Entrepreneurs are pitching marijuana as a cash crop that would keep college graduates in Vermont and create thousands of jobs.

The Vermont Cannabis Collaborative says in a new report that if Vermont lawmakers bring "oeorder to the chaos" of the underground illegal marijuana market, business opportunities would abound.

"oeThis provides a whole new industry for our young millennials coming out of college and trying to find what to do in Vermont to jump in and become the next Steve Jobs, to become the next Ben and Jerry's, to become the next Seventh Generation," Alan Newman, a founder of Seventh Generation and Magic Hat Brewing Company, said Wednesday.

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RUTLAND, Vt. - It's morning, and local and State Police cruisers already are crisscrossing an opioid-ravaged neighborhood of this small city. Rutland police Sergeant Matthew Prouty slows to a crawl past boarded-up homes. His radio crackles with questions about an out-of-state license plate.

Within minutes, he has pulled over a car and put a Rutland mother of five through a battery of drug-sobriety tests. Neighbors stop and watch, some on the sidewalk, some on their porches.

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Gov. Peter Shumlin stepped into the marijuana debate this past week in the worst way possible - by getting his facts wrong. Shumlin did nothing to help his push for legalizing marijuana with his gaffe about how easily teens can obtain the drug in Vermont.

The governor is right to emphasize that the state must find ways to curb substance abuse, especially among young Vermonters. But those who see legalization as part of the solution must show that their plan will have a meaningful impact on curbing abuse. They can afford to do nothing less than build their arguments on the soundest foundations.

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Once again the debate over marijuana regulation in the state of Vermont is heating up. In the latest salvo from the prohibitionist side, some of Vermont's high school counselors have voiced concerns about regulation in the state and the potential impact on Vermont's children.

Their hearts are in the right place, but they are blinded by their good intentions.

I detected four main arguments offered by the counselors: 1) Use of marijuana will rise among Vermont's youth because of a change in how young people "think" about the drug. 2) Not enough attention or funds are being allocated for prevention and treatment for youth using and abusing marijuana. 3) Because medical marijuana has been regulated in Vermont, much of the marijuana in Vermont's high schools originates in the medical marijuana production stream. 4) Marijuana will be "in our homes" which, will allow youth more access to the drug. I will take each point in order.

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Your reports of June 28 and June 29 headlined "Heroin Trail Leads to Vermont" accurately describes the social destruction the bankrupt War on Drugs has brought to Vermont, indeed the world. Prohibition of use and possession of drugs is responsible for this cataclysm. The policy of criminalization of drugs has stimulated a vast criminal conspiracy to successfully distribute and market extremely dangerous substances to more and more people. That was the experience of alcohol prohibition. It is the case with drugs. It is a failed war that should be abandoned. It has caused an increase in supply, increased purity of drugs, incarcerated thousands of people (you can cure an addition but not a conviction), siphoned trillions of dollars away from addiction treatment into counter-productive prisons, nurtured corruption and distracted police from effective work.

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The recent letter about a national debate on nicotine may be useful. Is nicotine itself a carcinogenic? I dona=C2=80=C2=99t know. I do know I want to legalize marijuana for a variety of reasons so making tobacco illegal seems nonsensical for the same reasons as marijuana prohibition. Unless, of course, nicotine is a deadly carcinogenic substance.

If you can grow marijuana in Mexico and import it, then you can grow tobacco in Mexico and import it. The cartels will just be getting another revenue stream.

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George Merkel, the police chief in Vergennes and president of the Vermont Association of Police Chiefs, along with law enforcement unions in general, confuse violence associated with prohibition ("Police debate marijuana legalization at Vt. Law School," March 7) with that of the cannabis (marijuana) plant, which is not rationally known to produce violence. Law enforcement agencies' gravy train is dependent on perpetuating those types of lies, half-truths and propaganda regarding the relatively safe God-given plant.

Truth is, a sane or moral argument to cage responsible adults who use cannabis doesn't exist.

Stan White

Dillon, Colorado

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How unfortunate the Vermont Legislature is considering a bill to legalize recreational marijuana, I think that's a shame this is issue is considered up for debate. What they should be doing is addressing the alcohol epidemic that is plaguing this country, not wasting our time debating whether or not a harmless plant should be legal.

Marijuana is a safe harmless drug when used responsibly. If it was legalized tomorrow not much would change. A few new business would open, tourism would increase, and farmers would have a new crop to plant. So I don't really understand why we are debating this issue. It is pretty apparent legalization of marijuana would just result in more jobs and more revenue for the state.

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SOUTH ROYALTON - A former New Jersey State Police lieutenant and a Vermont police chief have very different views on what to do about marijuana.

One calls the drug wars a policy disaster that needs to be stopped. The other considers drug trafficking a violent crime and believes marijuana legalization will increase children's access to the drug.

The Vermont Law School hosted a daylong conference discussing marijuana legalization Friday at its South Royalton campus. The conference was put on by the Criminal Law Society and SPEAK, a student organization at the school that promotes speech, persuasion, education, advocacy and knowledge.

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MONTPELIER - Gov. Peter Shumlin says his days of smoking marijuana are over, even if the Vermont Legislature votes to legalize the drug.

Shumlin stopped using marijuana as he grew into adulthood, he recounted during a news conference at the Statehouse.

