With the end of the session looming, the Senate again passed legislation that would legalize marijuana Friday.
The Senate approved language very similar to the version of legalization the House narrowly passed earlier this week in H.170. But the timing of the bill’s passage — just a few days before adjournment is expected for the year — could make it impossible for the bill to move through the Senate.
Eager to see the issue move forward this year, the Senate Friday attached the House’s plan for legalization to a separate bill, S.22, which originally related to criminal penalties for distributing fentanyl.
The bill would remove all civil and criminal penalties for adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and allow people to grow a small number of plants at home. Instead of legalization taking effect July 1, as in the House bill, it would be postponed to July 2018.
The key difference from the House is that the latest Senate legislation would also establish a commission that would work toward drafting a bill to set up a regulated and taxed marijuana market.
Senate leadership, including Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chair of the Judiciary Committee, have maintained that any legalization bill must also have a path to setting up a regulated market.
Sears billed the language, which was an amendment to a separate bill concerning penalties for distributing fentanyl, as “a compromise.”
“When we started this session I had high hopes, and I hope that isn’t a bad pun,” he said on the floor.
Sears was disappointed the House did not move forward with legalization earlier this year. He said he hopes the state changes marijuana policy soon, especially as two nearby states — Massachusetts and Maine — are on track to legalize shortly.
“It’s not like it’s way out west in Colorado anymore. It’s going to be all around us,” he said.
Sen. Joe Benning, R-Caledonia, said the bill represents a “responsible way” of continuing the conversation on pot, and urged action soon.
“For the moment, we have at least crossed the bridge of deciding between the two bodies that it is OK to legalize,” Benning said. “We just haven’t arrived at the point of figuring out how to do that.”
The Senate approved the latest proposal on a vote of 20 to 9.
How the House will play the next move is unclear.
Sears said he was in conversation with sponsors of H.170 in the House about his latest proposal in advance, though it was unclear whether House leadership would embrace the idea.
House Majority Leader Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, said she was not familiar with the content of the bill, which will go to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration.
“It is in the hands of the committee right now,” she said.
Later Friday afternoon, the panel reviewed the language with trepidation.
Some expressed concerns about postponing implementation of the removal of penalties for low-level pot possession, fearing the Senate will put off the House model of legalization until the regulate model they favor is in place.
The House has not favored regulation, preferring to legalize possession and home-grow initially before moving any farther.
“My fear is the way that they look like they’re doing something with 170 without doing something with 170,” Rep. Chip Conquest, D-Wells River, a sponsor of the bill said.
Tensions in the committee crested over the issue. Rep. Janssen Willhoit, R-St. Johnsbury, who was not a supporter of the initial House measure but has voiced support for tax-and-regulate, stormed out of the committee after a disagreement.
Rep. Tom Burditt, R-Rutland, a sponsor of the House legalization bill, said he will not support the language in S.22 because he does not support any action that will move toward a regulated market.
However some on the committee were receptive to the Senate proposal and were willing to consider the compromise.
As adjournment was postponed from Saturday until next week, the timing for the rest of the session is up in the air. But with lawmakers expected to return to Montpelier to wrap up on Wednesday, there could be a path forward.