Name: Legal weed still uncertain in Connecticut this year, despite momentum in New York and New Jersey
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Legal weed still uncertain in Connecticut this year, despite momentum in New York and New Jersey

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AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantApr 12, 2021 at 6:00 amHARTFORD — While New York and New Jersey have forged ahead in legalizing recreational marijuana, it is still not guaranteed that Connecticut will join them this year as lawmakers cannot agree on how cannabis tax revenue should be spent and how equity provisions should be crafted.House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Hartford Democrat, said the bill had a 50-50 chance before it was approved last week by the legislature’s influential judiciary committee by a 22-16 vote with three Democrats voting against the measure and breaking with the majority in their party.AdvertisementAfter the committee vote, Ritter was asked about his previous 50-50 prediction and his latest outlook on the bill’s chances. He paused and said, “Probably around that — still.”One of the biggest sticking points is lawmakers do not agree on how the marijuana tax money should be spent. Gov. Ned Lamont’s bill calls for 55% of the money going to initiatives to help communities that were harmed the most during the war on drugs, 15% for mental health and prevention and 30% to the state’s general fund to administer the marijuana program at agencies such as the state consumer protection department for regulations, testing, licensing and oversight.Advertisement“That seems to be where the most disagreement is among the states that have done this — what do you do with the money,” said Rep. Sean Scanlon, a Ritter ally who is the co-chair of the legislature’s tax-writing committee. “It’s what you do with the money that seems to be the real debate, and that’s the debate we’re going to be having in the finance committee.”Scanlon, for example, said that using only 15% of the money for mental health and prevention is too low. As the former co-chair of the legislature’s insurance committee, he has spent years pushing for increased funding for mental health.“There’s sort of a misconception that this bill is a big moneymaker for the state. It’s really not,” Scanlon said. “All of the money is pretty much already accounted for in this bill. It’s not like it’s going to bring in a whole lot of excess money that we’ll be able to use in the general fund.”Sen. Gary Winfield, a New Haven Democrat who is a member of the legislature’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, said the bill needs to have more equity provisions that would include parts of the judiciary bill and a separate bill that was already passed by the labor committee.The labor bill, for example, allows smokers to grow their own marijuana plants for recreational use, but the judiciary bill allows homegrown only for medical use. Both bills would allow workers in new marijuana jobs to join unions and also call for workforce development to help obtain employment for those with past convictions for marijuana-related crimes.“We are talking about the equity provisions and trying to get it right,” Winfield said. “We’re going to have a very long conversation about it.”Asked if lawmakers still have much more work to accomplish, he said, “We certainly do.”Sen. Doug McCrory, a Hartford Democrat, said that communities of color were particularly harmed by the war on drugs and have not benefited enough from the legalization of marijuana in states across the country.Advertisement“We have to make sure that the communities that have been marginalized have access in every aspect of this industry — from cultivation to dispensaries,” McCrory said in an interview Saturday. “There isn’t a state that has done this right. I’ve talked to people in Colorado. I’ve talked to people in Massachusetts. As far as the people who have been impacted by this war on drugs, they have not benefited.”McCrory said he is not interested in having a rich investor owning a marijuana business and then providing $15-per-hour jobs for workers in Hartford.“It’s not just going to be you own everything, and we come work for you,” McCrory said. “Ownership, that’s the key word. Ownership.”Since many workers who were arrested on marijuana charges might not want to work in the industry, McCrory is calling for a special fund to allow workers to open a restaurant, bakery or some other business.“Let’s set up a fund and let them decide what they want their futures to be — seed money, a funding stream from these dollars that we’re going to get from cannabis,” McCrory said. “It can’t be top down.”Rep. Robyn Porter, a New Haven Democrat, said during a public hearing in February that equity was “pretty much on the back burner and seems to be an afterthought” in the governor’s original marijuana bill. “I just want to make sure as we move forward ... that we put that on the front burner because those are the communities that have been disproportionately impacted.” As co-chair of the labor committee, she helped author the marijuana equity bill that passed there.AdvertisementRitter, who is known as one of the best predictors of vote counts at the Capitol, said the multiple objections need to be resolved in the coming weeks and months if the legislature is to pass a marijuana bill this year. He said compromises must be made if the 207-page bill is going to succeed. Support from Democratic lawmakers like Winfield and Porter will be crucial to the bill’s passage.“At the end of the day, people are going to have to probably vote for a bill where they don’t love certain provisions or they would have drafted a different way,” Ritter said. “Once people come to that conclusion, we might be in a good position to pass it. But if there is sort of the view that ‘nope, I didn’t get everything that I wanted’ or ‘I don’t like that one provision,’ it will be hard to pass. It will require cooperation.”With marijuana becoming legal in the region, Scanlon said that legalization is gaining momentum.“It’s not really possible for us to ignore this anymore,” he said. “If it doesn’t pass this year, I would be surprised if it doesn’t pass next year. The country is changing on this issue. It’s very popular with voters. While it’s a difficult thing to do because figuring out the tax piece and where the money goes is hard. There’s a lot of opinions on that across the political spectrum. The people of Connecticut probably want us to figure this out, and that’s why I think we will get it done this year.”Most Republicans remain opposed to legalizing marijuana, including House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford, but Democrats control both chambers of the General Assembly and GOP votes are not necessary for the bill to pass.Candelora rejects the idea that Connecticut should follow New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, adding, “I think all of those states have done it wrong. If Connecticut is going to do it, they should be looking toward Vermont,” which legalized marijuana and allowed residents to grow plants in their homes but did not immediately launch a retail market.AdvertisementHe said the Connecticut money distribution should be flip-flopped if the measure is passed. At least 50% of the money should go to mental health and rehabilitation with no money going directly to cities or towns, he said.“Communities weren’t harmed the most. It’s the people using the drugs that were harmed,” Candelora said. “That’s where the money needs to go.”Ritter agreed the revenue should be targeted.“I have never felt that the marijuana money should be used to subsidize towns’ operating budgets,” he said. “We should be helping our cities through the PILOT system, which has been around for a long time — just underfunded. But marijuana revenues, to me, should not be a source of revenue for towns, other than the local property tax they can collect. It should go to equity. It should go to helping small businesses in urban areas. Juvenile justice programs and, yes, for treatment and other things like that. So I would agree with the minority leader on that — absolutely.”House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, declined to predict the odds of the bill’s passage but said that he expects the legislature to make changes in the coming years after passing the marijuana law in the same way that legislators have already updated the police accountability law and other laws.Lawmakers and others, Rojas said, need to remember that some Connecticut residents are already driving across the border to purchase marijuana at legal shops in Massachusetts, while others are buying in their home state through the illegal black market.Advertisement“It’s better to have a regulated system,” he said, “than what we have now.”Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Hartford CourantApr 12, 2021 at 6:00 amHARTFORD — While New York and New Jersey have forged ahead in legalizing recreational marijuana, it is still not guaranteed that Connecticut will join them this year as lawmakers cannot agree on how cannabis tax revenue should be spent and how equity provisions should be crafted.House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Hartford Democrat, said the bill had a 50-50 chance before it was approved last week by the legislature’s influential judiciary committee by a 22-16 vote with three Democrats voting against the measure and breaking with the majority...

Legal weed still uncertain in Connecticut this year, despite momentum in New York and New Jersey

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