The Connecticut Senate on Thursday gave final legislative approval to a bill that allows for the cultivation and sale of marijuana in the state.
The measure would allow adults 21 or older to purchase and possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana (or up to 5 ounces locked away at home or in a vehicle’s glove box or trunk) starting on July 1. Retail sales of recreational cannabis in Connecticut would not start until May 2022, at the earliest.
“I look forward to signing the bill and moving beyond this terrible period of incarceration and injustice,” Gov. Ned Lamont said in a written statement shortly after the vote.
Connecticut is now the 19th state plus the District of Columbia to legalize cannabis for nonmedical use.
The legislation, which passed the Senate by a vote of 16-11, aims to undo the historic damage that the criminalization of cannabis has done to Black and brown people, said Sen. Gary Winfield, a Democrat from New Haven and one of the architects of the bill. He noted that the debate came on the anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s June 17, 1971, speech declaring drug abuse as “public enemy No. 1.”
“We have operated for 50 years with unjust laws that target certain communities,” Winfield said. “We should never have done that.” [Read More @ The Hartford Courant]
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