The bill to legalize retail sales and the bill to automatically expunge records for past offenses are both advancing to the desk of Gov. Phil Scott — please call him today and encourage him to sign them into law!

The bill to legalize, regulate, and tax adult-use cannabis sales cleared its final legislative hurdle this morning when the Senate approved it in a final vote of 23-6. The Senate also granted final approval to the bill that would automatically expunge records for past low-level cannabis offenses, in a voice vote. Both bills will now proceed to the desk of Gov. Phil Scott.

Please take a moment to call Gov. Phil Scott at 802-828-3333 and encourage him to sign both bills when they reach his desk!

If you’d like to learn more about the details of these bills, here is a summary of the bill to legalize and regulate sales (S. 54) and here is a summary of the bill that includes the automatic expungement provisions (S. 234).

The process of reaching a compromise on S. 54 was especially challenging for both legislators and advocates, and we are very grateful to the representatives and senators who worked on this bill for their dedication. Although the final bill is not perfect, it is a very important step forward, and it would be a terrible shame if Gov. Scott decides not to sign it into law.

Again, please call Gov. Scott’s office and encourage him to sign both S. 54 and S. 234. After you do so, please share this message with your family and friends!

The Senate is expected to send S. 54 to the desk of Gov. Phil Scott next week — please call him today and encourage him to sign it!

The bill to legalize, regulate, and tax adult-use cannabis sales cleared yet another hurdle today when the House approved it in a final vote of 92-56. The Senate is expected to pass S. 54 next week, after which it will proceed to the desk of Gov. Phil Scott.

Please take a moment to call Gov. Phil Scott at 802-828-3333 and encourage him to sign it when it reaches his desk.

Here are some key features of the bill:

• Priority licensing for small-scale cultivators (up to 1,000 square feet)
• Priority licensing for women- and minority-owned businesses
• Independent lab testing of all cannabis sold to patients and adult consumers
• Creating a new independent commission to regulate medical and adult-use cannabis
• Requiring a search warrant prior to saliva testing, which could not be conducted roadside

This has been a challenging process for both legislators and advocates, but the bill is now only a couple of steps away from becoming law. It would be a terrible shame to see it fall short of the finish line. Let the governor know it makes no sense to keep sales illicit and unregulated. Consumers deserve safe access to a tested product, and Vermont needs the jobs and tax revenue S. 54 would bring.

Again, please call Gov. Scott’s office and encourage him to sign S. 54. After you do so, please share this message with your family and friends!

Get a T-shirt and support the historic 2020 campaign to reform South Dakota's broken marijuana laws!

This November, South Dakota will be the first state to vote on medical marijuana and adult-use legalization initiatives simultaneously. Amendment A and Measure 26 would work together to establish a medical marijuana program for patients and legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana for adults 21 and over.

Winning in South Dakota will create even more pressure on Congress to pass major federal reform in 2021. So this campaign is important.

Created in partnership with our friends at Kannabis Kings Apparel, the South Dakota T-shirts are available in three different colors and two different logo designs, with short-sleeve and long-sleeve options. Fifteen dollars ($15) from each T-shirt purchase will be donated directly to the South Dakota campaign. (Note: Your contribution will go to South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws and will be included in campaign finance reports just like all donations to ballot initiative campaigns.)

Show your support, grab a piece of marijuana campaign history, and help the campaign win this November by getting your T-shirt today!

House and Senate negotiators agreed to a compromise yesterday evening — urge your lawmakers to support S. 54 in a final vote, then call Gov. Phil Scott and ask him to sign it!

After many years of hard work by legislators and advocates, the House and Senate have finally reached an agreement on the details of a bill to legalize and regulate cannabis sales. Please write your representatives and senators and urge them to support S. 54 in a final vote! Then, call Gov. Phil Scott and encourage him to sign it when it reaches his desk.

