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As top Connecticut lawmakers work to wrap up negotiations for an expedited vote on a marijuana legalization bill with the end of the session looming, progressive Democrats are tempering expectations about the timeline and insisting that any finalized proposal must comprehensively address social equity. House Majority Leader Jason Rojas (D) said on Tuesday that leadership hopes to finalize the legislation by Tuesday, with a vote in the Senate possible “later this week.” Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D) office and lawmakers have been frequently meeting to negotiate the details of the reform proposal. But time is running short, with the end of…

A bill to legalize marijuana in Connecticut that’s being backed by the governor was approved on Friday in another committee, potentially setting it up for a floor vote next week. This comes as Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D) office and legislative leaders work to resolve differences in their respective legalization proposals. House Majority Leader Jason Rojas (D) said on Tuesday that the plan was to reach an agreement by the week’s end, with the expectation of “acting on it sometime next week” in the Senate. By a vote of 29-18, the Appropriations Committee cleared the governor’s bill, which was also approved in…

I recently got to take a tour behind the scenes of a legal Cannabis grow and retail operation, The Pass, which is located on Rt. 7 in Sheffield, Massachusetts, just over the CT/Mass border into the Berkshires. 5 miles to it’s South, everything at The Pass that I was looking at, standing by, and smelling very strongly, is illegal in Connecticut. New York and New Jersey have also gone recreational over the past few months. We’ve been hearing about legislation being passed for years, and now it seems that recreational marijuana is seriously, finally, going to be put in front…

In this file photo, Cody Roberts (middle) and Joseph Toth (right), advocates for the legalization of marijuana walk through the hall of the Legislative Offie building past Connecticut State Senator Craig Miner on opening day of the 2018 legislative session. A top lawmakers said Tuesday that the odds are improving for passage of a bill legalizing marijuana. (Mark Mirko / Hartford Courant)

A top Connecticut lawmaker said on Tuesday that the legislature is aiming to wrap up negotiations with the governor’s office on a bill to legalize marijuana by the week’s end and then take it up in the Senate “early next week.” Gov. Ned Lamont (D) also said on Monday that there’s consensus on a wide range of important issues in the reform legislation, but some details still need to be sorted out. Time is running out in the session, however, and the governor said he’s not necessarily interested in taking the issue up in a special session. To that end,…

A top Connecticut lawmaker said on Monday that he expects to reach a deal with the governor on a bill to legalize marijuana by the end of the week. For weeks, legislators have been negotiating with Gov. Ned Lamont’s (D) office on the details of the legislation, working to resolve a proposal put forward by the governor earlier this year with a separate measure favored by activists. Now an agreement appears to be imminent. “I think we have a general agreement in terms of the important issues that have been out there for most of the session, which is getting…

Portland, Oregon activists are mounting a push to have local lawmakers pass a resolution decriminalizing the cultivation, gifting and ceremonial use of a wide range of psychedelics. It’s a move that they say would fill the gap between historic statewide drug policy reform initiatives approved by voters in November. While those successful ballot measures legalized psilocybin therapy and decriminalized possession of all currently illicit drugs, the Plant Medicine Healing Alliance (PMHA) says the policies leave some important activity at risk of criminalization. The new local resolution they are asking the the City Commission to pass would make it so that…