Adult-use Rulemaking Is Underway in Maine – This Is Your Chance to Comment

After releasing pre-draft proposed rules for unofficial comment to gauge the initial reaction of the public, Maine's Office of Marijuana Policy (OMP) has now released the official no-longer-in-draft-form proposed rules for real comment. In other words, rulemaking has begun. With a public hearing scheduled for May 23 in Portland, and all public comment due by 5:00 pm on Sunday, June 2, perhaps we can expect rulemaking to be complete and these major substantive rules to be back in front of the Maine Legislature for approval sometime in June, during this session?

The OMP has conveniently posted all of the unofficial comments received in response to the draft rules, and their responses, online here. This provides some interesting insights, and some very predictable ones, into what the different stakeholders care about, and how the State plans to deal with these concerns. Also, kudos to the OMP for using Google Docs – very practical and mainstream for government!