HARTFORD, Conn. — After five years of discussion, the General Assembly was poised Monday night for a historic vote on legalizing marijuana for recreational use before the legislative session adjourns at midnight on Wednesday, state senate leaders said.
“It is our intention to take up the cannabis bill later today,’' Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney told reporters Monday. “We just had it confirmed with the house that they do intend to take the bill up also.”
At a separate news conference Monday morning, House Speaker Matt Ritter offered up a similar assessment. And, Ritter said, “we do expect it to pass.’'
The state Senate could vote on the measure as early as Monday but close to 8 p.m. the debate on the bill had yet to begin.
Key lawmakers have been working on a sweeping bill that would legalize and tax marijuana for recreational use for weeks. Over the weekend, they reached a compromise with Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont.
“We have a deal,” said Sen. Gary Winfield, a New Haven Democrat and a key architect of the legislation.
Ensuring that the bill provides additional business opportunities for people from communities disproportionately hurt by harsh federal drug policies was a priority, Winfield said.
“The conversation has focused a lot on the equity portion of this. That is what has taken us most of this time,’' Winfield said. “We feel as though we’ve hit the right notes on equity, we have a definition of equity that includes the people that I think we’ve all been thinking about in communities we’ve been thinking about.”
Under the bill, social equity applicants would have early access to obtain licenses to become retailers, cultivators, micro-cultivators and other positions that would be created in the newly legal marijuana industry.
Those eligible will include residents of a “disproportionately impacted area,” which is defined under the bill as a U.S. census tract in Connecticut with an unemployment rate above 10% or a high “historical conviction rate for drug-related offenses.” The applicant must have lived in the census tract for at least nine years before they turned 18 or five of the previous 10 years, according to a bill summary.
The social equity applications will be reviewed by a special, 15-member council that will have the funding and power to set the rules that the applicants must follow.
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(Courant Capitol Bureau Chief Christopher Keating contributed to this report.)
