Will Newport County communities allow pot sales? Here's how they voted.

Ballot approval of marijuana business licenses was one of the provisions in the Rhode Island Cannabis Act, which Gov. Dan McKee signed into law in May. The provision was designed for municipalities who may want to opt out of licensing these types of businesses.

Voters in every Newport County municipality except Portsmouth were asked:

"Shall new cannabis related licenses for businesses involved in the cultivation, manufacture, laboratory testing and for the retail sale of adult recreational use cannabis be issued in the city (or town)?"

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The legalization of retail pot sales and subsequent licensing of retail stores to sell marijuana to recreational users figured most prominently in the question.

Portsmouth’s citizens had no option to opt-out of legalizing recreational marijuana sales, as the town already has a medical marijuana facility which is currently in the process of acquiring a hybrid license to legally sell marijuana to both medical patients and recreational consumers.

Please note the tallies below are unofficial totals and could change slightly between now and the final ballot certification after Nov. 15.

Approve recreational marijuana sales

Newport – 4,253 (60.8%)

Middletown – 3,281 (56.9%)

Tiverton – 3,230 (54.8%)

Reject recreational marijuana sales

Jamestown – 1,608 (52.6%)

Little Compton – 1,141 (57.1%)

What happens next for the towns which voted to legalize retail pot sales?

The state’s Office of Cannabis Regulation has divided Rhode Island into six geographical zones, with a maximum of four recreational sales licenses available in each zone. Of the four retail licenses in each geographic zone, one shall be reserved for a workers' cooperative applicant and one shall be reserved for a social equity applicant, leaving two licenses per zone open to competitors on the free market. The licenses will be awarded by a three-member cannabis control commission appointed by the governor.

Newport County is entirely within zone 6, which consists of the towns of Barrington, Bristol, Jamestown, Little Compton, Middletown, New Shoreham, Portsmouth, Tiverton and Warren and the cities of East Providence, Newport and Pawtucket. This means in practice, even with Barrington, Jamestown and Little Compton rejecting legalization, not every municipality that approved recreational sales is guaranteed to end up with its own local weed shop.

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Adult recreational use marijuana sales will be taxed at a rate of 20%, broken down as follows: the standard sales tax of 7%, a retail excise tax of 10% and a 3% local sales tax going to the town.

The 7% sales tax will go into the state's general fund, while the 10% excise tax will go into a "marijuana trust fund" within the general fund aimed at supporting the marijuana program like administration, enforcement, awareness campaigns, treatment programs and police training.

WJAR in June reported the Rhode Island Department of Administration’s projections for recreational marijuana sales, which say the state would haul in about $7 million in sales and excise taxes through the first seven months of legalization — although startup costs are projected at approximately $5.9 million.

While the state is projecting to make only $368,000 of profit in the period from Dec. 1 to July 1, 2023, a look at neighboring Massachusetts gives an idea of how lucrative the marijuana industry can be. Five years into legalization and just over three years since its first dispensaries opened, WJAR reported Massachusetts is now home to 65 dispensaries generating more than $1 billion a year in revenue, with more than $110 million in tax dollars last year going to the commonwealth.

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In a legal guide to the new marijuana legislation, local law firm Partridge, Snow & Hahn indicated the cities and towns which opted out of recreational marijuana sales by voting no on the referendum question will not be able to participate in the revenue from recreational sales. Cities and towns which have voted to opt-out can only raise a vote to opt back in with a joint resolution of the General Assembly approving the measure.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: RI pot ballot question: How Newport, Middletown, Tiverton voted