PROPOSED LEGISLATION WOULD LEGALIZE MARIJUANA IN CONNECTICUT

Hartford – Legislation has been introduced that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana for people 21 and older.

Rep. Juan Candelaria, a Democrat from New Haven, introduced the bill on Thursday. It would make it legal for adults to grow, sell and use marijuana, subject to some restrictions.

“I'm going to be pushing very hard,” Candelaria told Capitol Watch. “I'm going to be engaging my leadership in conversation to at least allow a public hearing.”

Candelaria introduced a similar measure last year but it was never raised in committee.

Gov, Dannel P. Malloy was lukewarm to the idea. In 2012, the Democratic governor signed a bill that allows physicians to prescribe marijuana for certain medical conditions.

“That's as far as I'm comfortable going,'' Malloy said Thursday after he was asked for his position on the proposal at a press conference. “But certainly every member of the legislature is entitled to their own opinion. We'll see what happens.” “It's not my proposal,'' Malloy added. Other New England states have been studying the issue of legalizing marijuana this year. Eight state senators from Massachusetts flew to Colorado to study that state's legal marijuana program, according to a report in the Boston Globe. And two Democrats in Rhode Island plan to raise a legalization bill this week, according to multiple media reports.

There hasn't been a wholesale effort to legalize marijuana at the Capitol before but there have been measures brought forward to expand the medicinal program. Language inserted in a 2013 bill would have added a $250 per pound tax on marijuana delivered to dispensaries but also made “pain” a condition that qualifies for the program.

Medicinal marijuana was legalized in Connecticut in 2012, and dispensaries began selling the drug in 2014.

Last month, the state awarded licenses to three new dispensaries — two in Milford and one in Waterbury — expanding the number to nine when they open in the early summer.

Jonathan Harris, commissioner of the state Department of Consumer Protection, said in January there were 8,228 patients registered in the state's medical marijuana program. — Hartford Courant