A top Connecticut lawmaker said on Monday that he expects to reach a deal with the governor on a bill to legalize marijuana by the end of the week.<\/p>\n
For weeks, legislators have been negotiating with Gov. Ned Lamont\u2019s (D) office<\/a> on the details of the legislation, working to resolve a proposal put forward by the governor earlier this year with a separate measure favored by activists. Now an agreement appears to be imminent.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we have a general agreement in terms of the important issues that have been out there for most of the session, which is getting around this definition of an equity applicant and ensuring that equity is the basis for passing that bill,\u201d House Majority Leader Jason Rojas (D) said in a briefing with reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to hopefully meet today and tomorrow,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to have a some more formalized agreement by the end of this week.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the discussion about a marijuana legalization deal, starting at 1:22 into the video below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n With the legislative session ending on June 9, there\u2019s a sense of urgency to enact the reform. Given that deadline, House Speaker Matt Ritter (D) said earlier this month that the legislature would be open to\u00a0taking up the issue in a special session<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ritter said on Monday that Rojas spends \u201cseven hours going line by line\u201d through the bill each day to ensure that equity is a fixture of the legalization bill. That\u2019s welcome news for advocates who expressed early criticism of Lamont\u2019s proposal over its lack of focus on repairing the harms of the drug war.<\/p>\n \u201cThis deal has been a long time coming, but I\u2019m excited that after hearing from impacted communities and equity experts, our leadership is ready to get this done,\u201d Jason Ortiz, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all win with an equitable market and it\u2019s exciting to hear our work has paid off and we are ready to move our state forward, together,\u201d Ortiz, who is also the policy director for the pro-legalization advocacy group CURE CT and served as a member of a legalization working group assembled by Lamont that issued recommendations on social equity, said.<\/p>\n The governor\u2019s chief of staff recently 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.<\/p>\n A bill to legalize marijuana for adult use that Lamont proposed as part of his budget cleared the Judiciary Committee last month<\/a>\u00a0after 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 According to recent polling, if legalization did go before voters, it would pass.<\/p>\n Sixty-four percent of residents in the state favor legalizing cannabis for adult use, a survey from Sacred Heart University that was released last week found.<\/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 Texas Senate Approves Psychedelics And Marijuana Concentrates Bills<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Connecticut Marijuana Legalization Deal Expected This Week, Top Lawmaker Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A top Connecticut lawmaker said on Monday that he expects to reach a deal with the governor on a bill to legalize marijuana by the end of the week. For weeks, legislators have been negotiating with Gov. Ned Lamont\u2019s (D) office on the details of the legislation, working to resolveContinue 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":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47846"}],"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=47846"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47847,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47846\/revisions\/47847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Connecticut Marijuana Legalization Deal Expected This Week, Top Lawmaker Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"