An even more scaled-back bill to decriminalize home-growing of up to two marijuana plants also failed on the House floor.
In the end, the chamber barely agreed to create a commission to study legalization. With the legislative session expected to end this week, marijuana legalization supporters conceded they’ve run out of time to try for more.
“This obviously is not what we were asking for,” said Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, who watched from the sidelines through the seven-hour-long debate Tuesday.
“This is a nothing,” said Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington), who had championed the Senate’s legalization bill.
Sears said he didn’t know whether he would recommend the Senate embrace the creation of a study commission, which did pass the House. “I’d need 24 hours to sleep on it,” he said.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, who pushed for legalization in his January State of the State address, sent out a statement almost immediately. “It is incredibly disappointing … that a majority of the House has shown a remarkable disregard for the sentiment of most Vermonters who understand that we must pursue a smarter policy when it comes to marijuana in this state,” he said.
The House vote against the Senate’s legalization plan, which would have taxed the sale of marijuana at state-permitted stores, wasn’t close: 121-28.
House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown), who said he would have voted against the Senate legalization bill but would vote for decriminalization of home cultivation, had warned that legalization lacked support in his chamber. Tuesday’s vote affirmed that.
What had been less clear until Tuesday’s vote was whether the House would support a scaled-back measure to remove criminal penalties for cultivation and possession of two pot plants. That went down by a 77-70 vote as Tuesday afternoon turned to evening.
Vermont has already decriminalized possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Supporters said removing criminal penalties for home-growing would allow users to avoid buying from drug dealers.
“I think it’s time we recognize the present system does put people into contact with some kind of criminal element,” said Rep. Chip Conquest (D-Newbury), lead sponsor of the decriminalization measure.
House members peppered Conquest with questions. If lawmakers decriminalize two plants and a person harvests 16 ounces, is he or she in violation of the law, asked Rep. Cynthia Browning (D-Arlington).
Not as long as the marijuana is kept in a secure place, Conquest said.
Still, Browning questioned the quantity, calling 16 ounces “not a small amount of marijuana.”
Shortly after 6:30 p.m., the House cast its last roll-call vote on the issue of creating a commission to study legalization and directing state agencies to expand drug prevention programs for youth and to increase drugged-driving training for police. It passed 77-68. The bill includes no money to fund those efforts, however.
As the day started, some House members urged their colleagues to embrace legalization. Rep. Chris Pearson (P-Burlington) questioned why it’s OK to drink a glass of chardonnay but not consume cannabis. He said it was time to treat marijuana more like alcohol.
“I think people are ready to take this conversation out of the shadows,” he said.
Rep. Maxine Grad (D-Moretown), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, countered that the Senate legalization bill, S. 241, would allow for a large-scale commercial marijuana market to take root in Vermont. “S. 241 is not the Vermont way,” she said.
After the House voted down the legalization measure, members turned their attention to decriminalization of growing two plants at home. House leaders had indicated the vote would be close. The 77-70 defeat included most Republicans, but also a few Democrats.
“I spent a half-hour last night with my chief of police,” said Rep. Kevin Christie (D-Hartford). “One of his direct comments was, ‘We’re not ready … This is not a solution.’”
House Minority Leader Don Turner (R-Milton) was opposed to both legalization and decriminalization. He failed, by a 97-51 vote, to pass an amendment to put the question of legalizing marijuana directly to voters on the August statewide primary election ballot. The question would be non-binding, as Vermont lacks a procedure for voter initiatives.
“I call this out pretty plainly as a Trojan horse,” House Majority Leader Sarah Copeland Hanzas (D-Bradford) told fellow Democrats. If Turner wanted an accurate gauge of public opinion, he would have chosen the November general election for a referendum, she said.
In 2012, 54,533 Vermonters voted in the primary and 301,793 voted in the general election, noted Assistant Majority Leader Kate Webb (D-Shelburne).
Turner said he chose the state primary election because it brings out a greater percentage of longtime Vermont residents, rather than college students who just register for a presidential election.
Marijuana legalization supporters said Tuesday that voters will get their say on the issue. “There will definitely be reverberations of this,” said Eli Harrington, founder of Vermontijuana, a cannabis reform information hub. “The roll-call votes taken today will not be forgotten.”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
This is a victory for long term legalization efforts. The language in every version of these bills was abhorrent. One version only allowed corporate interests to take control, and another expanded police authority on the roadside. I am not sure why our elected officials routinely miss the point entirely. I would rather take my chances buying and smoking locally grown weed than getting it at Starbucks and allowing the police to take my DNA on the side of the road.
The North Remembers.
Time to vote some clowns out of office, Vermont. These fine folks in the house clearly don’t understand representative democracy. I listened to most of the house proceedings yesterday and someone like Don Turner should not be employed as a representative of the people of Milton. In conflating opiate deaths and marijuana he showed a truly remarkable ignorance. Trotting out the tired “gateway drug” canard was embarrassing for him.
Message to Don- you know what the real gateway drug is? Being born and taking in that first gulp of sweet sweet oxygen. You said if you were “so lucky” to be back for the next legislative session that you hoped you’d have a better idea where Vermonters stood on legalization. Well, hopefully for the people of Milton and the rest of Vermont you’ll be watching that legislative session from the sidelines. It’s clear where the majority of Vermonters stand and if you can’t see that then buh-bye Donny.
Right on, Giles. I agree 100%. Thank you.
It is long past time for the House to come into the 21st century and produce a meaningful, non-corporate, system to allow the state to get revenues from a market that exists and produces nothing but costs to the state. Did we learn nothing from prohibition? My mother used to tell funny stories about transporting bathtub gin from Montpelier to St Johnsbury on Rt 2, tryig to avoid the cops.We have come a long way from that, but we still treat marijuana as a toxic and gateway drug when its uses in combating cancer are popping up everywhere. We are being overly cautious while drunk driving is still a problem but no one cares about the ones using weed. Regulate, tax it, and let it pay for itself.
It pissed me off yesterday when the head of the State Police was interviewed and he said this was a good outcome and he was happy about it. Good for who? The cops so they can keep acting macho and beating people over the head to justify their existence? He needs to be fired and we need a new more enlightened group down there in Montpeculier that represents us and not the law enforcement community and all the old farts who still believe in all the mythology around pot they learned in the fifties and sixties.
Very interesting stuff, in your newspaper. I came here because I am an expat in Sonora, MX and I wanted to see more about the local view of Sanders. I’ve been educated, thank you. (My family is from all over new England and VT too).
But this story, from my perspective, just means that the cartel mules who travel up my highway 100 miles to the Arizona border have yet one more destination where illegality makes it a perfect new target to unload their drugs for even higher profit. Apparently your politicians and police do not see this reality, or they ignore it.
And don’t think for a minute that it is only marijuana. After all these years the citizens of Vermont would know the War on Drugs has failed precisely because of this kind of stupidity.
I always gave your state a lot more credit than it may deserve. Since I returned from Iraq missions and retired, I never cease to be amazed at how little we Americans learn from the past. It’s the same all over the country, with few exceptions.
http://livinginsonora.blogspot.com/2015/10/don-pablo-el-chapo-trump-and-tv-never.html