Sen. Jeanette White (D-Windham) plans to introduce a revised version of a legalization bill that the Senate passed last year to allow for possession and sale of taxed marijuana starting in 2019. While last year’s bill easily passed the Senate, it failed in the House.
White’s effort would be in an amendment to another Senate bill — H.167 — expected to be up for action on the Senate floor Friday. Her revision would add legalization of homegrown marijuana.
Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington) said he plans to vote for White’s amendment. But anticipating that it’s unlikely to pass the House, he has another, less ambitious plan. He’ll offer up legislation to establish a study committee that would figure out how Vermont could tax and regulate marijuana. He plans to present it as an amendment to another bill on the Senate floor next week.
Both White and Sears said they were frustrated that the House has not acted on legalization this year.
“We had fully counted on the House passing H.170,” Sears said, referring to the House’s pending legalization bill. “We felt like, ‘What do we do next?'”
The House Judiciary Committee crafted H.170, which would legalize possession of up to an ounce and a
The bill is pending in the House Human Services Committee, where chair Ann Pugh (D-South Burlington) said there are no plans to vote on it this week.
“That’s probably as far a prediction as anybody can make,” said House Assistant Majority Leader Tristan Toleno (D-Brattleboro).
Rep. Maxine Grad (D-Moretown), chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a sponsor of H.170, said she still holds out hope that H.170 will pass the House this year. Grad specifically focused her efforts on eliminating penalties for personal possession and use of marijuana, rather than creating a system to regulate legal marijuana.
As for Sears’ plan, she’s not excited. “I don’t think the next step is a study of tax and regulate,” Grad said.
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
we will be losing more population to ma and maine by then.they need to stop slacking and legalize
Every legislator of importance on this issue seems to have their own ideas of ‘how’ we should legalize marijuana, but none of them have the political courage to actually do it.
The time has come for this to pass. Please has the courage to stand up for what is right and just pass the bill already! Politically this should be a no-brainer, this is not a partisan issue.
Three years ago VT paid the Rand corporation to conduct that same study we demand this year. Apparently that was 20 million to learn nothing about how we can legalize. Stop wasting money every year and just pass it already!
Marijuana won’t be legalized until the gold doomers figure out how to best tax the stoners. If anyone really believes this will be a big revenue generator, think again.
It would be a pretty sad indictment of Vermont, considered a socially just and progressive state, if we become one of the last democratic states to legalize marijuana. I’m incredibly disappointed in Speaker Johnson and whoever else is holding up this overdue legislation. Alcohol is more dangerous, cigarettes are more dangerous, opiates are more dangerous, prescription drugs are more dangerous. Legalizing will not change the amount of use, rather it will control quality and where the revenue is directed. Everyone who would use legalized marijuana is using it now.
We should be encouraging marijuana use over opiates, we should be taxing marijuana use for the good of our community. We look back at prohibitionists as ignorant and short-sighted, it would be sad to look back at Vermont’s once-proud legislature this way as we fall further behind. How can anyone possibly justify legalizing alcohol and tobacco and not legalizing a safer drug, marijuana? Marijuana will continue to be legalized, as was same-sex marriage, and civil rights, because it is the right thing to do. Vermont legislators: Please do not continue needlessly delaying while Vermont taxpayers and residents are being harmed by losing tens of millions of dollars each year.