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. [continues 1067 words]
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? [continues 416 words]
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. [continues 966 words]
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. [continues 966 words]
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. [continues 404 words]
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. [continues 66 words]
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. [continues 698 words]
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. [continues 609 words]
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. [continues 1170 words]
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. [continues 114 words]
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. [continues 711 words]
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. [continues 536 words]
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." [continues 302 words]
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. [continues 543 words]
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 [end]
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. [continues 672 words]
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." [continues 401 words]
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. [continues 1256 words]
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. [continues 378 words]
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. [continues 490 words]
Before, during and after my 31 years working for the Legislature, I have always thought that the pot prohibition was Vermont's worst law. By far. No competition. Pot prohibition was first adopted in the 1930s, based upon a nonscientific and highly distorted view of the dangers of pot, as characterized by the then-current, hilariously campy, pot-phobic movie "Reefer Madness." Through the years, penalties for lesser pot offenses in Vermont have decreased to the point where possession of one ounce or less is only a civil violation, but we've always retained a schizophrenic strictness around the fringes and throughout the supply chain: an ever-present bow to the craziness enthroned by "Reefer Madness." (Selling 50 pounds of pot may bring a penalty of 30 years, which is 10 years stiffer than the minimum levied for second-degree murder. [continues 689 words]
[Re "A Divided House Judiciary Committee Ponders the Pot Bill," March 16]: Regarding the issue of marijuana cultivation for personal use, I would like to add my perspective as a patient on the medical marijuana registry. The current law permits limited cultivation indoors under highly restricted, difficult and costly conditions. I am on a fixed income and cannot afford the exorbitant price charged by state-run dispensaries, and, of course, my insurance will not cover it. Patients along with recreational users should be allowed to grow small amounts of marijuana for personal use outdoors as they would vegetables for food. Abigail Wirth East Ryegate [end]
"I heartily disagree with The editorial "Marjiuana legalization can wait" (March 13) that "Vermont can and should wait until we know more and are better prepared to handle the consequences." The problem with this statement is that we have already waited more than long enough for marijuana to be rendered legal - once again. Why is marijuana illegal while cigarettes and alcohol, which are far more lethal, are legal? Each year, for example, some 400,000 Americans perish from tobacco and some 16 million suffer its diseases. How many die from marijuana annually? [continues 162 words]
In the oped "Marijuana legalization can wait," the writer states, "With legalization the state has the luxury of time," and "In the meantime, decriminalization serves as a pragmatic bridge ..." meaning that pot is already decriminalized, so why bother to make it legal? The problem with this way of thinking is that pot may be decriminalized to possess one ounce or less, but it is still a crime to sell, grow or try to buy it from a drug dealer on the street. [continues 125 words]
Editor of the Reformer: "There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers," said Ronald Reagan. He was right insofar as Nancy Reagan is concerned. But in many ways it's not easy to point out how so much more harm this Hollywood couple did, than good, as they occupied the White House. That is because the twin legacies of a "Just Say No" draconian, racist drug war and their homophobic reaction of inaction doing nothing about the AIDS epidemic left Americans with two chronic, domestic gashes that never fully healed. [continues 193 words]
Concerning the recent public testimony on Senate bill S.241 to legalize the sale of marijuana before the House Judiciary committee, I find Chairwoman Maxine Grad's statement about the committee's alternative bill somewhat disingenuous. According to The Times Argus, Ms. Grad said that the alternate bill reflects the testimony her committee heard. The majority of those who testified supported the legalization of marijuana, in general. Some of this testimony also centered on legalizing homegrown and allowing small farmers/vendors to participate in the legal production and sales of marijuana as per S.241. However, the House committee instead proposed only to decriminalize, not legalize, one or two homegrown plants. Decriminalization is obviously not the same as legalization. It means cultivation is still illegal and subject to law-enforcement action. [continues 183 words]
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - A second-grader's tales of how he was helping a "farmer" grow "special medicine" plants led to the bust of a large indoor marijuana growing operation in Windsor last week. Steven Mann, 54, pleaded innocent Monday in White River Junction criminal court to a felony count of cultivating more than 25 marijuana plants. He was released on a $10,000 unsecured appearance bond. Windsor Police Det. Jennifer Frank wrote in an affidavit that Mann's girlfriend's 8-year-old son told school officials and Frank about Mann's "green thumb" and how he got to help him grow "special medicine that can cure anything at all." [continues 283 words]
