A chorus of doctors, social workers and academics have criticized a state marijuana study completed this legislative session.

An assessment of the public health risks if Vermont were to legalize marijuana was released mid-January by the Department of Health. The 84-page report offered policy recommendations, a summary and conclusions drawn from available research.

The marijuana bill died in the House this spring.

Some studies that the health department used are unreliable or placed out of context, researchers said. Two doctors from University of Vermont Medical Center, a Johns Hopkins Medical School doctor and a social worker all wrote to lawmakers pointing out issues they saw.

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Most people enjoy a cold drink in the hot summer weather. For a lot of them, a cold beer or mixed drink is their choice. Alcoholic drinks known as mixed drinks are a popular way to imbibe with an adult beverage. But, some things do not mix well together. For example, recreational marijuana and politics do not mix as well as a gin and tonic. The politicians cannot and will not agree to legalization of marijuana. From President Obama on down, they all agree not to legalize pot. The president cites his concern for kids getting legal pot, and that it's a drug and drugs are bad for your health. He says he cares about your health and that you should not use pot. So, why would he want it to be legal?

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MONTPELIER - The Vermont House on Tuesday soundly rejected a Senate proposal to legalize marijuana and create a regulated retail market for the drug, and even fell short of decriminalizing the possession and cultivation of two marijuana plants.

The House did manage to salvage a commission that will study the legalization of marijuana and report its findings to the Legislature, likely setting up another push at legalization next year after the November election.

The House first voted 121-28 Tuesday against the Senate's proposal, which was strongly backed by Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin. The Senate passed the bill on a 17-12 vote.

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MONTPELIER (AP) - The Vermont House on Tuesday soundly rejected a Senate proposal to legalize marijuana and create a regulated retail market for the drug, and even fell short of decriminalizing the possession and cultivation of two marijuana plants.

The House did manage to salvage a commission that will study the legalization of marijuana and report its findings to the Legislature, likely setting up another push at legalization next year after the November election.

The House first voted 121-28 Tuesday against the Senate's proposal, which was strongly backed by Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin. The Senate passed the bill on a 17-12 vote.

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MONTPELIER (AP) - The Vermont House on Tuesday gave those hoping to make the state the first to legalize marijuana by legislation rather than referendum a major buzzkill.

The chamber's anti-pot actions included:

Rejecting Senate-passed language to legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana.

Voting down a measure to put the question to a nonbinding statewide referendum. Unlike 26 states, Vermont has no form of direct petition in which voters get to decide a question other than constitutional amendments. The four states and District of Columbia that have legalized marijuana have done so by referendum.

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MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - The Vermont House on Tuesday gave those hoping to make the state the first to legalize marijuana by legislation rather than referendum a major setback.

The chamber's antimarijuana actions included:

Rejecting Senate-passed language to legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. The vote was 121 to 28.

Voting down, by a 97 to 51 vote, a measure to put the question to a nonbinding statewide referendum.

Unlike 26 states, Vermont has no form of direct petition in which voters get to decide a question other than constitutional amendments. The four states and District of Columbia that have legalized marijuana have done so by referendum.

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Senators are trying to prod the House into action on legalizing marijuana by sending their legislation over a second time - this time attached to a House bill.

The Senate attached the full text of S.241, which passed the body in February, to a separate bill as an amendment Wednesday. The underlying bill, H.858, makes a series of miscellaneous changes to criminal procedure.

The move, spearheaded by Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, comes as S.241 has reached a standstill in a House committee.

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MONTPELIER - The Senate on Wednesday attached language it passed earlier this year - creating a legal, regulated marijuana market - to a House-passed bill dealing with criminal procedures, a move designed to spur the House into action on legalizing pot.

The House has not considered S.241, the Senate's marijuana legalization bill passed earlier this year, on the floor. After being scaled back by the House Judiciary Committee to only include a commission to examine the issue, the House Ways and Means Committee amended it again to legalize up to one ounce of pot and the cultivation of two marijuana plants.

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MONTPELIER, Vt. - First came Colorado and Washington. Then Alaska, Oregon and Washington, D.C. Now advocates for legal marijuana are looking to New England, hoping this part of the country will open a new front in their efforts to expand legalization nationwide.

But this largely liberal region is struggling with the devastating effect of opiate abuse, which is disrupting families, taxing law enforcement agencies and taking lives. And many lawmakers and public officials are balking at the idea of legalizing a banned substance, citing potential social costs.

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A recent Herald story ("Shumlin defends marijuana legalization," April 12) notes an auto dealer's implication that should that legislation pass, his employees will necessarily be stoned on the job. That dealer's response is understandable, a manifestation of the 80-plus-year-old campaign of fear foisted off on the public by ambitious politicians. But it begs the question, are we then to assume that since alcohol is legal those same employees are now drunk? Or perhaps Governor Shumlin's tongue-in-cheek rejoinder, that they may already be high, hits too close to home - that they might not even know if their workers are high. Which means for all practical purposes, assuming the business has any kind of quality control, they are doing their jobs well.

