In a dramatic turnaround, the House will vote on marijuana legalization after all, House Speaker Shap Smith (D-Morristown) said Friday.
The chamber will cast votes on the issue Monday, Smith said, probably on two different proposals. Whether either of them passes is still very much in question.
“People legitimately want to understand what level of support’s out there,” Smith said Friday.
Smith said he expects at least two votes. One will be on a Senate bill that allows sale and possession of marijuana. The other is on a House Ways and Means Committee proposal to legalize home-growing of two marijuana plants.
As presiding officer in the House, Smith doesn’t usually vote, but he said if he did, he would vote against the Senate proposal. “I don’t feel like enough of the regulatory questions are addressed,” Smith said.
On the other hand, he said he would “probably” vote for the House proposal.
Just days earlier, Smith had said he didn’t expect the House to vote on the Senate proposal, despite a move by Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington) to attach the Senate bill to other pending legislation.
A potential candidate for lieutenant governor, Smith said Friday his reluctance to vote was misinterpreted as a desire to quash legalization. Instead, he said it was his way of acknowledging that the House would defeat the bill.
“I just don’t think that I want that misinterpretation out there anymore,” Smith said. “If people want to vote on it, they’re going to get it.”
“I still think it’s a bad idea,” he said. “I have told the advocates that I don’t think a vote is in the long-term interests of the issue. What I’m worried about is if we have a vote this year and it’s negative, that people next year will say, ‘Why bother?’”
Legalization supporters disagreed, instead hailing Monday’s vote as long-awaited good news.
“Maybe by Monday, we’re going to get a vote on the floor to pass it. Who knows?” said Rep. Chris Pearson (P-Burlington), a leading advocate of marijuana legalization legislation in the House.
Pearson said of the two votes expected Monday, he would prefer to see the Senate bill pass. That measure, which passed the Senate 17-12, would create a system to tax and regulate marijuana sales in state-permitted stores. It would not allow home-based cultivation of marijuana.
But Pearson said there is likely more support in the House for the other proposal. That one came from the House Ways and Means Committee and would legalize home-growing of up to two plants per household. It would not allow for sale of the drug.
If both efforts fail, Smith said lawmakers are looking at calling for a non-binding referendum on the November ballot asking voters if they support legalization.
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I think the cultivation amendment is actually for Decriminalization not “allowing cultivation”. As in, law enforcement can still confiscate your property, and issue you a fine. I would call that a penalty
The cultivation amendment is for Decriminalization though isn’t it? As in law enforcement can confiscate your property and issue a fine?
Don’t be fooled by marijuana “decriminalization” because citizens are still going to be treated like common criminals for marijuana under it. This is what prohibitionists such as Kevin Sabet will settle for.
Citizens will STILL be forced to the dangerous black market and a shady illegal street drug dealer to purchase their marijuana. Getting caught buying it is STILL a crime they will arrest and jail you for. Then, they will also most likely try to FORCE you to either mandatory community service and/or rehab, and if you don’t comply, guess what? JAILTIME!
They also fail to mention the additional huge cost of court costs which can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars on top of the relatively small ticket/fine.
If you fail to pay these expensive court costs you will be in “the system” as a criminal. With a warrant out for your arrest and incarceration.
No thanks!
Also, we will still be wasting our tax dollars sending police around to ticket marijuana users and wasting police manpower and resources.
Instead of allowing our police the time, manpower and resources to protect us all from real, dangerous criminals who actually commit crimes with victims and pose a real threat to society.
Why else do you think some politicians are so EAGER to “decriminalize”, instead of LEGALIZE?
Don’t Let’em Fool Us!!!
If you can’t purchase it legally, then it isn’t legal.
If you have to fear a monetary fine/ticket which if you don’t pay and/or show up in court to handle, you then become a criminal with a warrant out for your arrest, and when convicted (yes convicted, as in crime.) you will then be forced into free manual labor and/or forced drug rehabilitation to be used as another statistic prohibitionists love to flaunt about supposed “marijuana addicts”, then….No, it’s not legal!
This will not suffice! Getting caught purchasing marijuana is still considered a serious “drug deal” and you will be prosecuted for it!
DEMAND FULL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION NATIONWIDE!
Liberty the plants. Money for education, hearth, human development, jobs and etc
We’ll all have our Turns. It’s how bad you want it legalized. How “Your representatives” should work on getting what the majority of the people want and not the other way around. Get involved.
DEMAND FULL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION NATIONWIDE!. AND WE WANT IT NOW. GOD GIVEN RIGHTS.
Shap Smith has shown absolutely no leadership on this issue, constantly delaying the legalization with more sub-committees and meetings. He is preventing this state from tapping into millions of dollars in tax money, which would help alleviate the high tax burden on those of us who still haven’t fled the state due to the same. It is time for Mr. Smith to stop stalling, stop worrying about how this vote will effect his own political ambitions, be an actual leader and get this done. If not, he should be sent home by the electorate!!!!!!
They cannot get anything done, such as lower my property taxes as an example, yet they can waste time on this nonsense. 100% opposed. Just what we need….more legitimized substance abuse. Pitiful.
To those who are posting about decriminalization: Vermont decriminalized possession of up to one ounce of marijuana in 2013. Since then it has been a civil violation and a fine. The House amendment being referred to would eliminate these penalties, not just decriminalize. Under that version, a regulated market would have to wait at least another year before receiving the legislature’s approval, but the state would stop punishing adults who possess small amounts and that would be very significant.
Last I saw, the “legalization” bill put a lot of new money into on the road enforcement of “drugged driving” (meaning many new hires of state and local police) and “public safety resource officers” in the schools, and a new lab for drug testing drivers–requiring a driver “detention” process said to take up to three or four hours.
I’m sorry, but I think this is a very destructive way to go for Vermont and I can’t support it. Decriminalizing two plants per household is a tiny incremental step perhaps, but I think it is better than any alternative being presented at the legislature thus far.
Politicians are disguising the real reason marijuana is not legalized. Lobbyists are courting state politicians all over this country to get them to stall and/or kill legalization. They have been lobbying for years. The same way that the fossil fuel industry lobbied the auto makers when they first came out with electric cars to stop them from producing them years ago. Lobbyists are not concerned about marijuana as a social, moral or health problem. They could care less. Amoral politicians in Congress who make millions per year from lobbyists are glad to sway legislation by spreading their anti-cannibis propaganda around the country to convince those who won’t research for themselves that marijuana is *bad*. The five major lobbyists against legalization are police unions, prison guard unions, for-profit prisons, and drug and alcohol companies. And they spend huge sums of money each year to keep cannabis illegal, and why? Because it ensures job security and profits. They would rather have people addicted to opiates and end up in jail or in a “for profit” private rehab, then use a recreational non drug like marijuana. There is way more involved in this political issue than what they are telling in this article. And, the general public has a right to know the truth. Marijuana is not addictive and actually has healthy qualities. But, they never share those facts. Its time for people to realize that our government has an ugly underbelly. Marijuana should be legalized. It is way overdo. Its time that we used the tax money we could gain from marijuana sales to repair infrastructure, enhance our social programs like mental health care, increase funding for education and many other benefits. Its time.