Lawmakers lay plans to regulate recreational marijuana
Farmers, lobbyists and pro-legalization advocates packed a hearing room at the Statehouse on Tuesday to testify about pot.
It’s not a new topic for the Senate Government Operations Committee. The committee has taken upward of 50 hours of testimony on the issue, according to the chair.
This month, the five-person panel is preparing to draft a bill to regulate a legal market for marijuana in Vermont.
The extra-session hearing picks up where the committee left off earlier this year. Government Operations dedicated its Friday afternoons to hearings on frameworks for legalization throughout the 2015 legislative session.
A growing number of Vermonters support legalizing marijuana, including Gov. Peter Shumlin and House Speaker Shap Smith. A poll by Castleton Polling Institute last month pegged support for legalization in the Green Mountain State at 56 percent.
