[W]ith time ticking down to the end of the session, lawmakers are looking at a new option for legalizing marijuana.
A House committee is considering an amendment that would legalize licensed cultivation of two pot plants at home.
The proposal, floated Thursday afternoon in the House Ways and Means Committee, reimagines legalization in a format somewhat similar to the model in Washington, D.C., where residents can grow up to six plants.
Crafted by Reps. Janet Ancel, D-Calais, and Sam Young, D-Glover, the amendment would allow Vermonters to cultivate small amounts of marijuana at home for personal recreational use.
Vermonters would need to apply and pay for a license from the state to grow at home legally — a marked difference from the model in D.C.
The tax committee has been reviewing the pot bill, S.241, which was stripped of all provisions to legalize and regulate while in the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month.
Lawmakers on that committee eliminated a structure to license growers and retailers that was outlined in the bill the Senate Judiciary Committee endorsed earlier this year. The version of the bill that passed the Senate on a vote of 17 to 12 in February would have allowed legal marijuana sales to begin in 2018.
But the bill found a cool reception in the House. The House Judiciary Committee never voted on any version that would have legalized marijuana, and it rejected an amendment that would have decriminalized possession of marijuana plants.
The final House Judiciary version appropriates money for increased law enforcement and stepped-up education and prevention efforts, but has no structures for raising revenue.
Ancel, the House Ways and Means chair, said she coordinated with the chairs of the House Judiciary and Appropriations committees on the amendment. The amendment, she said, would give the House bill a way of raising revenue.
“I think it would be a good step to recognize that a lot of Vermonters have a couple plants in their backyard,” Ancel said.
Ancel, who personally supports legalization of small amounts of marijuana, said she is hesitant about the model the Senate crafted, raising concerns about the scale of commercialization.
The committee could vote on the amendment Friday or early next week. Ancel said she does see a need to move the bill through Ways and Means.
“It’s a fair criticism that we’re getting involved in policy,” Ancel said. “But killing the bill would be getting involved in policy equally, so I don’t think we’re the committee that should make a decision that this bill doesn’t go any further.”
However, the amendment still needs the support of a majority of the committee members, and many expressed hesitation Thursday afternoon.
There was no fiscal note presented on the amendment Thursday, and there is a question of how much money the licensing structure could raise. The bill would require approximately $500,000 to pay for the educational and law enforcement components.
Lawmakers also raised questions about how people would get marijuana plants, how much a license would cost and how the system would be enforced.
Rep. Carolyn Branagan, R-Georgia, the vice chair of the committee, said she will be voting against the proposal.
“I think it goes in entirely the wrong direction,” Branagan said. “We’re going to be teaching children through the educational programs that smoking of all kinds is bad, and yet we’re paying for it by selling marijuana plants.”
She called the version of the bill that passed the House Judiciary Committee “woefully inadequate” and said it would spend too much money without accomplishing anything.
Branagan said she has been hearing from constituents, as well as seeking input from law enforcement officers and health experts, and the response has been overwhelmingly opposed to legalization. For those reasons, she believes the bill should not move beyond her committee.
“I want (the bill) to die,” Branagan said. “This is not the way Vermont should go.”
Young, who worked with Ancel to draft the amendment, said he put it forward as an option to legalize that takes the middle ground between the Senate proposal and the House Judiciary one.
“I think my point is that people should be able to grow two plants in their house and store it in their house,” Young said.
“We are taking a position at the state level saying, ‘Hey, this is not illegal if you’re confining yourself to personal use,’” Young said.
He supports the idea of legalizing marijuana but said he does not believe the Legislature must act this year. The conversation will move forward into future sessions, he said.
“One of the first things I learned here is, pour your heart and soul into something and watch it die, because that’s the nature of the beast,” Young said.