Leaders are cloistered under the ornate, marble dome. Everyone outside is anxiously awaiting the puff of white smoke that will signal consensus.
No, not the election of a new pope in Vatican City — the pot bill in the Vermont Statehouse!
A bill to decriminalize possession of “small” amounts of marijuana — two ounces or less — is one of the most hotly anticipated of the year. That’s because after a messy showdown in Senate last year, the bill’s main obstacle — House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morrisville) — agreed that he would allow the legislation to proceed in his chamber this year.
But with two weeks to go until the mid-session “crossover” deadline — the lawmaker equivalent of an all-star break — the bill hasn’t made an appearance. There’s been no sign of it in committee and no word about a hearing. You’d have better luck finding a bag of Cheetos in a UVM dorm room at 4:20.
Well, stoners, take heart. Sen. Dick Sears (D-Bennington) let slip to Seven Days that House and Senate leaders have made a deal to grant the decrim bill an extension, allowing it to survive the mid-March crossover deadline. “If they were to pass a bill and it came over two weeks after crossover deadline, we’d still consider it,” Sears said this week.
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*pot joke*
Oh Great, like Florida, Texas and other backwoods bastions, the lege wants to make it harder, nor easier for people suffering pain to obtain needed relief? These legislators are not doctors, well-trained professionals who take more than sufficient “heat” from the DEA already. Talk about pandering to your imagined voters concerns! Have you tried asking Granny how her arthritis pain medicine is coming, or how MS patients are dealing with the severe pain they suffer?
Get back to decriminalilzing pot and get off your high and mighty horses. If your intention is truly one of saving money by decriminalizing harmless drug abuse, then this issue is thoroughly a non starter. Try working on Single Payer and decriminalizing any crime that harm none but the perpetrator. Watch your jails empty, and as has been shown countless times in European nations, watch drug abuse actually go down.