Legislative leaders will meet with the office of Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) on Tuesday to continue negotiating a plan to legalize marijuana in the state\u2014a development that comes as a new poll shows majority support for the policy change among voters.<\/p>\n
With the legislative session ending on June 9, there\u2019s a sense of urgency to enact the reform, which has long been a goal of the Lamont administration and top lawmakers. They\u2019ve held several meetings to reach an agreement about what a legal cannabis market should look like, but there are still some sticking points that need to be resolved.<\/p>\n
House Majority Leader Jason Rojas (D) said negotiations are currently centering on who would qualify as a social equity applicant. Getting that designation would come with benefits in the cannabis business licensing process.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working with the administration. We have a meeting lined up for this evening. We\u2019ve certainly gotten some edits from the administration that we were able to consider,\u201d he said during a press briefing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really finalizing on getting down to the definition of an equity applicant. I think that\u2019s been the primary goal for folks on both sides of the discussion,\u201d he said. \u201cWe do have a definition that we\u2019ll share with the administration so that we can move forward from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the tight deadline legislators are facing\u2014in addition to the progress being made in negotiations\u2014House Speaker Matt Ritter (D) said earlier this month that the legislature would be open to taking up the issue in a special session<\/a> to resolve differences between the legalization bills that have been put forward by lawmakers and Lamont.<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s chief of staff said that administration officials have been \u201cmeeting with legislative negotiators,\u201d and they\u2019re \u201cwaiting for them to provide us a revised draft\u201d of a reform bill. It appears that lawmakers are making some progress toward that goal with Rojas saying they will present the governor\u2019s office with a new equity definition on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n Advocates are pleased to see the high-level discussions reaching the point of nailing down what kind of cannabis business constitutes an equity applicant.<\/p>\n \u201cDefining equity has always been at the heart of the legalization conversation and I\u2019m encouraged that our legislative champions are laser focused on getting this right,\u201d Jason Ortiz, the policy director for the pro-legalization advocacy group CURE CT and a member of a legalization working group assembled by Lamont that issued recommendations on social equity. \u201cThis is the hard part, but getting here is a strong sign we are close to final language and that\u2019s incredibly exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n According to a new poll<\/a>, Connecticut voters are done waiting for legalization to happen.<\/p>\n Sixty-four percent of residents in the state favor legalizing cannabis for adult use, the survey<\/a> from Sacred Heart University that was released on Tuesday found.<\/p>\n Further, 76 percent of respondents said that marijuana has the same or fewer effects compared to alcohol. And 62 percent said they favor expunging prior cannabis convictions.<\/p>\n They survey involved interviews with 1,000 residents from April 20-26. And the results are consistent with past polling on the subject.<\/p>\n A bill to legalize marijuana for adult use that the governor proposed as part of his budget cleared the Judiciary Committee last month<\/a> after being amended by the panel. But if a legalization measure isn\u2019t enacted this year, Lamont said earlier this month that he anticipates that the issue could go before voters.<\/p>\n \u201cMarijuana is sort of interesting to me. When it goes to a vote of the people through some sort of a referendum, it passes overwhelmingly. When it goes through a legislature and a lot of telephone calls are made, it\u2019s slim or doesn\u2019t pass,\u201d the governor said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to do it through the legislature. Folks are elected to make a decision, and we\u2019ll see where it goes. If it doesn\u2019t, we\u2019ll probably end up in a referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n Ritter similarly said last year that if the legislature isn\u2019t able to pass a legalization bill, he will move to put\u00a0a question on the state\u2019s 2022 ballot that would leave the matter to voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n A competing legalization measure from Rep. Robyn Porter (D), which is favored by many legalization advocates for its focus on social equity, was\u00a0approved in the Labor and Public Employees Committee<\/a>\u00a0in March.<\/p>\n Lamont, who convened an informal work group in recent months to\u00a0make recommendations on the policy change<\/a>, initially described his legalization plan as a \u201ccomprehensive framework for the cultivation, manufacture, sale, possession, use, and taxation of cannabis that prioritizes public health, public safety, and social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n But while advocates have strongly criticized the governor\u2019s plan as inadequate when it comes to equity provisions, Ritter said in March that\u00a0\u201coptimism abounds\u201d as lawmakers work to merge proposals<\/a>\u00a0into a final legalization bill.<\/p>\n Rojas also said that \u201cin principle, equity is important to both the administration and the legislature, and we\u2019re going to work through those details.\u201d<\/p>\n To that end, the majority leader said that working groups have been formed in the Democratic caucuses of the legislature to go through the governor\u2019s proposal and the committee-approved reform bill.<\/p>\n In February, a Lamont administration official stressed during a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee that Lamont\u2019s proposal it is \u201cnot a final bill,\u201d and\u00a0they want activists \u201cat the table\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to further inform the legislation.<\/p>\n The legislature has considered legalization proposals on several occasions in recent years, including a bill that Democrats\u00a0introduced last year on the governor\u2019s behalf<\/a>. Those bills stalled, however.<\/p>\n Lamont\u00a0reiterated his support for legalizing marijuana<\/a>\u00a0during his annual State of the State address in January, stating that he would be working with the legislature to advance the reform this session.<\/p>\n Ritter said in November that\u00a0legalization in the state is \u201cinevitable.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0He added later that month that \u201cI think it\u2019s got\u00a0a 50\u201350 chance of passing<\/a>\u00a0[in 2021], and I think you should have a vote regardless.\u201d The governor said in an interview earlier this year that he puts the odds of his legislation passing at\u00a0\u201c60-40 percent chance.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n The governor has compared the\u00a0need for regional coordination on marijuana policy<\/a>\u00a0to the coronavirus response, stating that officials have \u201cgot to think regionally when it comes to how we deal with the pandemic\u2014and I think we have to think regionally when it comes to marijuana, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n He also said that legalization in Connecticut could\u00a0potentially reduce the spread of COVID-19<\/a>\u00a0by limiting out-of-state trips to purchase legal cannabis in neighboring states such as Massachusetts and New Jersey.<\/p>\n Mississippi Voters Want To Impeach Justices Who Overturned Medical Marijuana, Poll Shows<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Connecticut Lawmakers Hold Marijuana Meeting With Governor\u2019s Office As New Poll Shows Majority Support For Legalization<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Legislative leaders will meet with the office of Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) on Tuesday to continue negotiating a plan to legalize marijuana in the state\u2014a development that comes as a new poll shows majority support for the policy change among voters. With the legislative session ending on June 9,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47752"}],"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\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47753,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47752\/revisions\/47753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Connecticut Lawmakers Hold Marijuana Meeting With Governor\u2019s Office As New Poll Shows Majority Support For Legalization<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"