Recreational marijuana and the budget ‘implementer’

State Rep. Maria Horn (D-64) voted in favor of the bill that legalizes cannabis in Connecticut during the special session that ended last week. The bill passed both houses despite some last-minute wrangling over Senate amendments, Horn said in a phone interview Sunday, June 20.

Gov. Ned Lamont (D) is expected to sign the bill shortly. When he does, possession of recreational cannabis will be legal in the state as of July 1, 2021. This is defined as 1.5 ounces on an individual’s person and up to 5 ounces in a locked container in the home or glove box or trunk of a car.

Horn said the cannabis bill is long and complex and will be revisited often. “Every session we have alcohol bills. Now we’ll have cannabis bills.”

The Legislature also passed the implementer bill, which is supposed to be the mechanism that directs the biennial budget. But sometimes the implementer, which this year was more than 800 pages long, contains other things.

State Sen. Craig Miner (R-30) was irked by an item that prevents towns with schools that use Native American mascots or nicknames for sports teams from receiving state funds from gambling revenues at Native American casinos.

Miner said this will affect towns in the district and was annoyed that he didn’t get any advance notice that the issue was on the table. (He did get a public apology from Sen. Cathy Osten, D-19.) The provision was amended to give affected schools a year to make the change.

Miner did not vote for the cannabis bill or the implementer. On the former, he reiterated his concerns about the continued illegality of cannabis under federal law and the difficulties in testing for cannabis impairment, especially for driving and workers’ compensation cases.

On the implementer, he described it as a “potpourri” of administrative requests that went “well beyond the ordinary budget.”

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