On Tuesday, September 22, the Vermont Senate voted (23-6) to pass a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate adult use cannabis sales. The bill, S. 54, was approved by 92-56 in the Vermont House of Representatives earlier in the month.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott
Governor Phil Scott did not sign the bill, but let it become law anyway without his signature late Wednesday night on October 7. He did however sign separate legislation that will expunge previous cannabis-related convictions.
With this piece of legislation becoming law, Vermont is now the 11th state to regulate and tax cannabis sales. The Marijuana Policy Project has a helpful summary of the legislation you can find here.
Back in 2018, Vermont actually voted to legalize adult use possession and cultivation of cannabis, just not to tax and regulate it. Governor Scott signed that bill into law a couple years ago.
Previously, Vermont and Washington D.C. had legislation that legalized cannabis, just not the sale of it. Technically speaking, it is still illegal to sell cannabis in D.C.
On Tuesday, September 22, the Vermont Senate voted (23-6) to pass a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate adult use cannabis sales. The bill, S. 54, was approved by 92-56 in the Vermont House of Representatives last week. The bill has now made it to Governor Phil Scott’s desk, where although he has not said whether or not he’ll sign it, supporters think it is likely he will.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott
If the Governor signs this piece of legislation into law, it’ll make Vermont the 11th state to regulate and tax cannabis sales. The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) has a helpful summary of the legislation you can find here.
Back in 2018, Vermont actually voted to legalize adult use possession and cultivation of cannabis, just not to tax and regulate it. Governor Scott signed that bill into law, which is why some supporters are hopeful he will sign S. 54 into law as well.
Currently, only Vermont and Washington D.C. have legislation that legalized cannabis, just not the sale of it. Technically speaking, it is still illegal to sell cannabis in D.C. or Vermont.
The Vermont Senate is also expected to pass a bill that would automatically expunge criminal records for past low-level cannabis possession charges. Check out the MPP summary for that bill here.
Back in November, New Jersey elected Democrat Phil Murphy for governor, who ran on a campaign of legalizing adult use cannabis and using tax revenue from that for important government programs like education and pensions. According to CNN Money, NJ State Senate President Stephen Sweeney says he wants to vote on draft legislation and have it approved within 100 days of Gov. Murphy’s inauguration.
New Jersey’s Governor-elect Phil Murphy Photo: Phil Murphy, Flickr
That bill, sponsored by Sen. Nicholas Scutari back in May (the same Senator that sponsored the state’s now-implemented medical cannabis law), would legalize cannabis use, growing and sales, for those over the age of 21, while tacking on a hefty tax. The legislation, if it passes the vote and signed into law this spring, would also create a licensing framework and a “Division of Marijuana Enforcement,” the government body that would be tasked with regulating the industry.
Election victories throughout the state for Democrats means they now control the executive and legislative branches of the state’s government, opening the door for possibly legalizing cannabis within a year. This is a massive about-face for the state, previously controlled by Republican and Trump-supporter Chris Christie, a less-than-cannabis-friendly Governor who once called tax revenue from cannabis “blood money.”
Senator Nicholas P. Scutari (D)
But the newly revived fervor over legalizing cannabis in New Jersey comes with its own hang-ups. For one, Governor Phil Murphy claimed this could bring up to $300 million in tax revenue, which is a bit of a pipedream in the short term. The state would need total cannabis sales to hit $1.2 billion to reach that amount of tax revenue, something New Frontier Data doesn’t expect would happen until maybe 2025.
Amol Sinha, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey, wrote an op-ed addressing Murphy’s campaign promises. Sinha says that Gov.-elect Murphy ran on legalizing cannabis “as a social and racial justice priority.” He argues that in order for New Jersey to legalize cannabis equitably, the legislation needs to have automatic expungement of previous cannabis-related criminal convictions, a provision for growing at home, fair regulations and community reinvestment of the tax revenue. On the surface, Sen. Nicholas Scutari’s bill introduced back in May of 2017 seems to have provisions in place to meet all of these requirements.
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