After five years of discussion, the state Senate made history early Tuesday by narrowly approving a bill that would regulate and tax marijuana for adults 21 and older.
House Speaker Matt Ritter said he expects the House of Representatives to take up the measure before the legislature adjourns at midnight on Wednesday. “We do expect it to pass,’’ Ritter said.
The bill was approved just before 2 a.m. by a vote of 19 to 17. Six Democrats–Sens. Saud Anwar of South Windsor, Christine Cohen of Guilford, Steve Cassano of Manchester, Joan Hartley of Waterbury, Alex Kasser of Greenwich and Dennis Bradley of Bridgeport–joined almost all the Republicans in rejecting the measure. Republican Kevin Witkos, a retired police officer from Canton, voted yes.
The Senate vote marks the first time either chamber of the Connecticut legislature has taken up the legalization of cannabis and the significance of the moment was not lost on Sen. Gary Winfield, one of the measure’s champions.
“This session has been a session where we’ve been talking about equity, talking about dealing with the policies of the past and making them right,’’ said Winfield, a Democrat from New Haven. “To my mind, if cannabis was made illegal not because there was a real reason…but to deal with the Mexicans in the early 1900s or the hippies and the Blacks in the 1970s, that is not good public policy.” [Read More @ The Hartford Courant]
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