Gov. Paul LePage vetoed the adult-use cannabis bill today, saying he couldn’t support expansion of legal marijuana in Maine while its federal future remains so uncertain.

In his veto letter, LePage said the conflict with federal law was only one of his concerns about the bill that would launch the state’s recreational market. He said it failed to address the failings of the medical marijuana program, set up a confusing and costly dual-agency regulatory system, and may not collect enough tax revenue to cover the cost of implementating and regulating the new market.

“The Obama administration said they would not enforce federal law related to marijuana; however, the Trump administration has not taken that position,” LePage wrote in a veto letter to lawmakers Friday. “Until I clearly understand how the federal government intends to treat states that seek to legalize marijuana, I cannot in good conscience support any scheme in state law to implement expansion of legal marijuana in Maine.”

The bill now returns to the state legislature, where bill supporters will try Monday to pick up enough extra votes to override LePage’s veto.

In the special session, the state Senate voted 22-9 in favor of the bill. If those numbers were sustained Monday, the Senate would have the necessary two-thirds majority to pass the bill on that side. The House voted 81-50 in favor of the bill, which, if duplicated Monday, would not be enough to pass the bill. But House leaders will not know how many “no” lawmakers they need to flip until they see how many lawmakers actually show up for the override vote.

Leaders of the select committee that wrote the bill have spent the last week trying to make their case to no voters, and advocacy groups have asked constituents in those districts to call their lawmakers. In some Republican circles, lawmakers are being asked to simply stay home Monday, which would help the override effort without openly opposing LePage or House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport.

Bill supporters called LePage’s veto an ill-advised mistake that will benefit the black market, which would continue to operate untaxed and unchecked if the veto holds. In the implementation bill, recreational marijuana would have been subject to a 10 percent sales tax and a 10 percent excise tax and to more than 80 pages of rules on how it could be grown, processed, packaged, advertised and sold.

The state chapter of the Maine Marijuana Project noted that LePage had said he could support legalization of recreational marijuana if approved by a referendum in 2014 during a public debate in the weeks leading up to the gubernatorial election. The organization accused him of failing to uphold that commitment and ignoring the will of the people who voted in the 2016 legalization referendum. Other anti-marijuana governors have respected voters’ wishes, said director David Boyer.

“Seven other states have passed legalization initiatives over the past five years, and none has seen this type of obstructionism from its governor,” Boyer said.

Legalization opponents applauded LePage’s veto of a flawed bill, and called on lawmakers to sustain the veto and send the bill back to committee for more work.

“After half of Maine said ‘no’ to the marijuana legalization initiative, it is unfathomable to pass a bill with so many gifts to the pot industry at the expense of youth and communities,” said Scott Gagnon, the director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana Maine. “We now call on … the Marijuana Legalization Implementation committee to bring public health to the table, and fix these significant issues.”

This story will be updated.

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