Here are some key features of the bill:

• Priority licensing for small-scale cultivators
• Priority licensing for women- and minority-owned businesses
• Independent lab testing of all cannabis sold to patients and adult consumers
• Creating a new independent commission to regulate medical and adult-use cannabis
• Requiring a search warrant prior to saliva testing, which could not be conducted roadside

This has been a difficult compromise for legislators, but Vermonters should be grateful for their hard work and persistence. And now we need representatives and senators to support the bill one last time before it proceeds to the governor’s desk.

Again, please write your state legislators and urge them to support the final compromise, then call Gov. Scott’s office and encourage him to sign it. After you do so, please share this message with your family and friends!

We wanted to share with you a study performed by Professor Fred Cartensen, Director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis (CCEA), and commissioned by MPP with the goal of better understanding the potential economic effects of cannabis legalization in Connecticut. The estimates are conservative and provide insight into the financial possibilities that lie ahead once Connecticut begins to regulate and tax cannabis like other states in the region and throughout the country.

The study projects Connecticut could generate:

• $692 to $740 million in total direct state tax revenue over five years of sales;
• $35 to $53 million in direct state cannabis tax revenue in the first year of sales;
• $223 to $287 million in direct state cannabis tax revenue in year five of sales;
• $71 million in municipal tax revenue over five years of sales;
• $21 million in municipal tax revenue in year five of sales;
• 10,244 to 17,462 new or preserved jobs by year five of legal sales; and
• 5,344 to 5,686 new or preserved jobs in year one of sales alone.

In summary, legalizing and regulating cannabis would lessen the economic pain wrought by COVID-19 by creating and preserving thousands of jobs and generating hundreds of millions in new tax revenue. A related article ran in today’s Hartford Courant, and we expect a flurry of additional coverage, including Prof. Cartensen being a guest on NBC’s Face the State this Sunday.

We hope that you’ll have an opportunity to review the study’s findings, spread the word, and consider writing your legislators urging them to support legislation to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults in the 2021 session.

Click here to send a message to your member of Congress in support of the MORE Act!

Members of Congress are still on track to vote on the MORE Act later this month — a federal bill that would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and eliminate criminal penalties under federal law. If enacted, the MORE Act would essentially end the war on cannabis at the federal level.

This is big, and you can help. Follow this link to send a message to your representative in the House, who should hear from you on this.

In addition to decriminalizing cannabis, MORE does other important things: it would expunge criminal histories related to marijuana and prohibit discrimination against individuals on the basis of their cannabis use, to name just a couple. A closer look at MORE is available here.

This is an important time when lawmakers need to hear from voters in their districts to help press the issue — and that’s you. Please take action now. And then, please forward this message to people in your circle and help get the word out.

Thank you!

MPP is a not-for-profit organization that works to end the war on cannabis and reduce its harm. We are funded by supporters like you who want to see better cannabis policies. Please join our fight by making a donation today!
 

Check out Sensible Change MN’s comprehensive 2020 voter guide.

With Election Day less than two months away, Minnesota voters have an opportunity to usher in a new legislature that will put an end to the state’s senseless war on cannabis.

While House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (D) has championed legalization, Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R) has said his caucus is strongly opposed and that legalization would not pass the Senate under his control. Senate leaders even stood in the way of allowing flower cannabis for medical purposes this year.

Our allies at Sensible Change MN have released a voter guide to educate voters about Minnesota state legislative candidates’ stances on cannabis policy. They sent every candidate for state House and Senate questions on where they stand on important medical cannabis reforms, legalization for adults’ use, and social equity.

Check out their Minnesota House of Representatives and Minnesota Senate voter guides. (Updates will be made as more responses come in.)

In other news, the Minnesota Office of Medical Cannabis is considering petitions to add qualifying conditions to the state’s medical cannabis program — anxiety, sickle cell disease, and tic disorder. You can submit written comments in support of one or all of these petitions by emailing the program by October 16.

Thanks for your support for humane and sensible cannabis policies! Please spread the word to others who may be interested in helping relegate cannabis prohibition to the dustbin of history.

Legislators are also nearing final agreement on the bill to legalize and regulate sales — ask your legislators to support S. 54, then call Gov. Phil Scott and ask that he sign both bills into law!

