(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) 

The tax

The Massachusetts House has proposed a 28 percent tax on marijuana products.

The Massachusetts Senate wants a 12 percent tax, which is what the voters approved.

Lawmakers are likely to meet in the middle.

The current law calls for a 3.75 percent excise tax, on top of the state's 6.25 percent sales tax. The local community could add on a 2 percent tax, so the range would be 10 percent to 12 percent.

Legalization advocates say if the tax is too high, the black market won't be curbed as they intended.

Gintautas Dumcius/MassLive.com
 

Voter referendum or local government control?

Under the current law, local voters could vote to ban marijuana in their community. The Senate keeps that in place.

The House seeks to place control into the hands of local governmental bodies. The Massachusetts Municipal Association supports the change, saying, "The flaws and lack of clarity in the existing language is bogging down the zoning process, and is forcing a growing number of communities to adopt moratoriums."

(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File) 

The Cannabis Control Commission

Both the House and the Senate agree on expanding the Cannabis Control Commission, would oversee licensing of retail pot shops, to five members. Under current law, the commission would have three members. Appointment power on the commission would be divided between the governor, the state attorney general and the state treasurer. The original voter-approved law called for the state treasurer to have more control, since activists who wrote the law modeled it in part of regulating marijuana like alcohol, which falls under the treasurer's office.

The Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy, with co-chair Rep. Mark Cusack, held a public hearing earlier this year. (Don Treeger / The Republican)

Deadline is end of the month

Lawmakers have said they're aiming to get a bill to the governor's desk on June 30. Gov. Charlie Baker has said the deadline is important because the regulatory apparatus needs time to get up and running before retail pot shops open on July 1, 2018.

Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, center. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)AP Photo/Steven Senne 

There's already been changes made in delaying opening of retail pot shops

In January 2017, lawmakers sped a bill to Gov. Baker's desk delaying the opening of retail pot shops by six months. The move drew outcry from legalization advocates who wrote the law and said the changes were unnecessary. Lawmakers said the changes were needed in order to give them time to work on bigger changes to the voter-approved law.

(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, file)Robert F. Bukaty 

They're actually trying to change two voter-approved pot laws

What's grabbed fewer headlines amid the debate over changes to the recreational marijuana law? Changes to the medical marijuana law. Passed by voters in 2012, the medical marijuana system is under the state Department of Public Health. Both the House and the Senate are interested in rolling the system under the oversight of the Cannabis Control Commission.