With the state Senate debating legalized marijuana Monday night and a vote in the state House of Representatives likely, Connecticut stands a strong chance of seeing a recreational cannabis market in 2022. Here are the details in the latest deal.
* The state would have a target of May, 2022 to open retail dispensaries; the number will depend on the market as it develops.
* Residents in low-income areas harder hit by the failed war on drugs would be eligible for grants and partnerships to help them get started.
* A lottery would determine the right to licenses.
* On July 1, people would be allowed to have 1.5 ounces of cannabis in their immediate possession and as much as five ounces locked in their homes, car trunks or glove compartments.
* The bill would allow for home growing for medical patients starting October 1, 2022, when they may have three mature plants and three immature plants. Adult-use homegrown would be allowed starting July 1, 2023.
* The sales tax would be the state’s usual 6.35 percent, but host communities could make an extra three percent of sales and there would be an additional tax based on the level of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in pot, for flowers, tinctures and edibles.
* Customers would be limited to buying one ounce of flowers per day.
* Upon petitions of 10 percent of town or city residents, municipalities would have to hold referendums on whether to allow local sales.
* Companies, particularly federal contractors, would be allowed to ban use of the drug.
* Some drug-possession convictions, which occurred between January of 2000 and October, 2015 would be automatically erased, while convictions from earlier years could be wiped out through courts.
* Companies in the supply chain, including retailers, growers and others, would be required to reach a “labor peace” agreement with unions seeking to organize workers.
* Revenue from the state sales tax would go to the general fund. Most revenue from other taxes would go into an equity fund for disadvantagd areas, and into addiction treatment and prevention.