The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Pot vote unlikely anytime soon
Key lawmaker not optimistic for vote to legalize recreational cannabis in ’19 or ’20
With several other major issues still on the table, legislators aren’t optimistic about a vote to legalize recreational cannabis for adults in Connecticut this year or next.
While advocates were optimistic headed into the 2019 legislative session, the measure died without a vote after legislators failed to come to agreements on several components of legalization, including proposals to direct revenue to urban areas and communities most impacted by the War on Drugs rather than for more general spending.
“We started talking about equity in terms of expungement of records, in granting licenses and allowing people to apply who’ve been most impacted. We were talking about equity in a different way by diverting monies to communities effected ... and I think the shine wore off,” state Sen. Gary Winfield, DNew Haven, said this week.
Winfield, cochairman of the powerful judiciary committee, said that while he will still be an advocate for legislation that would legalize recreational cannabis and include the equity provisions, he’s not optimistic.
“All of the arguments over equity, coupled with the fact that it’s an election year and there are other controversial issues on the table like tolls ... it’s not likely (to pass),” he said. “There will be conversations about possibilities and things we could do, but real equity must be built in.”
He added that although neighboring states, most notably Massachusetts, have begun recreational sales, it doesn’t increase the urgency for
Connecticut to do the same.
“The primary purpose it not to yield monies,” Winfield said. “The urgency comes from fixing the wrongs of the past. It’s a gateway to prison.”
Winfield’s judiciary committee cochair, State Rep. Steve Stafstrom, DBridgeport, said he’s more optimistic, but wouldn’t say whether passage was likely.
“The public at large is more progressive on this issue than the legislature seems to be right now,” Stafstrom said, adding, “I’m an internal optimist. It’s a policy direction the state of Connecticut should move in. The public should move in. I’m hoping that reasonable minds will agree to get into a room next session and hammer out those details and pass a bill that allows for legalization.”
In Connecticut, of course, it’s up to the legislature to pass legalization. The state has no mechanism for a ballot initiative, aside from a Constitutional amendment, and so could become the first state to pass legalization by legislative approval. But last year, all Republicans and a handful of Democrats opposed the measure, so it may be up to the next iteration of the legislature to determine the fate of recreational cannabis.
Possession of small amounts — less than one halfounce — was decriminalized in 2011 under former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, making it a noncriminal infraction, punishable by a $150 fine.
Recreational use has been legalized in Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine. Both New York and New Jersey failed to pass legislation last year, but last week the state of New York did begin the process of expunging the records of 160,000 people with marijuana convictions, as part of a new state law to reduce penalties associated with marijuanarelated crimes.
Stafstrom said he doesn’t believe a partial effort to legalize or further decriminalize would be considered in Connecticut.
“My gut reaction to that is that if we’re going to fully legalize then it should be a comprehensive bill that addresses the issues of driving under the influence, of cannabis use in the workplace, of marketing and sale to minors. Those types of issues need to be worked out before you legalize use,” Stafstrom said. “I would like to see those all worked out in a comprehensive bill.”