Pot stores are opening in Massachusetts. You can now grow your own in Maine and Vermont. And Connecticut’s new governor says legalizing marijuana will be a priority of his. When Rhode Island lawmakers return to Smith Hill next month they will find the regional marijuana landscape greening around them.

PROVIDENCE — Pot stores are opening in Massachusetts. You can now grow your own in Maine and Vermont. And Connecticut’s new governor says legalizing marijuana will be a priority of his.

When Rhode Island lawmakers return to Smith Hill next month they will find the regional marijuana landscape greening around them.

That reality will influence the strategies both sides of the pot legalization argument employ this time around, they say. Despite years of hearings and study commissions, the question of legalization has never reached lawmakers for a vote.

“With the reality of it being all around us, I think folks have to look at it a little harder now,” said Scott Slater, a Democratic state representative from Providence who has seen his perennial legalization legislation stall every year.

“Even if you’re against recreational cannabis and you feel there are social costs to it, you’re going to be dealing with those issues within your own borders, regardless, and without any of the revenue you could be raising. You might as well regulate it and tax it and put some of that money toward prevention.”

Kevin A. Sabet, president of the national anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), says, “Rhode Island is definitely a priority for us going into 2019. If anything, the stakes have gotten higher in terms of the effects of legalization around the country.”

Ten states have legalized recreational marijuana: Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.

Sabet says data his group has released shows marijuana use among all age groups 12 and older “has gone way up since legalization” in Colorado and Washington.

“All this talk of legalization is obscuring the fact that today’s marijuana is so much more harmful,” said Sabet. “This is not your Woodstock-variety weed. It is high potency. It tells me we need to talk less about legalization and talk more about prevention and treatment, given where Rhode Island is right now.”

Slater says the legislation he plans to introduce would give communities options to restrict marijuana sales, just as some Massachusetts communities did.

“I need to be sure everyone is comfortable with the regulations around it,” he said. “I need to get my fellow legislators to see it is a safer policy to tax and regulate than prohibition, which hasn’t worked.”

If lawmakers were to approve recreational marijuana, Slater said the state’s medical marijuana program, now better regulated with seed-to-sale tracking of product and upcoming lab testing, could speed implementation.

“I don’t think it would be a big deal to flip the switch to recreational,” said Slater.

Well, not so fast, said Norman Birenbaum, the state’s top medical marijuana regulator.

“It would not simply be flipping a light switch,” he said. Noting it took Massachusetts two years after voter approval before the first (and so far only two) retail stores opened, he said a multitude of issues would have to be ironed out, including establishing licensing requirements for retail centers, determining a cap for licenses, deciding the role municipalities would play, and how tax proceeds would be split.

Still, says Matthew Schweich, deputy director of the national pro-legalization group Marijuana Project, the landscape is shifting around Rhode Island.

“The piece of it that has changed is even those who are on the fence [about legalization], even they have to see that pragmatically there’s a pretty strong reason to get ahead on this,” and legalize, said Schweich.

“Regardless of what the General Assembly does, Rhode Island adults will be buying legal marijuana from Massachusetts stores and, perhaps Connecticut, very soon.”

Rhode Island “already has society problems that are caused by people using and abusing various substances,” Schweich said. “Those problems are going to exist whether you legalize or not.” But by regulating and taxing marijuana, “you actually have the money to fund those programs that can address those problems.”

As far as Rhode Island leaders are concerned, Gov. Gina Raimondo has said she remains open to legalization, provided steps are taken to keep the drug away from children.

House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello said Monday that while recreational marijuana would raise money for the state, “it will also increase social costs and public safety concerns ...We will have to determine what the net impact would be for Rhode Island in light of the legal sales in Massachusetts and other states.”

Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio said while he continued to keep an open mind on legal pot, he had “significant concerns, particularly with regard to workforce issues, enforcement around [marijuana] edibles, and impact on children. I will look to the experience in Massachusetts as legalization is implemented there, and proceed very cautiously as we continue to have this important public discussion.”