The Connecticut House of Representatives approved a bill that would build on the state’s marijuana legalization law and allow for expungements by requiring courts reduce sentences or dismiss charges in a wider variety of cannabis-related cases and release those who are currently imprisoned on these charges.
The legislation was passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday, 138-10. It had cleared the Joint Judiciary Committee late in March. The Senate must now take action.
The bill was originally introduced to require that prosecutors dismiss marijuana-related charges for activities that have been legalized. However, lawmakers approved an amended version that removed that language, after state’s attorneys in Connecticut actively facilitated relief following the legalization of marijuana.
The amended law requires that sentencing judges and courts “discharge” or modify sentences for marijuana offenses related to paraphernalia, selling or possessing marijuana up to 4 ounces and personal home cultivation.
The revised bill would eliminate the need for a person to file a petition in order to receive relief.
According to an official summary of the Bill, the following crimes are subject to resentencing or release from prison:
- 1. Using or possessing drug paraphernalia with the intent to use it to conceal, store or conceal cannabis or to ingest or inhale cannabis or introduce it into the body by any other means (CGS SS 21-267);
- Manufacturing, distributing or selling cannabis-type substances less than four ounces, or six plants, grown in a person’s primary residence, with the intention to sell, dispensing or possessing them with that intent, and offering, giving or administering it to someone else (CGS 21a-277);
- Possession of a cannabis-type drug weighing less than four ounces or more (CGS SS 21-279).
The reform measures were crafted by the Last Prisoner Project, Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Marijuana Policy Project.
Sarah Gersten is the executive director and general attorney for LPP. She told Marijuana Moment that if the law was signed, it would be the strongest state-initiated cannabis sentencing scheme in the nation.
Rep. Steve Stafstrom, (D), co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee, where the bill was drafted, stated that, when the state decided to legalize cannabis, “we recognized that we needed to undo the damage that the War on Drugs with regard to cannabis had caused.”
View the House vote on marijuana reform legislation starting at 1:32:30 in the video embedded below:
Stafstrom stated on the floor of the House last week that, “While I still may face a sentence for some or all of the crimes for which I have been convicted, I shouldn’t face adverse consequences.” This bill allows me to modify my sentence. “I shouldn’t face a punishment based on the simple possession of marijuana.”
The two lawmakers, along with Rep. Craig Fishbein(R), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee expressed their appreciation to the state prosecutors for taking it upon themselves to handle cannabis relief after the legalization went into effect without explicit instructions.
Stafstrom expressed his gratitude to the Chief State’s attorney Patrick Griffin’s office and the other state’s attorneys in the state who worked so hard with us to moot the original provision.
Fishbein continued, “I too want to thank State’s Attorney’s Office.” The fact that they prioritized what we passed–they did not have to do that.
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Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat from Connecticut, announced in January that nearly 43,000 marijuana-related convictions had been cleared by the state. In 2021 , he passed legalization legislation which empowered the state government in order to facilitate mass cannabis convictions relief.
In January , the state launched a website that gives residents information on the status of their cannabis records. It also provides guidance to those who have older convictions for cannabis that were not automatically erased by the courts.
Lamont is optimistic about the adult-use market launched by at the start of the year. He believes it will reduce illicit sales.
He joked about his concern for the cannabis industry’s rollout, which was finding a spot in the line at a dispensary. He wasn’t serious but the Governor previously did not rule out participating in the legal market.
State data show that in March, Connecticut had a combined sale of recreational and medical marijuana of record 22 million dollars.
The House has also passed a bill to decriminalize the possession of psilocybin mushroom in this month. It will now be sent to the Senate.
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The article Connecticut House passes bill to release marijuana prisoners, sending it to Senate first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
