The Montana Senate has endorsed a bill to wrest recreational marijuana tax revenues away from outdoor conservation funding and redirect those dollars toward addiction treatment and prevention.
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The change of tone is a serious one: rather than maintaining trails and funding wildlife research, Senate Bill 307 would also establish a new “marijuana law enforcement office” within the Montana Department of Justice.
“Do we care more about those babies, mothers, teenagers, than habitat? I would submit to you that the deer, the elk, the ducks, the geese are all doing pretty good in Montana,” said the bill’s sponsor, Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, a Billings Republican.
The most salient argument from marijuana opponents goes like this: The revenue source should be coupled to the way that money is eventually spent. Gas tax revenue, McGillvray has repeatedly pointed out, goes to roads and bridges.
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McGillvray and others this session have worked to focus policy around the perceived harms of marijuana legalization, including higher addiction rates related to high potency marijuana or the effects of drugs on the family environment.
The bill would lift the $6 million cap on the Healing and Ending Addiction through Recovery and Treatment (HEART) Fund, instead routing 26% of the revenues from the tax on marijuana sales into this mechanism, which leverages federal dollars toward substance abuse prevention efforts.
The law enforcement components of the bill would target illegal marijuana operations through the DOJ’s Division of Criminal Investigation through the creation of two enforcement teams, one in eastern Montana and the other in western Montana, along with a prosecutor.
Democrats making up most of the opposition to SB 307 tried to highlight the benefits of the current funding structure during Thursday’s debate on the bill.
“We’ve been able to create access to hundreds of thousands of acres with these funds already. We’ve been able to build hundreds of miles of trail, and we’ve been able to maintain our parks in the face of historic visitation,” Senate Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade said. “… The needs related to the recreational marijuana are real and I think we need to fund them. And in my opinion there’s other ways to do it.”
Other opponents urged the Senate not to pit the two interests of conservation and substance abuse prevention against each other.
State fiscal analysts forecast the industry will haul in about $63 million in the next fiscal year. Recreational marijuana sales are taxed at 20%, while medical products are sold with a 4% tax. Cities and counties, meanwhile, have the option of imposing additional taxes locally.
“Why can’t we do both at the same time?” Sen. Emma Kerr-Carpenter, D-Billings, asked during the Senate floor debate on Thursday. “From my perspective, the problem with (this bill) is that we are having to make a choice, and we don’t have to. We can do both.”
McGillvray countered that the state’s account to purchase habitat currently has $33 million in reserves, but spent only $400,000 last year.
“They don’t need to take it from marijuana revenue, which should be used to address the harms,” he said. “This is a personal bill for me. When you’ve had family members or friends who have been destroyed by THC, it gets personal.”
The Senate endorsed the bill Thursday on a 30-20 vote; it now heads to the Senate Finance and Claims committee for further consideration.
Seaborn Larson has worked for the Montana State News Bureau since 2020. His past work includes local crime and courts reporting at the Missoulian and Great Falls Tribune, and daily news reporting at the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell.
“}]] The bill would steer those revenues on drug abuse prevention and also establish a new “marijuana law enforcement office” within the Montana Department of Justice. Read More