MONTPELIER - Senators made it easier for the little guy to break into the cultivation business when they gave their final approval to marijuana legalization Thursday afternoon. By a vote of 17 to 12, the Senate approved what has been arguably the most debated bill of this legislative session, and in doing so, sends it to the House for further discussion. "It's a relief for me to have it out of the Senate," said Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and someone who became an unlikely advocate for legalization. [continues 580 words]
MONTPELIER - Senators made it easier for the little guy to break into the cultivation business when they gave their final approval to marijuana legalization Thursday afternoon. By a vote of 17 to 12, the Senate approved what has been arguably the most debated bill of this legislative session, and in doing so, sends it to the House for further discussion. "It's a relief for me to have it out of the Senate," said Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and someone who became an unlikely advocate for legalization. [continues 579 words]
I have read about much of the conversation regarding the legalization of marijuana. We should err on the side of caution when accepting and legalizing any bill that does not adhere to certain conditions. First, I personally would like to see the creation of a state-run marijuana exchange. Any persons or industry that chooses to grow marijuana for sale would be required to sell their crop at this exchange. Growers would be given fair market value for their produce. The state marijuana market would be supplied solely through this process. At the exchange produce will be broken down for distribution. Each crop will have a batch number. Every package will have a tracking number. Every ounce will be accounted for. Residency requirements should be in place for growers. Individuals who grow whether for personal use or sale would be required a permit. Individual restrictions will apply. Industrial growers will require a pre-existing Vermont farmers license. Rutland [end]
Legalization of recreational marijuana use would be to the definite detriment of Vermonters. The pending bill proposing to do so should be resolutely rejected. It is a flawed perception that marijuana "just isn't that bad." Medical science has shown that there are multiple deleterious effects of marijuana, among which are the following: 1) Marijuana use has been shown to be associated with the development of mental health illness including depression, anxiety and paranoia. 2) Marijuana has been shown to cause problems with memory. This can have devastating impacts on a student's academic performance, future work or study opportunities. Work performance among those employed is also likely to be impacted negatively. [continues 1178 words]
I understand from news sources that the Legislature is about to pass legislation to legalize recreational use of marijuana. Why? For years we have campaigned that smoking is bad for our health, now our legislators want to promote smoking, all for raising more tax revenue. They have listened to testimony from the medical community, law enforcement and others who have testified against legalization of marijuana, yet they are posed to pass it anyway. I look at our representatives and think, do they really care about the citizens of Vermont or is it all about tax revenue. They don't seem to be able to develop a budget and live within it. They're always looking to raise more revenue, many times raising our taxes rather than not passing higher and higher budgets or passing laws that require the cities and towns to increase their tax rates to pay for programs that the Legislature enacts. Is there any common sense in the State House on this issue? Sanford Johnson Orange [end]
The epidemic of drug addiction and overdoses gripping Vermont, and our country at large, cries out for reform. We must change the perception that jail is an effective treatment for the disease of drug addiction, and give mental health issues the attention and funding they deserve, an opinion I know many Vermonters share. But the legalization and commercialization of another addictive drug - - marijuana - is precisely the wrong way to address this critical problem. Legalization has nothing to do with whether we lock up pot users, and everything to do with making money. [continues 707 words]
Rutland, Vermont, unwittingly became the poster child for America's drug epidemic several years ago. The national attention and a sense that their city had bottomed out galvanized local residents and leaders to fight back. They formed committees, made lists of recommendations and, most important, set goals. Project Vision hasn't eradicated heroin from Rutland, but it offers a "take back our community" template other communities can model. In Bangor, like Rutland, groups of concerned citizens have been meeting for years to address addiction in the area. A working group, created by the Bangor City Council in 2014, developed a list of specific, achievable recommendations. The Bangor Community Health Leadership Board, which helped coordinate a community forum in 2014 where the federal drug czar, Michael Botticelli, spoke of the need for treatment to help opiate addicts, is focusing on five of them. It has developed pain medicine prescribing protocols for use by local medical facilities. It pushed for a new local detox facility, which is funded in the drug legislation passed last month by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Paul LePage. It is seeking ways to make the anti-overdose drug Narcan more widely available. The group also worked with local lawmakers to draft legislation aimed at making treatment more widely available and effective. [continues 529 words]
Inside Vermont
