O<\/span>n Wednesday morning, Vermont\u2019s senate passed a bill that will legalize cannabis in the state, sending the bill to the governor\u2019s desk to be signed into law, and establishing the state as the clear favorite to become the first in the nation to legalize cannabis through the legislature rather than ballot initiative.<\/p>\n The bill, H.551, passed Vermont\u2019s House of Representatives last Thursday<\/a>. Last year, Governor Phil Scott vetoed pretty much the same bill, but last December, he promised he was ready to sign off on H.551 on Vermont Public Radio<\/a>, citing his approval of the bill\u2019s \u201clibertarian approach.\u201d<\/p>\n While not as robust as some of the ballot initiatives the state has seen before, this bill will eliminate Vermont\u2019s civil penalty for possessing one ounce or less of marijuana and remove penalties for possession of up to two mature marijuana plants and up to four immature plants. The bill does not authorize a regulated commercial cannabis market. The new rules will kick in this July, assuming Gov. Scott follows up on his promise.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a big step forward for Vermont,\u201d said Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project. \u201cVermonters should be proud that their state is becoming the first to do this legislatively, rather than by ballot initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This also marks another victory for Simon, who has led marijuana reform efforts in Northern New England for a decade. We asked him his thoughts on the rapid pace of things to kick the year off.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really satisfying to finally see this bill go to the governor of Vermont\u2019s desk with him having clearly said he would sign it,\u201d Simon told Cannabis Now. \u201cSome people are still in the \u2018It\u2019s too good to be true\u2019 mode. I think they\u2019re waiting for something to go wrong somehow, but he\u2019s made it very clear he\u2019s going to sign the bill. Marijuana will be legal for adults to grow, possess and share.\u201d<\/p>\n When it came to circling the wagon after last year\u2019s near miss, Simon said they really didn\u2019t have to do much. \u201cThe heavy lifting was last summer,\u201d said Simon. They even gained a few votes last year. Simon also believes there weren\u2019t really any concessions from last year\u2019s bill prior to the governor\u2019s promise, and said \u201ceverything was certainly within reason from our perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n Simon said advocates will continue to work with elected officials on the details of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, New Hampshire\u2019s House of Representatives voted to pass a similar legalization bill<\/a> to the Vermont legislation. It\u2019s a big step forward, but advocates in New Hampshire realize they have a steep hill to climb, as New Hampshire\u2019s governor has already coming out against the bill. Plus, the bill hasn\u2019t yet passed New Hampshire\u2019s senate, where most progressive cannabis legislation has failed over the last decade in the \u201cLive Free or Die\u201d state.<\/p>\n Simon was particularly taken aback when New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu cited the current opioid crisis<\/a> devastating the state among his reasons for coming out against the legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really disappointed he would go there. A lot of people saw it as a step back for him,\u201d said Simon.<\/p>\n The bill is now on its way to the Ways and Means Committee, despite it not having anything to do with taxes. Simon thinks there\u2019s a chance the committee could send it back and say \u201cnone of our business,\u201d but he thinks the outlook on the bill\u2019s future is hazy.<\/p>\n No matter what happens, the bill will most likely make it to the senate, where Simon is expecting a lively debate.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n We asked Simon if he felt that Attorney General Jeff Sessions\u2019s recent announcement he would be rescinding the Cole Memo<\/a> had galvanized any lawmakers in New Hampshire or Vermont to a \u201cyes\u201d vote this week.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Simon replied. \u201cWhat happened in Vermont would have happened exactly the same way with or without the Department of Justice announcement. I doubt it impacted any votes in New Hampshire either. These are bills the legislators were going to act on anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n In Simon\u2019s view, it was more important to note that nobody was deterred by the DOJ announcement. \u201c[Sessions] was brought up on the house floor in Vermont and nobody seemed to care.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the rest of New England, Simon said, \u201cI think everyone is just trying to move things forward. There\u2019s an awareness that prohibition days are over and we need to figure out what the best public policies are. Obviously, the announcement from the Department of Justice had people asking a lot of questions and created some uncertainty for policymakers, but there\u2019s really a strong will in 2018 to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n Current San Francisco Cannabis Task Force member Jesse Stout led Rhode Island\u2019s effort to legalize medical marijuana<\/a> at the beginning of New England\u2019s wave of policy reform back in 2006. We asked his take on the pace of change to start the year.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a former New Englander myself, I\u2019m excited that Vermont and New Hampshire are racing to become the first states to legalize cannabis legislatively, with Connecticut heating up,\u201d Stout said. \u201cMaine and Massachusetts are both advancing towards implementing their 2016 initiatives this year. Rhode Island\u2019s two commissions studying medical cannabis improvement<\/a> and adult legalization are finally both active at the same time. After winning the low-hanging-fruit initiative states, the forefront of cannabis legalization is swinging back from the ballot box to state legislatures.\u201d<\/p>\n Stout said that he believes that Vermont\u2019s legalization will push Rhode Island towards similar action.<\/p>\n \u201cRhode Island legislators did not want to be the first state legislature to legalize adult-use cannabis. Last June, they voted to study the issue first instead. If Vermont does indeed legalize adult-use cannabis, as expected in the next few hours or days, then and only then will Rhode Island be ready to follow suit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you think Vermont will legalize cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Vermont Passes Cannabis Legalization Bill, Gov Says He\u2019ll Sign<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The weather may be freezing, but New England pot policy is heating up right out of the gate in 2018, with three big legalization votes since the new year began. On Wednesday morning, Vermont\u2019s senate passed a bill that will legalize cannabis in the state, sending the bill to theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,80,901,639,81,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22695,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22694\/revisions\/22695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
New Hampshire Also Moves Towards Legalization<\/h4>\n
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Other New England States Face Prohibition<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Vermont Passes Cannabis Legalization Bill, Gov Says He\u2019ll Sign<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"