New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
A reference to 420 is hiding in plain sight
Laws governing cannabis in Connecticut fall under the chapter heading 420, which pot smokers know as marijuana slang. Whether the laws being outline in that chapter was intentional is up for debate.
Laws in this state are organized by titles, sections and chapters, and nearly all of the state statutes covering cannabis in Connecticut reside under title 21a, chapter 420. Medical cannabis laws are contained in chapter 420f. The regulation of recreational cannabis falls under chapter 420h.
People who have used marijuana before legalization will know the significance of the number 420, which has become almost ubiquitous slang among pot smokers.
The origins of the slang term date back to 1971, according to history.com, when a group of high school students would meet up after school to smoke pot at precisely 4:20 p.m. Like a weed, the use of “420” to indicate marijuana grew and grew. Today, April 20 is an unofficial marijuana holiday.
Is it coincidental that Connecticut’s cannabis laws fall under chapter 420, or was it a sly wink and a nod to those in the know?
“My official statement is, ‘I can neither confirm nor deny that it was an intentional act,” said state Rep. Mike D’Agostino, D-Hamden, chair of the legislature’s general law committee.
The Legislative Commissioners’ Office, which oversees organization and management of the state’s laws, would not comment on the record for this story, but at first glance it could appear coincidental. The first specifically cannabis-related statute was added in 2012 with the legalization of cannabis for medical uses.
Chapter 420 also covers most of the laws dealing with the Department of Consumer Protection starting with regulation of health clubs, followed by laws governing the manufacturing of bedding and upholstered furniture.
Laws governing controlled substances also fall under chapter 420, where they have resided since 1983. Dependency-producing drug regulations are also in chapter 420.
Legislators don’t decide how the statutes are organized. But however logical it may seem for cannabis laws to be alongside other controlled substances statutes,
state Sen. Gary Winfield, DNew Haven, who was involved in the legalization of medical cannabis in 2012, agreed it’s possible someone made the conscious decision to insert cannabis laws into chapter 420.
“Maybe somebody did have intention,” he said. “But even if they didn’t have intention, that’s likely where it would go, right?”
Winfield said he does get asked the question occasionally.
“Some people will look at that and be like, ‘What are these legislators trying to do?’ I think it’s just the way it worked out,” Winfield said. “We didn’t decide that 420 was going to be what it was because of cannabis. It just fits there, that’s where it fits.”
“I don’t know what else to tell people,” he said.
D’Agostino said that while individual legislators don’t usually get involved in organizing laws once they are passed, they theoretically could if they wanted to.
“We’ve always deferred to the Legislative Commissioner’s Office when it comes to the actual structure of the general statutes. But probably at the end of the day, if we wanted to move a section or, say, a number in a section, I think as a legislature we probably could, but I don’t think we’ve ever really exercised any power in that regard.”
The LCO, D’Agostino said, has a monumental task. There are thousands of bills proposed every year, and each one must be translated into proper statutory language in a matter of months, by a limited staff. “That’s no mean feat,” he said.
After that, the bills that actually become laws must be placed into the statutes in a logical way, and when a law affects multiple parts of state government, it becomes a jigsaw puzzle.
“The cannabis regulations and statutes, while the bulk of them are in 420, there’s other bits and pieces,” D’Agostino said. “There’s stuff that deals with tax collection that impacts the sections on tax law. There’s obviously the criminal sanctions that go into our criminal code. So there’s all sorts of different tentacles with respect to a comprehensive law like this, that reach into every nook and cranny of our general statutes, and LCO is charged with managing that every year.”
The organizational structure of state statutes goes back centuries, and many of that organization has not changed in all that time. The legislature and constitution are in titles one and two. Energy is in title 16.
“So, you’re not going to wholesale move existing titles,” D’Agostino said. “But then, when you create an entirely new statutory scheme, ie, the medical cannabis marketplace, which was created 12, 13 years ago, it makes sense to create an entirely new chapter for it because you’re creating out of whole cloth new statutory sections.”
When that happens, LCO uses higher numbers, “so that you’ve got room around it in case you want to build or add to that particular chapter,” he said. “That said, why 420? I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not that was an intentional act.”