All posts in Connecticut News

By Christina H. Davis It was only a few months ago that Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law legislation clearing the way for recreational, adult-use marijuana in the Nutmeg State. But already market forces inside and outside the state’s borders are moving rapidly in anticipation of a multimillion-dollar business opportunity. Those forces include a series of acquisitions involving out-of-state companies looking to gain a foothold in the state in advance of the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) opening applications for recreational marijuana licenses. One notable deal includes Chicago-based Verano Holdings Corp.’s acquisition of two medical marijuana dispensaries as well as…

By Christina H. Davis It was only a few months ago that Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law legislation clearing the way for recreational, adult-use marijuana in the Nutmeg State. But already market forces inside and outside the state’s borders are moving rapidly in anticipation of a multimillion-dollar business opportunity. Those forces include a series of acquisitions involving out-of-state companies looking to gain a foothold in the state in advance of the Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) opening applications for recreational marijuana licenses. One notable deal includes Chicago-based Verano Holdings Corp.’s acquisition of two medical marijuana dispensaries as well as…

AFTER MASSACHUSETTS voters legalized adult-use cannabis in 2016, the Legislature made history as the first in the nation to require full participation in the regulated industry by individuals who were harmed by previous marijuana prohibition. Unfortunately, five years later, our state is now falling behind others when it comes to meeting our own equity mandate. This concerns me as one of five Cannabis Control Commissioners charged with ensuring the safe, effective regulation of a marketplace that has become an economic engine for the Commonwealth and 18 states (and growing) nationwide. On a more personal level, this deeply upsets me after growing up…

A 17-year-old from Fairfield County is facing misdemeanor charges after police said she admitted that she smoked marijuana while driving before crashing her vehicle. Officers responded to a report of a rollover crash in Darien at about 3 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 2, according to the Darien Police Department. Police said officers found the vehicle on its left side, partially off the roadway in the bushes in the area of Hollow Tree Ridge Road near Linden Avenue. While officers were helping the driver out of the vehicle through the sunroof, they smelled a “strong order of marijuana coming from the…

NEW YORK CITY — Buying marijuana in New York City remains a hazy proposition months after lawmakers legalized it across the state. Yes, 420-friendly New Yorkers have more — cough, cough — options than ever to score weed after the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act went into law in March. But all the storefronts, bodegas, galleries and converted food trucks selling or “gifting” out a kaleidoscope of marijuana strains are still operating illegally because state officials have yet to set up regulations on sales. The legally sold variety of cannabis remains as elusive as ever in New York City. “Here…

Dec. 11—MANCHESTER — The Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday will hold a public hearing and discussion on a proposal to amend zoning regulations to allow the sale and cultivation of recreational marijuana in certain business zones in town. The public hearing begins at 7 p.m. in-person at Lincoln Center and virtually. If approved, the regulations could potentially open the door for marijuana establishments to fill some big box vacancies, and would add Manchester to the short list of north-central Connecticut towns willing to allow the sale and cultivation of marijuana within their borders. “I think there is going to…

By Sam Reisman (December 10, 2021, 8:18 PM EST) — With both chambers of Congress and the White House under Democratic control, legalization advocates entered 2021 with optimism that the year would bring some concrete changes to federal cannabis policy. While there were multiple new proposals on Capitol Hill for what legalization might look like, the year still closed out without even a modest incremental reform reaching the president’s desk. If federal cannabis reform efforts stalled out in Washington, the same could not be said of the states, where lawmakers enacted more than 50 new laws in more than 25…

The story was alarming and spread quickly: Two Springfield high school students had been admitted to the emergency department having smoked marijuana laced with fentanyl. “It took 8 hits of Narcan to revive one of the unconscious youth,” the story, claiming to be from “The Baystate Emergency Room” stated. The teens claimed the fentanyl-laced marijuana had come from a cannabis dispensary, one version of the message stated. The story, passed up to the Hampden District Attorney’s office and then forwarded to various community partners this week, was rapidly spread via email and social media through area school and police departments…