Michigan Marijuana Consulting Services can benefit you, please fill out the form below so one of our specialists can contact you immediately.