Legislature lacks will to legalize marijuana
HARTFORD — Democratic leaders on Wednesday acknowledged that lawmakers don’t have the will to become the first state legislature in the nation to approve the full legalization of marijuana for adult recreational use and retail sales.
The issue, they said, is best-suited for a statewide amendment to the Constitution, which Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz and House Majority Leader Matt Ritter envision as a proposal for next year’s General Assembly session.
“I wouldn’t put the odds very high on us acting on it this year,” Aresimowicz said of the bill’s status with a week left in the legislative session. “We are throwing around the idea of putting it up next year for a constitutional amendment. Let the voters vote on that and then we’ll come back and do the regulations afterwards.”
If approved by a simple majority in the 2020 legislature, then voted again by the subsequent General Assembly after that year’s election, it could get on the 2022 statewide ballot. To get on the 2020 ballot, 75 percent of the House and Senate would have to approve the measure next year.
If approved by statewide voters, it would likely take a year just to enact specific regulations, then possibly another year to create a retail cannabis market.
Lacking a 75 percent vote next year, and a delay of five years, with a potential annual tax-revenue stream of $180 million at stake, Connecticut might miss out on $900 million in revenue to legal sales in Massachusetts and the tax-free marijuana underground.
While Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Washington D.C. have approved adult use of cannabis, only Vermont lawmakers voting on the enacting legislation, which focused solely on allowing residents to grow several plants for personal use. In other states, voter propositions led to the legalization.
“I think if we did an up or down vote in the House chamber on the legalization of marijuana, I think it would pass overwhelmingly,” Aresimowicz said Wednesday morning. “It’s not the concept of the legalization of marijuana, it’s how we get the system up and running; what preferences are put into place; should there be the expungements. All those details are what’s bogging us down right now.”
Aresimowicz admitted that the projected revenue stream will become a side effect of the General Assembly’s reticence.
“I thought that this was going to be a pretty simple bill that if we got up and running with a fair structure would allow us to ensure that we are providing a safe product for those that wish to partake and in a way that the state of Connecticut would make some money on it,” Aresimowicz said.
He described some legislative opponents as lawmakers who, although they only question part of the bill, tell him they do not support it at all.
Ritter, who like Aresimowicz spoke to reporters prior to the House session, underscored the vast majority of the states that approved full legalization after statewide propositions or referendums forced the issue onto the ballot for ratification.
Ritter, hypothesizing on a 2020 bill, said it would likely pass. “Why would anyone vote against putting it to the voters?” he said.
“It’s always been bold,” Aresimowicz said. “It’s an economic issue but also a social issue. We struggled with it early. I think we got to the point where I thought we got to the votes on the general consensus of the legalization, and now we’re struggling with the details. It’s a deliberative, slow, body by design. Some of these bigger issues take some time.”