Before lawmakers returned to Montpelier in January, marijuana legalization had been the topic of six daylong meetings of a legislative panel that meets during the off session to oversee the justice system.
A bipartisan trio of lawmakers introduced a bill to create a Washington, D.C.-style marijuana legalization model in Vermont. Reps. Maxine Grad, D-Moretown, Chip Conquest, D-Wells River, and Tom Burditt, R-West Rutland — the chair, vice chair and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee — sponsored the bill.
Though support for a version of the original bill was strong within the committee, there was a question of how the rest of the chamber would receive the measure. The bill missed a major deadline for when legislation is expected to come out of committee and cross over to the Senate.
After one more week, the bill was voted out and sent to the House floor. But at the last minute, H.170 was sent to the House Human Services Committee for more review amid leadership’s concern that there would not be enough votes to pass it.
With the House bill in limbo, proponents of legalization in the Senate tried to prod the lower chamber to take action. Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, backed by others, attached a version of the legalization bill the Senate passed last year to a separate piece of legislation, H.167, as an amendment. The language would establish a taxed and regulated marijuana market. The House never addressed this language, nor did the chamber take serious consideration of a bill crafted by a House member to create a legal market.
In late April, just days ahead of the Legislature’s anticipated adjournment date, H.170 abruptly moved out of the House Human Services Committee.
The following week, after two days of lengthy debate, the House voted to approve the bill by a narrow margin. Because of the timing so late in the session, it seemed improbable that the bill would move further.
But when a stalemate between the Legislature and the governor over teachers’ health care benefits caused the session to extend into an additional week, the chambers were able to move through a compromised bill.
The final proposal, attached to S.22, would legalize adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and allow people to grow up to two mature and four immature plants at home, effective in July 2018. It also sets up a commission charged with drafting a bill to create a tax-and-regulate market system.
Gov. Phil Scott vetoed the bill this week but left the door open to a compromise if legislators are willing to make changes.
Meanwhile, a separate bill to expand medical marijuana system sailed through the Legislature with little opposition. The bill adds to the list of medical conditions that qualify for the registry and increases the number of dispensaries.
Drug penalties
The same three sponsors of the marijuana legalization bill also introduced a measure to reclassify penalties for possession of drugs including heroin and cocaine.
The bill would have downgraded possession of small amounts of the substances from felony-level charges to misdemeanors. Proponents argued changing the penalties could make it easier for addicts to recover. Felony convictions make it more challenging for people to find employment, secure housing, access student loans and more.
After taking testimony, the House Judiciary Committee revised the bill to call for a study by legislative counsel of drug penalties for low-level possession.
Ultimately, the study passed as part of a separate measure, S.134, related to expanding pretrial diversion services.
The Legislature also passed a bill that creates a new crime of distributing fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be 50 times more potent than heroin. The substance is often laced into other drugs so users are unaware they are consuming fentanyl, and has been linked to an increasing number of overdoses in Vermont and across the country.
The House initially was reluctant to adopt the Senate’s proposal, wary of creating new drug penalties. However, the proposal received back from law enforcement officers and prominent Burlington officials.
The bill will create new crimes for trafficking and distributing fentanyl, with penalties ranging up to 30 years in prison and fines of $1 million.
Immigration, racial justice and ethics
Executive orders President Donald Trump signed early in his administration prompted a rare tripartisan moment of unity. In early February the governor, flanked by Vermont politicians of all political stripes, promised a state-level response.
The result was S.79, a bill that made efforts to address two potential aspects of the Trump presidency.
First the bill makes it so that gubernatorial approval is required before any law enforcement agency in the state enters a particular type of agreement with the federal government under which local or state police are deputized to enforce federal civil immigration law.
The legislation also took aim at Trump’s campaign pledge to create a national registry of Muslims. It prohibits Vermont agencies from sharing information with the federal government for the purpose of creating a registry based on religion or other personal information.
Strong tripartisan support from the administration and the Legislature propelled S.79 through the lawmaking process with unusual speed.
Many across the political spectrum heralded the bill as a rebuff to federal overreach without going too far down the path toward making Vermont a so-called sanctuary state. But civil and migrant rights groups said it was a missed opportunity to enact legislation with more impact.
Meanwhile, lawmakers took up a separate proposal championed by racial justice advocacy groups. The initial legislation, H.492, proposed to create a panel charged with examining and remedying racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
The House Judiciary Committee proposed to expand the panel to create a commission responsible for overseeing racial disparities across many aspects of society in Vermont, such as housing, employment, school discipline and more.
However, because of timing more than halfway through the legislative session, the Senate Judiciary Committee worked on the subject concurrently, and did not embrace the proposal of creating a panel with such a wide focus.
Ultimately, lawmakers agreed to a compromise. The final bill, H.503, creates a 13-member panel focused on racial disparities in the criminal justice system. It also directs the administration to explore setting up a commission with a broader racial justice focus.
The legislation also requires a revision of the state’s model policy on fair and impartial policing to ensure it complies with federal law.
Lawmakers also passed a bill to create a State Ethics Commission and code of conduct for high-ranking government officials and politicians.
The effort took several sessions to complete, and many lawmakers complained the commission was unnecessary and invaded their privacy because of requirements that candidates for the Legislature disclose financial information for themselves and their spouse.
The commission was also ridiculed by many, including Secretary of State Jim Condos, as being too weak, since it would have no investigatory or enforcement powers. It will be staffed by a part-time director who will funnel complaints to the relevant investigatory agency. A report of the kind of complaints the commission received must go to the Legislature once a year.
The commission and part-time director are expected to cost less than $100,000 a year. Lawmakers said if more powers are needed, they may look at beefing up the commission later.
Sexual assault, animal cruelty and expungement
Early in the session, the House moved forward with a bill that would give police powers to confiscate firearms from scenes of domestic violence and hold them for up to five days.
Advocates said the legislation, H.422, would get guns out of homes at times that tend to be most deadly for domestic violence victims. But opponents said the bill infringed on constitutional rights to due process and to bear arms.
The measure passed the House, but got a chilly reception in the Senate.
However, lawmakers did move forward several other initiatives related to sexual assault. Several separate pieces of legislation ended up combined in a single bill, H.74.
The new law, which Scott has signed, eliminates the statute of limitations on sexual assault. Previously, it was six years. It also extends the statute of limitations on sexual exploitation of children from six years to 40.
The legislation also creates a sexual assault survivors’ bill of rights, which guarantees access to services, and creates a new misdemeanor sex crime.
In a separate bill, lawmakers criminalized bestiality. Until now, Vermont was one of eight states without such a statute.
Lawmakers also tried to mitigate the impact a criminal conviction could have on people down the road in life.
The House spearheaded, H.171, a measure that reduced the amount of time people have to wait in order to be eligible to ask the court to wipe certain eligible offenses from their records.
The final bill shortens the time period for most eligible offenses from 10 years to five. For more serious crimes, the period is shortened from 20 years to 10 years.
Lawmakers also passed a bill intended to expand the pretrial services system, S.134.
However, a separate measure to expand the state’s system of treatment courts stalled in the House amid funding uncertainties. The bill would have increased access to court-based programs that aim to help people with mental health or substance abuse issues.
(VTDigger’s Mark Johnson contributed to this report.)
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