S.22 also calls for a commission to study how the state might eventually tax and regulate the drug. House Judiciary Committee Chair Maxine Grad (D-Moretown) said she’ll ask her committee Wednesday to recommend the full House pass the bill.
“I will put this on the table and see what happens,” Grad said Tuesday. “I’m pretty confident I have the votes [in committee] to concur. Then beyond that, I don’t know.”
The bill is up for consideration on the House calendar Wednesday, though delays are always possible. Lawmakers are planning to adjourn for the year this week.
The move is the latest twist in a long and winding path for marijuana legalization in the legislature. Advocates have indicated they believe this compromise measure will pass.
If the House goes along with Grad’s recommendation — and Gov. Phil Scott signs on — Vermont would be the first state to legalize marijuana through legislation instead of by a public vote.
The Senate’s bill would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, along with home growing of two mature plants and four seedlings. It would establish a commission to make recommendations to the legislature by year’s end for how the state could tax and regulate legal sale of weed, which voters in both Massachusetts and Maine have approved.
Grad had initially been unreceptive to the Senate’s study because she doesn’t favor a tax-and-regulate model. But she said Tuesday she thinks the study is sensibly laid out in the bill.
“Whether you’re for or against or neutral on tax and regulate, I think the commission will give us some good information,” Grad said. “Nothing could happen until it comes back to the legislature.”
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
as absurd as this entire cannabis process has been, the house should pass this tomorrow imo.
no homegrown/personal amounts until 2018 is awful, that should not have been pushed back, makes no sense.
that said, pass this and make gov. scott sign it, if he doesn’t, and says too bad to 60% of vermont that wants legal, then he will have a tough time getting re-elected (hopefully). enough is enough. the time to legalize in vermont is now.
the failing medical program and their monopoly is coming to an end, CVD has indeed seen their day, and it’s time for real vermonters to start providing craft cannabis for the masses. let’s get this done!
Let’s end the war on drugs in VT. Let’s end prohibition, and stop the war on people.
It’s about time!
I will be amazed and impressed if Mitzi Johnson manages to do one right thing. Of course this doesn’t help taxpayers, and not helping taxpayers seems to be her main focus, but hopefully this will get us over the hump and wiser heads will eventually prevail and legalize the sale of marijuana in Vermont. We can only hope the famously backwards legislators in Florida, Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi don’t beat us to it.
I believe they shouldnt have pushed it to 2018. Whatz the point of arresting an charging people up until july of 2018, for it all to go away in a year anyway. Stupid, and a waste of our tax dollars at work, trying to fight something, that will just be dropped 12 months or less later.
Another example of false economy. Legalizing marijuana growth. sales and usage in Vermont will end up costing more than it ever brings in, but then VT has never shown much sense when it comes to budgeting anyway. The answer has always been to raise taxes. Personally, I don’t care if some people want to destroy their health for they deserve it, but don’t masquerade legalization as something that will be good for the Vermont economy.