Sen. David Zuckerman, P/D-Chittenden, submitted Tuesday the most detailed bill yet on the legalization and regulation of marijuana in Vermont.
The 44-page draft, which will become S.95 when published, would create a five-member regulatory board, establish possession limits and penalties, and allow nonprofit or benefit corporations to register as growers, retailers, product-makers, testers or marijuana lounge operators. It would also permit Vermonters to grow their own, within limits.
Under the proposal, Vermonters age 21 and over could possess 1 ounce of cultivated marijuana, two mature plants and seven immature plants. Pot grown for personal consumption would be restricted to a secure, indoor facility owned by the grower. Non-residents would be allowed to possess one-quarter ounce.
Zuckerman called the bill a “good starting point,” but said he didn’t expect it to pass this year.
“We’re laying the groundwork,” he said. “I think we’ll have a lot of people looking at working on it through the summer and fall. I’d like to see if we can do it next year.”
The bill is much more detailed than Zuckerman’s previous proposals and draws from the recent RAND Drug Policy Research Center report.
The proposal includes a $40 an ounce excise tax on marijuana flowers, $15 an ounce for the less desirable portions of the plant and $25 per ounce for immature plants sold by a registered cultivator.
Most of the revenue – 60 percent – would go to the General Fund. The remainder would go to the Agency of Human Services (10 percent) for education and treatment services; to the Department of Public Safety (10 percent) for oversight of marijuana establishments; to communities in which it is sold or grown (10 percent); to academic research on marijuana at the University of Vermont (5 percent); and 2.5 percent each to the Youth Substance Abuse Safety Program and state’s attorneys for alternative justice programs.
Zuckerman said that using figures from the RAND study, the excise tax would raise $20 million to $25 million a year based on in-state users alone. That does not include application and registration fees and other related income from legalization.
The proposal includes a $2,000 application fee for marijuana retailers and producers and annual fees ranging from $1,000 to $50,000.
The bill authorizes up to 42 retail outlets and would allow the registration of “marijuana lounges,” in which products could be purchased and consumed on the premises.
Zuckerman said the bill aims to regulate marijuana more like alcohol, weaken the black market and ensure a safer and more consistent product.
“It focuses on regulating the production and sale and cleaves the relationship between the illicit drug market, where someone has marijuana, opiates, prescription drugs, all of which they’re trying to sell the buyer,” he said.
The bill requires the drug to be sold in packages that describe the potency, list chemicals used in cultivation, production or extraction, nutritional information for edible products and warnings about driving under the influence, access by children and the fact that marijuana is illegal under federal law, among others.
Edible products would have to be sold in single serving amounts packaged in opaque, child-resistant containers.
The bill includes a number of penalties and restrictions, including fines for using marijuana in a public, unlicensed place. It also carries penalties for exceeding possession limits, illegal sales and trafficking.
Zuckerman said he hopes the bill will originate in the Senate Government Operations Committee, where weekly discussions about how to implement legalization are already being held.
The bill would eventually pass through the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, said Tuesday that it will not be taken up this session.
“There are 11 more meetings of Judiciary before crossover … it would be impossible to do justice to it,” Sears said, referring to the date (March 13 this year) when bills must be cleared by one body and sent to the other in order to be considered.
