Legal pot supporters regroup as the black market thrives

HARTFORD — The imminent failure of majority Democrats in the General Assembly to muster enough support for the full legalization of marijuana means the state’s cannabis market, estimated at nearly $1 billion, will stay underground for the time being. Advocates, stunned by what appears to be a collapse of support over

the last few weeks, are left to regroup and consider future strategy, including a possible amendment to the state Constitution.

The consumer landscape won’t change. A glut of high-potency marijuana makes black-market prices half the cost of legal cannabis in Massachusetts. But the outlaw industry also poses hazards for consumers, who don’t know who is growing it or what they are buying.

There are no legal protections for buyers or sellers. And of course, the state doesn’t get a cut.

Those without Connecticut cannabis connections can drive to one of the 18 Massachusetts retail outlets, pay their taxes to our neighboring state, and return home with their purchases — though crossing state lines remains an infraction even though possession of less than one-half ounce is not a misdemeanor.

Those with local dealers are saving up to 50 percent of the costs in Massachusetts, advocates of retail sales estimate. One-eighth of 1 ounce of dried cannabis flowers — 3.5 grams — which sells for about $60 in Massachusetts (including taxes of 20 percent), now fetches about $30 on the street in Connecticut, the advocates said.

Connecticut growers and sellers face the legal risks that still exist for trafficking, along with the possibility of getting burglarized or robbed.

“This black market is big, and it’s forcing people into forming criminal organizations,” said Joseph Raymond of the New England Craft Cannabis Alliance, who has advocated for the full-legalization bills before the General Assembly this year.

The realities of the marketplace could have changed drastically had state lawmakers bought into the paradigm of legal sales and support, as written in the pending legislation, for urban communities impacted by decades of drug law enforcement and racially disparate incarceration.

‘Political bureaucracy garbage’

While the legalization initiative supported last year during Gov. Ned Lamont’s successful election campaign was approved by three legislative committees, balking lawmakers are now on the verge of letting it die on the vine for this session, which ends at midnight June 5.

Raymond blames senior Democratic leaders who don’t want to jeopardize lawmakers in swing districts.

“It really saddens me that they put a carrot in front of us this session and just wasted our time,” Raymond said. “But it does allow us to see what Democrats need to be taken out of office by a grassroots effort. This is like the worst political bureaucracy garbage we’ve seen in the four or five years some of us have invested in it. Meanwhile, irreparable damage is being done to vulnerable communities. They are going to recreate the Roaring Twenties in Connecticut.”

If approved, Connecticut would be the first state to enact full legalization without a voterdriven resolution or proposition on a statewide ballot forcing legislators to act.

It’s likely that no Republicans would vote for the bill. For many middle-of-the-road Democrats, the issues are thorny as they fear vulnerability in their 2020 reelection races. A hard push by an organization of AfricanAmerican pastors, seeing more addiction in cities, swayed some lawmakers in recent days.

“We’ve had nine states now where voters have made marijuana legal and certainly that shows that there’s popular support in state after state,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project.

During an interview in the state Capitol, O’Keefe acknowledged that for some elected officials, it’s a heavy lift to act favorably on cannabis, even though a Sacred Heart University Poll showed 70 percent support statewide.

A vote in the Pacific islands

“It’s easier when you have the opportunity to ask voters directly, since they’re supportive, and politicians tend to be a lot more cautious and behind-the-times when it comes to marijuana policy,” O’Keefe said. “We’ve got 80 to 90 percent support nationwide for medical marijuana and we still only have 33 states with medical-marijuana laws.”

In the continental U.S., only the Vermont legislature has approved even a partial legislation program, allowing residents to grow a few plants on their properties. Lawmakers there are still grappling with a retail model, including licensure, distribution and growing regulations.

Legislators in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, a U.S. possession in the Pacific Ocean, approved full legalization last fall.

O’Keefe stressed that marijuana on the illicit market keeps consumers in the dark on its origins, how workers were treated and whether the cannabis was dosed with pesticides or even heavy metals. The Massachusetts products, like Connecticut’s nationally known medical cannabis programs require extensive laboratory testing.

She said under a legal cannabis model, prices go down eventually, as supply meets demand.

“Initially the costs for consumers might be a little bit higher, like Massachusetts, when you have a very limited supply, but in time it should be way better for consumers both in terms of having a tested, safe product; and knowing they’re not going to have someone pull a gun on them when they’re buying cannabis,” she said.

She added that even though prices are low on the underground market now, they can rise because of the risks and lack of economies of scale.