"Been there, done that," Shumlin said. "My guess is that a lot of Vermonters of my generation feel like I do about marijuana, which is, it is something we smoked when we were young. ... As I took on more responsibility or I don't know what in my late 20s, I just found that it wasn't much fun anymore.

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MONTPELIER - Gov. Peter Shumlin said Tuesday he has no plans to partake in legal marijuana if the state moves to allow it.

"No," Shumlin said, when asked by Seven Days reporter Terri Hallenbeck if he would smoke legal weed. "Been there, done that."

Shumlin appeared caught off guard when asked when he last smoked marijuana.

"Oh, my God," Shumlin said. "It was a while ago. I'm old."

During an open-ended press conference Tuesday, the 58-year-old governor then clarified that he last smoked pot in his late 20s, but gave it up as his responsibilities grew.

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Vermont lawmakers are considering whether to become the first state Legislature to legalize marijuana.

Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis, but in each of those cases, it was voters at the ballot box, not lawmakers, who changed the law. Vermont could become the first state in history where elected officials directly legalize pot, and Gov. Peter Shumlin said he "continues to support" efforts to legalize marijuana.

Vermont's Constitution prohibits ballot referendums and initiatives, meaning any decision on marijuana would have to come from lawmakers.

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The letter in the paper, "Legalization not so simple," was simple-minded when the writer states "it seems obvious that regulation would not remove underage access to pot ..." This way of thinking rules out any parental guidance or, for that matter, any of the authorities from enforcing the law. If pot is sold to adults over age 21 and these "children" (I define children as ages 5-12 and teens ages 13-17) the writer speaks of are at home and not out on the street, then police and others will enforce the laws and deal with violators. This argument would translate to any controlled substance.

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Vermont Is Exploring Whether to Become the Center of Legal Pot Sales in the East. If It Does, a Tourism Boom May Follow.

Forget ski resorts and prize-winning maple syrup. The big tourism draw for tiny Vermont could soon be marijuana.

Led by Gov. Peter Shumlin, state lawmakers are exploring legalizing a drug that has been as much apart of local culture as tie-dyes, psychedelic music and hippie farmers.

The state commissioned Rand Corp. to look at what it would mean for the Green Mountain State to become the official beachhead of legal recreational pot sales on the East Coast.

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Vermont must legalize, regulate, and control marijuana if we expect to improve public safety, inform our children of its dangers, keep money out of the pockets of criminals, and build a coherent policy coordinating police, public health, education and peer support to reduce youth drug use.

Marijuana prohibition has failed to deter people from consuming marijuana and, as a result, it has fostered the growth of an underground market and made criminals rich. Existing prohibitionist policies simply haven't worked, and even decriminalizing marijuana possession for adults still stops short of undercutting street dealers and reducing associated violence. As we have in so many other ways, Vermont can once again be a leader, showing how a carefully crafted law can be a victory for justice and public safety.

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I would like to thank the Rutland Herald for making the Libertarian case for legalizing drugs in the recent op-ed piece. The point of the Herald article was that because of the American craving for drugs, we have allowed the Mexican and Central and South American drug cartels to prosper and terrorize the populace of those countries. What the Herald failed to point out is that this case has been made over and over again to no avail. Appealing to the conscience of a drug addict is pure folly.

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A public hearing is planned this week on the possible legalization of marijuana in Vermont. The Wednesday hearing will be held statewide via Vermont Interactive Television. Earlier this year the Legislature ordered the administration to study marijuana legalization. A report is due in January. The state contracted with the RAND Corporation to examine issues that include production, distribution, and possession of marijuana. The hearing will be held by Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding and Beau Kilmer, the codirector of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center. Spaulding and Kilmer will make brief presentations, after which the session will be devoted to questions and comments from people attending the meeting.

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This fall, a routine visit to the University of Vermont's student health center - say, for a sprained ankle - will expose the patient to an entirely new routine.

The ankle will be examined, of course, but the student will also be offered an opportunity to disclose how much he or she has been drinking, or smoking weed, or using other drugs, including heroin.

Any such disclosure will be voluntary - and confidential, with no legal or disciplinary ramifications. It might have nothing to do with the ankle sprain. But it might lead to further conversations or interventions that will affect the student's well-being long after the ankle has healed.

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Advocates for legalizing marijuana are touting a new poll released this week that shows a majority of Vermonters support legalizing and taxing the drug.

The Castleton Polling Institute, part of Castleton State College, released poll results Wednesday showing that 57.2 percent of Vermonters favor legalizing and taxing marijuana similar to alcohol.

The results show 34.3 percent oppose it. Another 8.5 percent remain unsure.

The poll has a margin of error of 4 percent.

Matt Simon, the New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, said people are displeased with the prohibition of marijuana. He said the drug is viewed by the public as a less harmful substance than alcohol and people want it to be treated the same way.

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MONTPELIER -- The administration of Gov. Peter Shumlin is gearing up for a task assigned to it by the Legislature: studying the fiscal and other impacts if the state were to legalize marijuana.

Shumlin agrees with lawmakers "it's timely to do a study," said Administration Secretary Jeb Spaulding, whose agency is to report its findings to lawmakers by Jan. 15.

"We're not going to prejudge what our position would be at the end of it," he said.

An amendment to a bill removing the cap on the number of patients who can get medical marijuana in Vermont called for a study of "possible taxing systems" for marijuana, any savings or costs connected with taxing and regulating the drug, and the experiences of other states that have legalized, which as of now are Colorado and Washington.

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