With an unexpectedly close 19-17 vote, the Senate passed legislation early Tuesday that would legalize recreational marijuana in Connecticut, sending the bill to a closely divided House of Representatives on the penultimate day of the legislature’s 2021 session.
It was unclear if the House had the votes, time or inclination to attempt final passage before the constitutional deadline of midnight Wednesday, a task that grew more difficult Monday with concerns over attempted favoritism on licensing growers.
“We’ll make the time,” said House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, who led the working group that produced the bill and watched the denouement of an oddly tense and protracted vote in the Senate.
Only the vote cast by a retired police officer, Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, saved the Senate from needing Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz to break a tie. Six Democrats voted with the other 11 Republicans in opposition.
But for 11 minutes after the debate ended and voting began, passage was unclear. The tally was 16-16, with four Democrats missing: Steve Cassano of Manchester, Douglas McCrory of Hartford, Patricia Billie Miller of Stamford and Marilyn Moore of Bridgeport.
Moore voted yes, making the tally 17-16 after nearly eight minutes. McCrory, who was furious at the Senate for striking a provision he wanted, cast a yes vote three minutes later, pushing the vote to 18-16 in favor. Miller, who said she long had been opposed to legalization, cast the 19th yes vote. The victory assured, Cassano cast a final no vote.
“Tough vote,” Moore said.
“I was still contemplating it at the end,” Miller said.
McCrory left without comment.
The overnight debate reflected familiar arguments of past years, with fears of legalization leading to abuse and addiction weighed against the legacy of a discredited war on drugs that fell most heavily on urban Black communities.
McCrory, Miller and Moore are members of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus that pressed for social equity provisions that direct the majority of cannabis revenue into the cities most affected by the enforcement of drug laws.
“This is legislation that is 88 years overdue,” said Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, referring to the end of the prohibition of alcohol in 1933.
“If you go back to the beginning of the last century, you could find cannabis in drug stores,” said Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, co-chair of the Judiciary Committee and a lead sponsor. “Then, things changed.”
That change, Winfield said, was a perspective on marijuana that was tinged with prejudice, as people viewed the drug disparagingly because they associated it with Mexican immigrants, with Black people, or with counter-culture hippies.
The war on drugs that began in the 1970s with President Richard Nixon’s administration and continued for several more decades became, in some ways, a way to target racial minorities. “Whole communities have been decimated,” Winfield said.
MARK PAZNIOKAS :: CTMIRROR.ORG
From left, Sens. Tony Hwang and Doug McCrory listen to Paul Formica talk about his own struggle with addiction.
Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, said he was less concerned about history than present health threats, particularly to youths. He noted that the cannabis debate opened shortly after the Senate gave final approval to a pilot program…
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