Lamont promising economic windfall from legalizing marijuana; Naysayers unconvinced
Gov. Ned Lamont is making a full-court press to legalize recreational marijuana this year, saying that Connecticut is missing out on millions of dollars of revenue ”” a situation he says will grow worse as neighboring states push forward with their own legalization efforts.
Massachusetts legalized the sale of recreational cannabis in 2016 ”” sales began in 2018 ”” and on Feb. 23, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed three bills paving the way for a recreational cannabis program in that state.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been pushing for legalization for the past couple of years and during a January video conference, he said, “I think this should have been passed years ago. This year will give us the momentum to get it over the goal line.”
“Now is the time,” Lamont said during his own video conference on Feb. 24, promising to legalize adult-use recreational marijuana “in a carefully regulated way with an emphasis on equity and justice.”
The governor also disparaged the War on Drugs and said that Prohibition ”” which legally banned the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933 ”” didn”™t work.
“It created a lot of alcohol poisoning,” he said. “And Al Capone and the underground market took over for a period of time.”
Lamont said a similar situation exists now, with black marketeers reaping untold millions from the sale of nonregulated substances.
The governor”™s Senate Bill 888, formally introduced on Feb. 22, would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to 1.5 ounces of cannabis and purchase products from licensed stores, which could open as early as May 2022.
Lamont has estimated that a legalized cannabis market could result in $3.6 million in revenue the first year and increase to roughly $97 million by fiscal year 2026. A UConn economist has said that Connecticut could reap up to $952 million over five years.
Citing other states as examples ”” with Murphy”™s action, there are now 14 that have legalized recreational marijuana ”” Lamont said, “We”™re not an island unto our self. We”™re going to learn from their lessons and do this in a thoughtful way.”
While billed as a roundtable discussion, the Feb.24 event featured no one who dissented from Lamont”™s views. State Rep. Mike D”™Agostino (D-Hamden) touted the bill”™s expungement of past marijuana-related records and convictions, either automatically or through petition, as a key part of its effort to level the playing field for traditionally lower-income persons.
While regulation will control “who can sell, what they can sell and where they can sell,” D”™Agostino said, “the governor is expanding the marketplace so you don”™t need millions in capital to get into this market.
“You want to create beverages, brownies, a delivery company?” he continued. “You can go ahead and do that.”
Such reduced barriers to entry will make the situation more equitable, D”™Agostino maintained.
He also noted that an equity commission would be created and tasked with creating entry-level licenses for small-business owners. Ultimately it will “decide where the revenue will go on the back-end,” he said.
Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner Michelle Seagull noted that the state”™s medical marijuana program, established in 2012, now serves about 50,000 patients, and that efforts would be made to preserve that sector. Product safety, limits of serving size and potency, child-resistant packaging and advertising limits would all be part of the recreational path going forward, she said.
Michael Lawlor, a former representative for the 99th District (East Haven) and a criminal justice adviser to former Gov. Dannel Malloy, said that even though the state decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana in 2015, over 7,500 people were arrested and charged with some form of possession last year ”” roughly about 10% of total arrests in 2020.
Removing those numbers from court rolls would “allow prosecutors and judges and police to focus on the higher-risk violent offenders,” Lawlor said.
He described the bill as “the worst nightmare for organized crime,” noting that “among other things, they don”™t pay taxes.”
Lawlor described the legislation as being “as tightly written as I have ever seen.”
Also speaking in favor of the bill were the Rev. Tommie Jackson of Stamford who said the expungement of marijuana-related charges would help those convicted to rebuild their lives in a productive way. Middletown Mayor Ben Florsheim said municipalities would benefit from the 3% sales tax as well as a growth in local property taxes as marijuana-related businesses come to town.
“There”™s a lot of money to be made in this industry ”” and a lot of people who are ready to make money,” Florsheim said.
No slam dunk
Not everyone is in favor of the legislation ”” at least, not as written. Several speakers at a Feb. 26 public hearing before the Judiciary Committee expressed reservations about the so-called equity involved in SB 888. They maintained that the bill would give an unfair advantage to those businesses already involved in medical marijuana, which would presumably face fewer hurdles in adding recreational cannabis than would smaller entrepreneurs, particularly persons of color, who would be starting from scratch.
“If we put equity applicants at the back of the line, I don”™t think we can ever repair that,” said state Rep. Anne Hughes (D-Easton, Redding and Weston). “I don”™t think we can catch up.” Minus assurances, Hughes indicated that she would vote against the bill.
Jason Ortiz, president of the Minority Cannabis Business Association and an advocate of marijuana law reform, took to Facebook to call the roundtable “one of the most insulting displays of callous exploitation of black and brown suffering I have ever seen,” and argued that, rather than taking an equitable approach, the bill “creates a white only market for an indefinite period of time.”
“This is not a final bill,” Lamont”™s chief of staff, Paul Mounds, said while addressing those concerns at the Feb. 26 Judiciary Committee hearing. “We want to sit at the table. We want you at the table.”
State Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford) was unavailable for comment on Lamont”™s bill, but told Fox 61 last year that, “This is a thing we tell our children: ”˜Just because somebody else is doing it doesn”™t make it right.”™ A lot of the narrative you hear from the majority is that because other states are doing it, we need to be doing it too. I think the answer to that is, ”˜No.”™”
Fairfield First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick (R) ”” who, like Kelly, opposed legalizing medical marijuana when she was a state representative ”” said the issue is “more complicated than meets the eye.
“You have to keep in mind that it”™s still illegal at the federal level,” Kupchick told the Business Journal. “Anyone who”™s looking to get into this business is putting themselves in a situation where they potentially could lose everything” if the federal government decides to step in.
The first selectwoman further said that legalization should not come down to what she called “a money grab,” but that it should be “looked at holistically.”
Kupchick said she was unsure whether municipalities could legally refuse business owners looking to sell recreational marijuana from opening up shop.
“They”™d definitely have to go through zoning,” she said. “There”™s no doubt that the public will come out and share their opinions on it, especially when it comes to their neighborhoods.
“It”™ll be a spirited debate,” she said.