Connecticut communities are proceeding with caution as the state navigates the early stages of legalized recreational marijuana.
Gov. Ned Lamont made Connecticut the 19th state in the country to legalize recreational marijuana, signing a bill into law late last month that legislators has passed earlier this year. John Rosen, an economics professor at the University of New Haven, said Lamont and Connecticut lawmakers really had no choice given that neighboring states already had done so.
“With Connecticut being a physically small state, people have been going to buy it in neighboring states,” he said.
While experts are predicting certain aspects of the nascent industry could provide the state and some businesses with a financial windfall, economic development professionals, merchants and political leaders who spoke with Hearst Connecticut are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Mary Jane DuPont and her husband, Michael, photographed in their store, Bangarang, in Wallingford surrounded by pipes and bongs on July 16, 2021.
Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media
Some won’t even go that far.
“The town’s position is and continues to be that as long as marijuana is against federal law, it will not entertain any type of marijuana groweries, dispensaries, etc.,” said Tim Ryan, Wallingford’s economic development specialist. “We do not expect marijuana (businesses) will have any presence in the town at all unless federal law changes.”
But Gerald Berkowitz, a professor of plant science at the University of Connecticut’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, said the state has until July 1, 2022, to have a framework in place regarding how the sale of recreational marijuana will work.
Mike Lawlor, an associate professor at the University of New Haven, a former state lawmaker, said the state Department of Consumer Protection is responsible for developing the rules and processes governing the sale of recreational marijuana. Lawlor also served as undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning at the Office of Policy and Management under the Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Training Students
Even if some Connecticut communities aren’t committing to a future with the recreational marijuana industry in it, UConn already has embraced the business.
The university announced in 2019 that it would begin offering a class on the fundamentals of cannabis horticulture, making it the first university in the nation to do so, according to Berkowitz.
“There is a tremendous need for knowledge for scholarship, in this business,” said Berkowitz, adding that he has students he works with at the doctorate, master’s and undergraduate degree levels. Even though UConn doesn’t have a program devoted to the recreational marijuana industry, Berkowitz said his students “get multiple” job offers.
“UConn is very much a player” in the industry, he said
As the recreational marijuana industry grows in Connecticut, Berkowitz said it will be an employment driver creating “hundreds of jobs.” Schools offering degrees focused on the marijuana business include the University of Maryland’s Pharmacy School and Clark University in Worcester, Mass., which has launched a graduate certificate in regulatory affairs for cannabis control.
“We need to do that ourselves,” Berkowitz said of UConn offering a degree focused on the marijuana business.
Glass pipes for sale at Bangarang in Wallingford on July 16, 2021.
Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media
But he said administrators at many colleges and universities around the country are reluctant to take the plunge and offer such degrees because marijuana possession still is illegal at the federal level.
“Universities have been extremely reluctant to do it (offer degrees in the marijuana business) because the grants they receive from the federal government could be shut down,” Berkowitz said.
Follow The Money
Mary Jane DuPont operates Bangarang in Wallingford. The North Turnpike Road business currently bills itself as a CBD, hemp flower and medical marijuana accessory shop.
Hand-blown glass pipes by Mary “Melt” of Fairfield for sale at Bangarang in Wallingford on July 16, 2021.
Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media
But DuPont is uncertain whether she will enter the lottery to get the license necessary to sell recreational marijuana.
“We’re still trying to figure it out,” DuPont said of she and her husband. “Do we really want to spend the $500 to enter the lottery, when there is no guarantee that we will be one of the ones to get the license?”
As it stands, experts interviewed by Hearst Connecticut Media also are mixed in their assessment whether the recreational marijuana business in Connecticut will be dominated by big corporations.
Lawlor said the legislation Lamont signed into law was designed to give local businesses a chance at grabbing a share of the money that could be made, particularly those from communities that have been hurt disproportionately by state and federal laws governing the use of marijuana.
“I know one of the goals is to make sure there is equity for people who were on the short end of the stick of the laws,” he said. “They (Connecticut lawmakers) have gone to great pains to make sure that it (marijuana revenues) are not all going to be going to big corporations.”
But Berkowitz said the whole licensing and quality control process is very sophisticated and requires a level of expertise “that the average mom-and-pop business may not have.”
Lawlor said he still believes some Connecticut people will make money working in partnership with larger companies.
“At the end of they day, it’s going to be franchise owners that are going to to be making the money,” he said.
Berkowitz said the potential area for growth in the recreational marijuana industry is in the infrastructure side of the business.
“Growers are not the ones who are going to be making money on growing cannabis: It’s the extractors and processors,” he said. “There is a tremendous lack of infrastructure. When companies prepare to start selling, there is going to be a large amount of (product) testing that needs to be done and Connecticut only has a lab-and-a-half to handle all that work.”
The front window of Bangarang in Wallingford photographed on July 16, 2021.
Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media
Another way state and local economies will benefit from the legalization of recreational marijuana is through increased tourism, said Donald Klepper-Smith, chief economist and director of research for New Haven-based DataCore Partners.
“Since Massachusetts began with legalized marijuana, there has been an out-migration of dollars from Connecticut residents and this is an attempt to get some of that money back,” Klepper-Smith said.
“People from Connecticut are not just driving up to Northampton and driving back. They are doing some sightseeing and maybe having some lunch,” he said.
Rosen agreed, citing what Colorado has experienced since legalizing recreational marijuana.
“There are people who don’t go to Colorado to ski,” he said. “They go there to smoke weed.”
Klepper-Smith said he’s not convinced Connecticut officials can successfully manage oversight of the industry or the revenue that flows from it.
“They really don’t know how to do economic development,” he said. “I just don’t think they have the best ability to screen, to determine what’s best for Connecticut. I’m worried they’re going to shoot themselves in the foot with this.”
Waiting
Cheshire Town Manager Sean Kimball said he and members of the town Planning and Zoning Commission heard a report from the town attorney last week regarding the ramifications of the recreational marijuana law as it now stands.
“We’re waiting to see what framework the state puts in place,” Kimball said. “That in turn will inform our local decision-making process.”
Mike Piscatelli, New Haven’s economic development administrator, said city officials “are still reviewing” what the new law will mean to the local economy.
“We still have some time on the regulatory side,” Piscatelli said.
luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com