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MONTPELIER - The House Ways and Means Committee has voted to approve an amendment to a marijuana bill that would allow for the legal possession of up to 1 ounce and cultivation of up to two marijuana plants.

The amendment, which materialized in the committee Thursday, passed on a 7-4 vote Friday after a few minor changes. It would fundamentally alter the bill advanced by the House Judiciary Committee last week.

The Judiciary Committee's work stripped out the Senate's language that legalized marijuana and created a regulatory structure for its retail sale. But support for that never materialized among Judiciary Committee members, so it was amended to create a commission to study the issue. That was barely approved on a 6-5 vote.

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Last Thursday evening, I chaired the first meeting of the newly formed Vermont chapter of Women Grow. For those who are not familiar with Women Grow, it is perhaps the fastest-growing organization in the cannabis industry and was profiled in a Newsweek magazine cover story from September 2015 that gives an overview of women taking over the billion-dollar cannabis industry.

Frustrations in the room were being shared that Vermonters are not able at this time to consume, grow and build businesses around the cannabis industry, except for the rare few.

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MONTPELIER, Vt. - Efforts to legalize marijuana in Vermont this year may have gone up in smoke Friday, as a House committee passed a measure that calls for more study after it stripped out Senate-passed provisions that would tax and license pot growers and retailers.

But the chief sponsor of a Senate bill to allow adults to possess up to an ounce of pot said the effort had not been nipped in the bud. "We have a long way to go and a short time to get there" before lawmakers adjourn for the year in about a month, said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington. "But I always hold out hope."

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When the two House committees announced the March 31 public hearing on cannabis legalization, expectations were that the prohibitionists would outnumber legalization supporters by a wide margin. After all, opponents like SAM-VT are well organized, and supporters tend to be younger, less politically engaged, and less able to take time off work to attend.

To everyone's surprise, reality got in the way of conventional wisdom, and what legislators saw instead was a surge of grass-roots support for ending our failed 80-year experiment with prohibition.

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Some may state that legalizing pot causes problems.

However, there are many problems associated with keeping pot illegal - - that's why there is a push to legalize it. I suggest those critical of legalizing pot instead devote their efforts to illegalizing alcohol, tobacco and coffee, which are stronger and more addictive than alcohol.

If they weren't that addictive, would people really drink a harsh chemical, inhale a nasty smoke or drink an acidic beverage?

Everything has its good and bad characteristics and outcomes, but as a society we have to make decisions regarding the overall impact whether something is illegal or legal.

The worst thing about keeping pot illegal is the 'black market' and its gateway effect that contributes to the use of heroin, pills, cocaine, etc. These are the drugs that society should not legalize.

Rutland

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A public hearing at the State House on Thursday allowed supporters and opponents of marijuana legalization to have their say before the House takes action on a bill passed by the Senate.

The issue provokes ardent advocacy on both sides, but it is not the most important issue in the world. It is about an intoxicant, an indulgence. There is much to be said about how best to manage the presence of the drug in our society, but our fundamental rights are not at stake.

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MONTPELIER (AP) - Vermont lawmakers heard differing views Thursday on a bill to legalize marijuana, although a majority of those who testified before legislative committees said they support the measure.

"I'm a normal, nonpsychotic guy," said Bruce Kimball of Essex. "I consider myself a law-abiding citizen, but my use of pot over the years has made me an outlaw. Do I like that? No. ... What I would like is the option to purchase pot from a safe, regulated, well-maintained dispensary."

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Over the past four years, marijuana legalization has come to the United States at a relatively fast pace, thanks to overwhelming support for it among young adults. But up until now, change has mostly come from the voters - sometimes in spite of lawmakers' wishes.

That balance could be shifting toward legislators, at least in one state: Vermont. In the next few weeks, Vermont could become the first state legislature to legalize marijuana. At Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin's urging, a bill to make Vermont the fifth state to legalize recreational marijuana passed the state Senate in February and is being debated in the state House.

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MONTPELIER - The marijuana legalization discussion is expected to heat up this week with a series of joint legislative hearings and one that will solicit testimony from the public.

The House Judiciary Committee, the committee of jurisdiction for the legalization bill that cleared the Senate in February, will hold hearings with the House committees on government operations and human services, as well as a public hearing Thursday night at the State House.

This will be the second full week the House Judiciary Committee will study the bill that would create a regulated system of cultivation and sales and would allow residents 21 years old and older to purchase as much as half an ounce of marijuana, beginning in 2018.

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In the Great Marijuana Fight, facts are portrayed as fiction and vice versa. Even the power of logic is challenged. The letter writer ("Fiction and facts on marijuana," March 25) asserts that as "people 20-29 years" opt for marijuana over alcohol, this will result in fewer traffic accidents, "since alcohol is the main factor in these crashes. Furthermore, traffic accidents have fallen 9 percent in the states that have legalized marijuana." He cites the Department of Economics at University of Colorado.

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