AUGUSTA, Maine — Adult-use marijuana operators in Maine’s still-nascent legal market and their legislative allies believe state regulations have continued to blunt their ability to grow.
While Gov. Janet Mills’ administration often gets what it wants in the Democratic-led Legislature, a key exception is on marijuana policy, where lawmakers in both parties have aligned with members of the industry that remains illegal federally in pushing back on proposed rules to Maine’s adult-use program that launched in 2020 after voters approved it in 2016.
The tension even led Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, a longtime marijuana legalization advocate, to launch a petition in the past week asking Mills to fire Office of Cannabis Policy Director John Hudak, arguing the regulator is “unfairly and unjustly executing state law.”
Much of the debate is now focused on the office’s adult-use rule proposals before the Legislature’s Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee. The rules deal with licensing, authorized conduct, testing, reducing or eliminating contaminants and limits on additives and limiting ads appealing to children. They may not all affect the average consumer, Boyer conceded.
“By and large, the people who go buy the weed will still go buy the weed,” Boyer said.
Yet the disagreements between recreational marijuana business owners and state regulators extend to issues such as labeling requirements and the maximum $100,000 fines on licensees for major violations. Operators have also expressed fear over speaking out against the state and then facing retaliation via increased scrutiny and inspections.
Boyer has a bill cosponsored by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, and others that would no longer require gummies to be stamped or embossed with the universal symbol, a red triangle indicating products containing THC, the psychoactive compound found in marijuana.
Scotty Ouellette, owner of Upta Camp Edible Company in Bowdoinham, said he has sparred with Hudak’s office for nearly six months over receiving approval to sell his gummies recreationally. Regulators said the symbol stamped inside each gummy that he already sells to about 100 medical dispensaries is not sufficient. Ouellette called it “subjective policy.”
“We’ve created this policing culture within a legal industry,” Ouellette said.
The pressure that certain operators feel in Maine’s legal recreational market, which took years to establish, comes amid police around the state raiding illegal marijuana growing operations after a leaked government memo last summer connected hundreds of illicit sites in Maine to organized crime groups in China.
More than 300 licenses for recreational establishments are currently active in Maine, ranging from cultivation and manufacturing to testing and stores, per state data. Retail stores reached nearly $217 million in gross sales in 2023.
Maine’s medical marijuana market, which effectively launched after voters set up a state-licensed distribution system in 2009, has more than 1,700 registered caregivers and 67 dispensaries, according to the state’s latest count.
Members from both parties on the marijuana panel, including co-chair Rep. Laura Supica, D-Bangor, and Sen. Jeff Timberlake, R-Turner, share some, but not all, of the concerns Boyer and various operators have expressed. Supica cited “incredibly high fines” and also has a bill cosponsored by Timberlake to clarify licensing and criminal history record requirements for adult-use businesses.
Recreational marijuana operators can face fines from $10,000 for a minor violation to $100,000 for a major violation “affecting public safety,” under Maine law. Meanwhile, fines for medical marijuana violations can reach $7,500.
Supica added she will not sign Boyer’s petition to oust Hudak, who has led the cannabis policy office for more than a year. It lists several grievances, including “targeting and retaliating against businesses and caregivers that voice concerns in Augusta” and Hudak co-founding a firm that helped Maine launch its adult-use program.
Hudak was not made available for an interview. Office of Cannabis Policy spokesperson Alexis Soucy noted the adult-use rules were proposed last August and that the office took into account 141 public comments. Soucy did not comment on Boyer’s petition, but Rep. Marc Malon, D-Biddeford, a committee member, said he opposes the effort to oust Hudak.
“Sometimes regulators have to say no,” Malon said. “Apparently some people do not take kindly to hearing that word.”
Hudak’s office has received criticism and dished it out to lawmakers in a recent report that complained about legislative conversations and testimony “based on anecdote, assumption, misunderstandings and misinformation.” It also mentioned threats and harassment for office staff and added a “lack of data and analysis has dominated the conversation.”
But Ouellette, the edible company owner, said Hudak needs to reckon with operators feeling regulations are not applied evenly.
“There’s no accountability in that office,” Ouellette said, “and it’s pretty scary stuff.”
