The legislative leaders filed an amendment that removes the General Assembly from being the final arbiter of cannabis regulations and returns to the table several proposed rules for the medical pot program that the two men objected to just a week ago — including that six planned new medical marijuana dispensaries be retail-only stores.

PROVIDENCE — The state's licensed medical marijuana growers were breathing easier Monday after House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello and Senate President Dominick Ruggerio backed off from legislation they proposed that the cultivators said would have excluded them from vital new markets.

The legislative leaders filed an amendment that removes the General Assembly from being the final arbiter of cannabis regulations and returns to the table several proposed rules for the medical pot program that the two men objected to just a week ago — including that six planned new medical marijuana dispensaries be retail-only stores.

Mattiello and Ruggerio had proposed lifting that restriction, saying the new dispensaries should be allowed to grow their own medical marijuana, just as the state's three existing dispensaries do now.

They said their objections centered less on the merits of the proposed regulations than on their allegation that the Department of Business Regulation and the executive branch had overstepped their authority by proposing rules that went beyond what lawmakers intended when they approved the six new dispensaries last session.

Last week, dozens of cultivators turned out at legislative hearings in the House and Senate to object to the leaders' plan, saying it would put many of them out of business because they would have no new markets to sell to. And many of them noted that it was the General Assembly that created the industry of cultivators in the first place, in 2017.

Katie Sokol Ratkiewicz, a cultivator and president of the trade group Rhode Island Cannabis Association, said Monday that many of her members were thrilled that lawmakers had listened to their appeals.

“We’re so encouraged by this news and grateful to the General Assembly, our elected officials. They heard the concerns of hard-working business owners in our state, and they took our concerns seriously.”

The news of the amendment came just hours before the cannabis association was scheduled to meet in Pawtucket to discuss their lobbying strategy moving forward. Sokol Ratkiewicz said new figures from DBR showed that the cultivation industry employed some 576 workers.

"Although we are celebrating a small victory," she said, the new amendment "still has to pass the legislative process, and we plan to monitor the progress and make sure it is not amended on the floor until a vote."

In a joint statement, Mattiello and Ruggerio said: “For us, this bill was never about the merits of issues around the medical marijuana system in Rhode Island. This legislation was only about separation of powers issues. The fact is that the administration clearly overstepped their authority and attempted to legislate through their regulations.”

Gov. Gina Raimondo has argued it was the General Assembly that violated the constitutional separation of powers when it gave itself the power to approve or reject cannabis regulations. She has filed suit in hopes a judge rules on that question.

Had the General Assembly approved the original bill by Mattiello and Ruggerio, giving the new dispensaries unlimited growing rights, Raimondo has said, she would have vetoed the legislation.

The cultivators, of which there are currently 51 licensed, now supply medical marijuana to three dispensaries: the Thomas C. Slater Compassion Center, in Providence, the Summit Medical Compassion Center, in Warwick, and the Greenleaf Compassion Center, in Portsmouth.

The state began licensing them in 2017 to provide a more regulated product with an eye toward expanding the number of dispensaries. State regulators said more dispensaries would increase competition, lower prices, improve access for patients and curb the home-growing of medicinal marijuana.

Since then, lawmakers and Raimondo have debated just how many new dispensaries the state needs for the roughly 18,700 patients the program serves.

In June, a plan emerged from the state budget process that called for six new dispensaries. The DBR has proposed that the new dispensaries be situated in specific regions around the state to better meet patient needs, and also called for a market-demand assessment before more growing is allowed.