Montana Senators Weigh Bills To Limit Marijuana To 15% THC And Take Cannabis Revenue Away From Outdoor Conservation Programs

Lawmakers on a Montana Senate panel considered two cannabis bills at a hearing Thursday morning: one that would cap marijuana products at 15 percent total THC and another that would adjust where millions of dollars in revenue from legal sales would go.

Members of the Senate Business, Labor and Economic Affairs Committee took public testimony on both bills—SB 443 and SB 307, respectively—but the panel did not take action on either proposal.

A separate measure, which would require Montana adults to obtain a $200 license every year to legally use recreational marijuana, was on the hearing agenda but not called for discussion. In response to an inquiry from Marijuana Moment, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Greg Hertz (R) replied simply: “SB 255 hearing was canceled.”

Hertz is also the lead sponsor of the THC potency bill, SB 443, which he introduced earlier this week. If approved, that measure would set a 15 percent limit on total THC in all non-medical marijuana products. It would also clarify that “total THC” includes multiple forms of THC, including delta-9 THC, THC-A and THCP.

Under current state law, marijuana flower is capped at 35 percent THC, though other products in the state don’t have potency limits. Flower in most state adult-use markets typically contains between about 10 percent and 30 percent THC.

During public testimony on Thursday, dozens of industry representatives, policy advocates and individual commenters spoke out against the plan, warning that it would hurt marijuana growers and retailers, cause consumers to smoke more heavily and likely fuel the illicit market.

Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), told the panel that many consumers—including her husband—use cannabis to improve sleep and manage pain.

“This bill would require Montanans to smoke more cannabis for the same effect, increasing costs and risks such as bronchitis,” she said. “It would drive most of the demand to the illicit market, where cannabis is sometimes laced with fentanyl. Some will try to make concentrates at home, resulting in more hazardous extractions, causing explosions, injuries and deaths. It would recklessly push the entire vape market underground.”

In written testimony, MPP pointed out that no other state has set THC limits as low as the Montana bill proposes.

“The lowest limit on flower in any state is 30%, while the lowest cap on concentrates (excluding vape cartridges) is 60%,” it says. “The majority of states have no cap at all.”

Jackson Kajander, a marijuana grower, told lawmakers that it’s taken him years to grow and develop his genetic library of cannabis varieties, which would need to be rebuilt if the 15 percent THC limit becomes law.

“I currently don’t grow any strains that test under 20 percent THC. It would be beyond challenging to suddenly switch my genetic library to 15 percent or lower,” he said, adding: “It typically takes between 12 to 18 months to fully vet a strain before it’s determined to be a keeper.”

When senators asked how long it would take to “draw down” the library and reduce marijuana to under 15 percent THC, Kajander’s brother, Evan Kajander, noted that replacing products could take years.

“There would be no drawing down of the library. The library would be killed, and we would have to start over,” he explained. “There is no way to make a 25 percent potency plant suddenly be 12 [percent], and so we would have to start from scratch.”

Just beginning to rebuild the team’s library, he said, would likely take between 12 and 24 months.

In an alert to supporters prior to Thursday’s committee hearing, the advocacy group NORML said the proposal “seeks to fundamentally alter the state’s voter-approved adult-use legalization law,” echoing warnings cited by other speakers.

“Prohibiting adults from accessing higher-THC products from state-licensed retailers will not eliminate consumers’ demand for them. Rather, it will encourage consumers to seek out higher-THC products from the unregulated market,” NORML said. “It will also move the production of these products exclusively underground. This undermines the primary goal of legalization, which is to provide consumers with safe, above-ground access to lab-tested products of known purity, potency, and quality.”

In testimony to the panel, the group’s deputy director, Paul Armentano, also said that “Rather than banning these products, regulators should provide the public with better safety information about the effects of more potent products, and they should continue to ensure that legal products do not get diverted to the youth market.”

“Unlike alcohol,” his testimony noted, “THC is incapable of causing a lethal overdose in humans.”

Total amount limits of THC allowed Montana cannabis products would not change under SB 443. Capsules would still be limited to 100 milligrams per capsule and 800 mg per package, tinctures to 800 mg, edibles to 100 mg per package and 10 mg per serving, transdermal patches and suppositories to 100 mg each and 800 mg per package, topicals to 6 percent THC and no more than 800 mg per package and all other products to 800 mg.

Several commenters pointed out that the bill includes no fiscal analysis, which means lawmakers could overlook revenue losses that might result from the THC cap if it pushes consumers into the illicit market. MPP pointed out in its testimony that Montana took in more than $50 million in tax revenue from legal cannabis in 2023.

Other speakers took issue with the bill’s use of the word “slavery.” In its preamble, the measure says that “we reject the slavery of addiction that comes from the high-potency THC industry and its destructive products,” which some commenters called inappropriate.

Lawmakers at Thursday’s hearing also took public testimony on SB 307, from Sen. Tom McGillvray (R). That measure would eliminate marijuana tax revenue currently flowing to fish and wildlife management and public spaces, as well as disbursements to a veteran’s fund and the Montana Board of Crime Control. Instead, more revenue would flow to the state’s general fund as well as the state’s Healing and Ending Addiction through Recovery and Treatment (HEART) Fund.

Commenters were divided on the proposal, with some claiming that marijuana tax revenue should logically go toward funding addiction treatment and recovery. Others, however, worried about the effects of taking money away from public lands and wildlife programs.

Last month, a coalition of conservation groups raised concerns about the governor’s office and state lawmakers reallocating the “historic investment” in the outdoors that cannabis revenue represents in Montana.

As for the adult-use registration bill meanwhile, that measure—SB 255—would require adult-use cannabis consumers to register and pay a $200 annual fee to participate in the legal program that voters approved in 2020.

Adults would pay the fee each year to the state Cannabis Control Division, which would enroll them in the program and issue ID cards.

Upon applying for the card, there would be a 60-day period where adults could access marijuana from licensed retailers. But if they don’t pay the fee by the end of that window, the division “shall cancel the temporary marijuana identification card.”

The text of SB 255 states that a “marijuana cardholder shall keep the individual’s marijuana identification card in the individual’s immediate possession at all times. The marijuana identification card and a valid photo identification must be displayed on demand of a law enforcement officer, justice of the peace, or city or municipal judge.”

The legislation would further amend the current state code to replace language providing for “legal possession and use of limited amounts of marijuana legal for adults 21 years of age or older” with “marijuana cardholders and registered cardholders.”

Legalization advocates have balked at the proposal, noting that Montana would be the first state to require adults to register and pay a fee to use marijuana.

“This is an outrageous attempt to gut the will of the people and re-criminalize cannabis for most Montanans,” O’Keefe at MPP, told Marijuana Moment after the measure was introduced.

“No other adult-use state forces cannabis consumers to enroll in a state registry, and the people’s initiative explicitly prohibits this surveillance and government overreach,” she said. “Re-criminalizing cannabis for anyone who does not pay $200 per year to register with the state is an affront to Montana voters who made their voices clear when they passed Initiative I-190.”

NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano separately told Marijuana Moment that “the goal of this legislation is to circumvent the will of the majority.”

“Demanding adult consumers pay for a state-issued ID card and then requiring them to keep that ID card in their ‘immediate possession at all times’ undermines the fundamental freedoms that 57 percent of Montanans voted for.” he said. “Lawmakers cannot on the one hand espouse the principles of personal freedom, limited government, personal privacy and on the other give any serious consideration to this legislation.”

Both MPP and NORML have urged supporters to contact their lawmakers and ask them to oppose the bill.

Montana Conservation Groups Urge Officials Not To Take Away Marijuana Revenue Support

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.