Sunday Stash 4.17.2016

MONTPELIER,Vt. — On Friday, the House Ways and Means Committee voted 6-5 to pass another version of S.241. Unlike the Judiciary Committee, which gutted — and nearly killed — the bill, the latest incarnation would legalize (no fine or civil penalty) possession of an ounce of marijuana.

The new version would not open retail dispensaries, or commercial cannabis, but answers the question of ‘how’ to acquire legal herb (and raise the revenues to pay for education and a testing lab), by allowing Vermonters to pay $125 for an annual permit to grow two plants at home.

Further details will be worked out in the House Appropriations Committee this coming week, but home growers would receive a license to homegrown through the Department of Health, not the Department of Public Safety, who currently oversee the medical marijuana registry in Vermont.