Is It Time To Regulate Alcohol Like Marijuana?

The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott’s opinion column on cannabis policy and culture.

Legalization campaigns often win with this simple idea: “Let’s regulate marijuana like alcohol.”

It’s an idea first popularized by legalization advocate Mason Tvert and the Marijuana Policy Project that led them to victory in Colorado in 2012. The idea makes perfect sense to voters. Why don’t so many politicians understand that?

Case in point: Massachusetts.

Five years ago, Bay State voters agreed to regulate marijuana like alcohol. Today cannabis is legal for adults, but it is not regulated in any way like alcohol.

Cannabis companies have to sign Host Community Agreements (HCAs) – often on extortionate terms – just to open their doors. The plant is taxed at 10.75% while the beer tax is less than 1%. A single edible serving is capped at 5 mg, while drinkers are welcome to fill their shopping carts with $ 19 bottles of 190-proof Everclear.

And now Boston state lawmakers are calling for more restrictions on weed.

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40 percent whiskey, 3% beer

An active bill would limit flowers and concentrates to no more than 10% THC (flower typically contains 15% to 25% THC, concentrates 60% to 90%). ) Power limits. A third would raise the legal age for cannabis, but not alcohol, from 21 to 25.

“All of these restrictions on weed worked so well. Why don’t we use them on alcohol? ”

– Peter Bernhard

Many people in Massachusetts are fed up with these losing actions by die-hard prohibitionists.

Peter Bernhard is one of them. Bernard, a medical cannabis user and home grower in Taunton, MA, is the executive director of the Massachusetts Grower Advocacy Council.

“This is nonsense that has been going on for five years,” said Bernard of the proposals for a ban. “How would you like it if beer was limited to three percent? [alcohol content], or if whiskey were only 40 pieces of evidence. “

That gave him an idea. Massachusetts law gives citizens the right to submit their own bills to the state legislature. Last month, Bernard filed SD 2811, the CALM (Control Alcohol Like Marijuana) Act.

Flip the script

According to his proposal, alcohol would be regulated like marijuana. That would mean:

• Potency limits of 20% alcohol by volume (max. 40 proof)
• Strict restrictions on on-premise consumption
• Enforce codes related to purity and potency, container size, and vendor security systems
• Requirements for child-proof packaging (no bottles with screw caps)
• Credit and Interpol security checks for all licensees and employees
• Elimination of branded paraphernalia and extreme advertising restrictions
• Mandatory agreements with the host community for all alcohol-related businesses.

“I submitted this bill to make a point,” Bernard told me earlier this week. “Let’s compare apples to apples. Cannabis is not a poison. Alcohol is. We see alcohol-related deaths on our state college campuses every year – someone chugs a fifth of Jack Daniels and ends up in the emergency room. “

Let’s look at alcohol potency first

Bernard himself got down to business through medical marijuana.

“3% wine not strong enough to get drunk on? It’s OK. Just drink more. ”

– Peter Bernhard

He suffered a broken spine about 10 years ago and had to prescribe morphine and percocet for five years. Then he turned to cannabis. “I needed pain relief after surgery, but not Percocet-level relief,” he said. “There are people in my life who have gone the wrong way. I wanted to get away. [Medical marijuana] undressed me and kept me away I can actually walk, I don’t need a stick anymore and I’m out with it [opiate-induced] Fog. You know what – this stuff saved my life. “

Bernard left his previous corporate career to represent the state’s cannabis farmers and manufacturers and to advocate good regulation.

He knows that his bill will not be enforced. He only wants to make the obvious to the legislators of his state: Cannabis is not the substance that needs stricter regulations.

Massachusetts is one of the worst US states for deaths from drunk driving, Bernard stressed. “In the meantime, teenagers are using it [of marijuana] is down, stoned driving is actually down, ”he said. “All of these weed restrictions have worked so well – why don’t we apply them to alcohol?”

Hearing on these draft laws on December 1st

The State Legislature’s Joint Cannabis Policy Committee will hold a hearing on all active cannabis-related bills this coming Wednesday, December 1st at 1 p.m. EST. Due to Covid restrictions, it will be a virtual hearing and videos will be available here.

“I will testify [at that hearing] against all these bills that want to limit the potency, ”Bernard told me. “I will hold up my own bill and tell them that I want to give them a taste of their own medicine. Lower grass thickness? Well, your wine is now limited to 3% alcohol. Not strong enough to get drunk? It’s OK. Just drink more. “

“The whole idea of ​​legalization was to tax and regulate it like alcohol,” said Bernard. “At the moment the work is only half done.”

The Haymaker: A swing in politics & culture

Bruce Barcott

Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, research, and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.

View article by Bruce Barcott

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