On Wednesday, Connecticut’s Governor Ned Lamont released a budget request that features a plan to decriminalize marijuana. Although the proposal underscores social equity, activists are dissatisfied with the missing specifics
Lamont convened an unofficial work panel in recent months to draft recommendations concerning policy change. He asserted that his budget proposal will entail launching a statewide structure for the sale, possession, manufacture, taxation, and use of marijuana that prioritizes public safety, public health and social justice.
According to the proposal’s summary, the measure dwells on the substantive work that legislators have done on recreational marijuana in the past sessions. It also ensures coherence with strategies from regional states.
In his budget statement, Ned pointed out that Connecticut’s neighbouring states are providing recreational cannabis on a regulated and legal basis. He added that Connecticut is losing tax revenue that could be generated from marijuana.
He further said that instead of surrendering the state’s market to foreign-staters or the uncontrolled underground market, the state’s budget includes authorization of adult-use marijuana. He noted that the extra revenues will be apportioned for distressed communities that were severely hit by the failed war on drugs.
Lamont’s administration recently disbursed a draft authorization reform for feedback. According to the administration’s written summary of the authorization proposal, Connecticut will be the first state to set up a truly impartial marijuana industry.
However, the information about how communities that were hardest hit by the drug war could benefit from the authorized industry would be determined after representatives get a report from the new equity commission.
According to the summary, the commission will be tasked with developing important guidelines and reforms about how jurisdictions and individuals that were affected by cannabis prohibition would merit from the set-up of a legal market.
Jason Ortiz, the leader of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, said that details about legal market implementation will still matter.
