Historic Vermont marijuana legalization plan dies in House
MONTPELIER, Vt. The Vermont House on Tuesday gave those hoping to make the state the first to legalize marijuana by legislation rather than referendum a major buzzkill.
The chambers anti-pot actions included:
Rejecting Senate-passed language to legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. The vote was 121-28.
Voting down, with a 97-51 vote, a measure to put the question to a nonbinding statewide referendum. Unlike 26 states, Vermont has no form of direct petition in which voters get to decide a question other than constitutional amendments. The four states and District of Columbia that have legalized marijuana have done so by referendum.
Defeating compromise language promoted by leaders of the majority Democrats that stopped short of legalization but expanded decriminalization, which punishes violators with fines rather than criminal penalties. The measure would have made it a crime to possess more than 2 ounces of pot rather than 1 and more than two plants. Seventy-seven members voted against it, 70 voted in favor.
During the lead-up to the debate, there were pot puns aplenty. And toward the end of the day Tuesday, Rep. Warren Van Wyck, R-Ferrisburgh, labeled the efforts to liberalize Vermonts marijuana laws up in smoke.
With three or four days left in a session expected to wrap up Friday or Saturday, lawmakers said they would not have time to work out the big differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill.
Its unfortunate were dealing with it in the final hours of the session, said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington. The Judiciary Committee chairman had been a principal author of the Senate bill. The Senate completed its work in late February, and Sears complained that the bill appeared to have stalled in the House for at least some of the time since then.
Critics of legalization critics were elated.
I think all of law enforcement is happy with the results, said Vergennes Police Chief George Merkel, president of the Vermont Police Association. It went very ...
