Vermont legislature on track to be first in U.S. to legalize marijuana

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Mon Mar 14, 2016 8:18am EDT

Vermont legislature on track to be first in U.S. to legalize marijuana

MONTPELIER, VT. | BY SCOTT MALONE

Liberal-leaning Vermont could become the first U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana use through legislation, rather than by voter initiative, in a move that advocates for the drug say could speed its acceptance across the nation.

State representatives this month are set to take up a bill passed by the state Senate in February that would allow adults over 21 to purchase and smoke the drug beginning in 2018.

The move follows a year of hearings in the Senate that lawmakers say allowed them to closely consider appropriate limits to place on the drug's use. The current proposal would prohibit users from growing plants at home and ban the sale of edible products containing marijuana extracts.

But lawmakers must act before the end of May, when the current session ends, a deadline that may prove difficult to meet. It is uncertain whether it has enough support in the Democratic-controlled House to pass.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-vermont-marijuana-idUSKCN0WG13X

[StandingInLeftField]

1. I don't smoke pot, but

I'd really love to move to Vermont. I enjoyed my time in Boston during college and always felt "at home" there, even though I was born and brought up in Atlanta (the child of Ohioan parents.)

No idea how I would earn a living at my age and with my lack of retirement savings due to an un-insured heart attack.

My wife would literally be in Heaven, though...

[TeamPooka]

2. Go go Vermont!

[MH1]

3. Why the prohibition against growing plants at home?

It seems to me the ultimate anti-freedom that I can't grow a plant at home if I want to.

I'm sure there's other plants it applies to (like certain mushrooms?) but to me, the FIRST thing that should be legalized (after controlled medical use anyway), is the freedom to grow small quantities at home for non-commercial use. I.e. that people can grow their own but not sell it.

[Wednesdays]

4. IIRC, most states allow you to make your own wine

or brew your own beer, as long as you weren't selling it. That should be the case here, too.