The Vermont House of Representatives took a huge step forward today when it voted to approve S. 234, a bill that will automatically expunge all criminal records for past cannabis possession offenses. The bill also decriminalizes possession of cannabis in amounts that modestly exceed the legal limit, which will minimize the possibility that a person could risk criminal penalties for a small mistake.

Separately but concurrently, legislators have come very close to reaching final agreement on the details of S. 54, the bill to legalize and regulate cannabis sales. Please write your representatives and senators and urge them to support final passage of both bills! Then, call Gov. Phil Scott and encourage him to sign them when they reach his desk.

The Senate has already approved S. 234. Since the bill was amended by the House, it will return to the Senate for a final vote before it proceeds to the governor’s desk. You can read a summary of the bill here. VCRM director Laura Subin recently testified in support of this bill in the House Judiciary Committee (via Zoom) and did an excellent job explaining the importance of automatically expunging records!

The conference committee on S. 54 has reached a compromise on all issues except whether or not to include a local option tax in addition to state taxes. The legislators are expected to finalize the details of their agreement at their next meeting. A revised summary of the bill’s key provisions is available here.

Again, please contact your state legislators and urge them to support passage of both of these bills, then call Gov. Scott’s office and encourage him to sign them. After you do so, please share this message with your family and friends!

Learn where candidates stand on cannabis policy.

The Delaware Primary Election will take place on Tuesday, September 15. Our allies at Delaware Cannabis Advocacy Network have published their primary election voter guide detailing where candidates stand on legalizing and regulating cannabis for adults 21 and older.

The voter guide includes the voting history of incumbent candidates on cannabis bills, responses to a cannabis policy survey, and other information to help you make informed choices on Election Day.

You can look up your state legislators here. Then, be sure to check out the voter guide for Delaware House and Senate races, as well as the gubernatorial race, to see where candidates stand. If a candidate on your ballot has not yet taken a public position on cannabis legalization, we encourage you to ask them these questions yourself.

State legislative races are often close contests that can be decided by just a few votes. Don’t miss out on a chance to decide who will represent you in Dover and vote on Delaware’s cannabis policy in the 2021 session.

After you’ve had a chance to look at the voter guide, be sure to spread the word by forwarding this message, sharing the voter guide on social media, and reminding folks that the primary election is September 15!

Registered voters can vote in their party’s primary on Tuesday, September 15 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., or by absentee ballot. During the state of emergency, any voter can check #3 on the absentee voter application (“I am sick or physically disabled”) to convey that they are social distancing or quarantining. You can look up your voter registration, the status of your absentee ballot, and find your polling location here.

Please reach out to your representative to ask them to support the bill to reduce police-civilian contact over the supposed smell of cannabis.

The Virginia General Assembly has begun meeting — in unprecedented circumstances — for a special session. Lawmakers have already filed over 200 bills aimed at budgeting, criminal justice, and police reform. Several cannabis reform bills have been proposed, and the Senate has already approved two modest but important reforms:

• SB 5029, which would prevent law enforcement from using the odor of cannabis as a pretext for searching and seizing property, was passed in a 21-15 vote.
• SB 5013, which would give people issued a summons for cannabis possession the option of prepaying the civil penalty instead of having to go to court, was approved in a 29-7 vote.

Ask your state representative to support these bills, along with full legalization. The supposed smell of cannabis is perhaps the #1 pretext for police stops. Black individuals are disproportionately stopped and searched, just as they are disproportionately arrested for cannabis. These unnecessary stops are traumatic, demeaning, and can even be deadly.

Additionally, Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy (D) has introduced legislation that would legalize simple possession.

While these modest reforms are encouraging, broader reform — legalization and regulation — is still needed. By legalizing and regulating cannabis for adults, the state could further reduce cannabis-related arrests and police interactions, displace the illicit market by providing adults safe, regulated access, and create a new source of revenue and jobs.

There is increasing momentum from elected officials to legalize and regulate cannabis in Virginia, and it is important your lawmakers hear from you to keep the momentum going.

Let your lawmakers know you want them to support legalizing and regulating cannabis for adults during the special session. Please forward this message to your family and friends in Virginia, too!