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“It’s fitting that the bill legalizing the adult use of cannabis and addressing the injustices caused by the war on drugs received final passage on the 50-year anniversary of President Nixon declaring the war,” said Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont as the state’s lawmakers sent a marijuana legalization bill to his desk. “I look forward to signing the bill and moving beyond this terrible period of incarceration and injustice,” he added.
Connecticut finally legalized marijuana after a tense few weeks of fighting against the Republican members of the General Assembly, who threatened to filibuster the otherwise-popular bill, running out the clock and ending the legislative session without a vote on marijuana legalization. The Connecticut Legislature went into a special session in order to pass this important bill. It proved successful.
When the governor signs the bill, possession of marijuana by adults 21 and older will become legal starting on July 1, while retail sales might not start until mid-2022. Adults will be allowed to possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis. Most convictions for possession of less than four ounces will be automatically expunged. The bill also offers protection to employees, tenants and students who test positive for cannabis metabolites, which indicate past marijuana use.
One key element of the fight for the legalization of marijuana was the importance given to equity measures. In the bill’s final language, half of all marijuana business licenses will be issued to social equity applicants, people who were directly harmed by the war on drugs. Gov. Lamont himself, despite being a strong proponent of legalization, threatened to veto the bill if it did not fully address the fact that the people most likely to capture the budding cannabis market are not the same people affected by the war on drugs. To appease him, measures have been included in the bill to ensure that only people with a past cannabis conviction—or whose direct relative have been convicted—can apply to the social equity program. Marijuana dispensaries owned by social equity applicants would benefit from halved fees, as well as training and resources. A large portion of cannabis tax revenue would go towards community reinvestment in the neighborhoods most harmed by Nixon’s toxic war on drugs.
Connecticut is just the next in a quick-fire series of states legalizing marijuana through legislation. Before 2020, only Illinois had successfully legalized it by an act of the legislature—Colorado and Washington in 2012, Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C. in 2014, as well as California, Massachusetts and Nevada in 2016 all legalized marijuana through referendums.
“Marijuana is sort of interesting to me. When it goes to a vote of the people through some sort of a referendum, it passes overwhelmingly. When it goes through a legislature and a lot of telephone calls are made, it’s slim or doesn’t pass,” said Lamont.
In 2021 so far, Virginia, New York, New Mexico and now Connecticut all passed marijuana legalization bills through their respective legislatures, and more are to come in Minnesota and Rhode Island. This is an uplifting new trend in 2021, and it is the fastest, most efficient path towards the federal legalization of cannabis.
