As a marijuana legalization bill was about to go to a vote on the floor of the Vermont House Tuesday afternoon, Democratic leaders pulled the plug and agreed to send it to a committee for further debate.
The move means House leaders were unable to muster the votes to pass the legislation. Whether that kills the bill for the year or not is a matter of speculation.
“It’s not dead,” said Eli Harrington, an East Burke resident who had been lobbying for legalization.
“That kills it,” muttered Rep. Sam Young (D-Glover), also a supporter.
“We believe the bill needs some more time and some more vetting,” said House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington). “I’m not going to push it out there if it needs more time.”
The legislation, H.170, would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and the personal cultivation of two mature and four immature plants. It’s based on the legalization system in place in Washington, D.C. It would not permit the sale of marijuana.
The bill is now destined for the House Human Services Committee. That panel’s chair, Rep. Ann Pugh (D-South Burlington), refused to say whether she had planned to support the legislation on the floor Tuesday. The answer would shed light on the bill’s chances of emerging from her committee.
“I think it’s very appropriate we are looking at the bill,” Pugh said. “I don’t think it helps the conversation for me to come out strongly one way or the other.”
All day Tuesday, supporters and opponents of the bill were lobbying House members for votes. “They’re hard to nail down,” Harrington said.
Both sides expected a close contest, but by midafternoon supporters appeared to have lost confidence that they could prevail. They calculated that it would be better to keep the bill alive in committee than to have it defeated on the House floor.
Some supporters were not entirely happy with that strategy. Harrington said he wanted to see members put on record. “Vermonters deserve to know who’s voting yes or no,” he said.
House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D-South Hero) had conceded earlier that she was “lukewarm” about the bill, an indication that House leaders were less likely to push members for support.
Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington), who supports full legalization — with taxed and regulated pot stores — said he would continue to push the issue. But he said he doubted anything would make it through the legislature this year.
“I think it’s very unlikely this year there’s going to be any legalization,” Sears said. “I think they sent it [to committee] to lie for the rest of the session.”
Related Stories
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Another year and the Vermont Legalization lets the Mexican Mafia control the Vermont pot industry. Think about how much money is going to be exchanged and at $400/ ounce that’s a lot of money that the state of Vermont could use for various projects. Lets give the local Farmers another cash source and let adults use and buy local weed and it’s by products.
Mitzi is the wrong person for the job, such a short time to be there, and she already needs to go!
Legalize it. Or don’t. I’m going to continue to do exactly what I’ve done for the past 10 years.
If the NIMBYs want to go down this road, well I guess that means I will continue to happily support the black market drug dealers, so be it. Or go to Massachusetts, Maine, or Canada.
The longer the state waits, the more time I have to hone my homegrow skills and not pay into a taxed/regulated market. Also a win.
Regardless, the drug war is over. Drugs won already.
Senator Sears needs not only listen to the medical people and organizations, the law enforcement community, educational leaders but now also the people who worked hard to send the message to their House members, who heard them, and were going to vote H.170 down. Senator Sears obviously knows more than doctors, police, educators and the people. Don’t you get it Dick?
When are our representatives going to start listing to there constituency? Letting people grow a small amount for personal use, I don’t see the objection. We need to vote in some different legislators.
For the love of all that is holy, how is this a difficult issue? Legalizing marijuana is the right thing to do and this is patently obvious as it becomes legalized in more places throughout the country and world. Marijuana has been falsely maligned for decades, republican’s own reports attempting to demonize it have shown that it is significantly more harmless than most legal drugs including alcohol and tobacco. These are reports from the 1950s and 1960s that were buried in order to avoid the truth: Marijuana is one of the most beneficial drugs with the fewest negative impacts. Significantly less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol.
Vermont legislature, Governor Scott, please join the long list of hardworking civil servants who have worked so hard to keep Vermont at the forefront of being on the right side of history. Please do not allow Vermont to be turned into the Florida or Texas of idiotic, regressive and hateful policies. Legalize weed or for heaven’s sake, please get out of the way of progress!
It’s time for the pro-prohibition Reps to lose their jobs. These people are content playing paddy cake while real people have their lives ruined and it’s immoral.
Rep. Cynthia Browing needs to go. cbrowning@leg.state.vt.us
Rep. Mitzi Johnson needs to go. mjohnson@leg.state.vt.us
Vermonters are sick and tired of the continuation of these racist policies that inordinately target minorities.
vermont shelving/essentially killing this tiny step towards full legalization is shameful. the legislators do not represent their constituency. they are abusing their power.
bob orleck-you know not what you speak of, facts are real and exist. look them up. sorry you are stuck in the past.
and for a state w/ such an aggressive and debilitating opioid problem, this makes the house look that much more ridiculous.
To “Hey Folks”,
Both reps you mentioned are Democrats, so is the majority of the House. So what’s with the comment about the pro-prohibition Republicans ? There are not the problem. There is so much uneducated bigotry in these comments.
Goes to show how old fashioned Vermont is on marijuana, might as well live in the horse and buggy days.. The legislature needs to open it’s eyes and worry about the real problems in Vermont
There is plenty of data and precedence to make the social and health aspects moot; so let’s have a bipartisan agreement that the economic aspect is something Vermont needs.
The VT General Assembly failed miserably in the quest for sensible drug policy. Prohibition has been a manifest failure, and yet H.170 cannot muster the votes in the legislature. It cannot garner the votes despite the fact that a majority of Vermonters want sensible drug policy. We need referendum power in VT. These neoliberals need to go.
I hope the residents of Chit 6-3 do ‘some more vetting’ before we vote in 2018. Just to be sure we don’t push our Legislators out there if they need more time to……oh, i don’t know – actually figure out what policies their constituents report.
Krowinski’s campaign slogan in 2018 should be: Just Wait, Don’t Elect Me Until 2020 – I Need More Vetting