Republican Lawmaker Calls for State Surveillance of Consumers’ Retail Marijuana Purchases

A Republican Senator has sponsored legislation, SB 255, seeking to significantly amend the state’s voter-initiated adult-use legalization law.

Provisions in the proposed bill would mandate those age 21 or older to pay a $200 annual registration fee with the state Department of Revenue in order to legally make marijuana purchases. (Nearly 60 percent of Montanans approved legalization in 2020; retail marijuana sales began on January 1, 2022.) No other adult-use state imposes consumers to participate in a state registry.

Other provisions in the bill require cannabis consumers to keep a state-issued identification card in their “immediate possession at all times.” The proposal further stipulates that “law enforcement officers have access to accurate and up-to-date information on marijuana cardholders” and that state officials may use the program “to track marijuana cardholder purchases.”

NORML’s Deputy Director denounced the proposal, saying, “This legislation is anti-freedom, unnecessarily jeopardizes Montanans’ personal privacy, and seeks to fundamentally undermine the will of the 57 percent of voters who decided at the ballot box to legalize the adult-use cannabis market.”

He added, “Forcing Montanans to pay a $200 annual fee to be placed on a government list and have their marijuana-related purchases tracked will drive a growing percentage of consumers back to the unregulated marketplace — thereby undermining the primary goal of legalization, which is to provide adults with safe, affordable, above-ground access to lab-tested products of known purity, potency, and quality.”

The proposal is not the first time that Montana lawmakers have moved to roll back the state’s voter-approved law. In 2021, lawmakers passed legislation delaying the law’s implementation, imposing THC potency caps on retail products, and limiting the number of cannabis plants adults can legally grow at home. In 2023, lawmakers introduced legislation that sought to shut down all licensed adult-use cannabis retailers and impose a one-plant limit upon those who home-cultivate marijuana. That bill ultimately failed. However, lawmakers that same year enacted separate legislation halting any further expansion of the adult-use retail market. That moratorium remains in place until at least July 1, 2025.

Lawmakers in several other states have similarly introduced legislation this year seeking to rescind parts or all of voter-initiated marijuana laws.

In South Dakota, House Bill 1101 seeks to repeal the state’s medical cannabis access program, which was approved in 2020 by 70 percent of voters. In Nebraska, lawmakers are pushing to prohibit patients from accessing botanical cannabis, despite more than two-thirds of voters having decided in favor of the measure this past election. And in Ohio, a Senate bill seeks to make more than a dozen changes to the state’s voter-approved adult-use legalization law.

“Whether or not one personally supports or opposes cannabis legalization, these legislative efforts to effectively cancel the will of the majority of voters ought to be a cause of deep concern,” Armentano said.

NORML has pre-written letters opposing legislative repeal efforts in Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota available in the Take Action Center.