From the Brattleboro Reformer-
“BRATTLEBORO >> A citizens’ group that is trying to develop a statewide strategic plan for the legalization of cannabis will hold its first public meeting in Brattleboro next week.
The Vermont Cannabis Collaborative, or VTCC, plans to hold a series of public forums around the state as it prepares to issue a report on cannabis legalization in time for the upcoming Legislative session.
The group will host a meeting Monday, July 27, at 5 p.m. at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden at 157 Main St.
VTCC steering committee member Will Raap said the group is hoping to bring together farmers, entrepreneurs and citizens to talk about the issues Vermont will face as it moves closer toward legalization and how the state can prepare to meet those challenges.
“VTCC is currently collecting ideas to inform our fall 2015 development of a strategic plan to present to the Legislature for an emerging Vermont cannabis industry,” said Raap, who is also founder of Gardener Supply Company. “We see current and future small farmers as an integral part of cannabis legalization, and are seeking ideas and input from all interested Vermonters on this issue.”
Monday’s meeting is free and open to the public….”
Read the rest here:
http://www.reformer.com/latestnews/ci_28534880/cannabis-legalization-talk-set-monday
Will be televised at a later date
This event will also be recorded and broadcast on BCTV at a later date.
The clock is ticking
Working on this effort will pay off. The tax revenue alone is much needed, and a new industry forming will create jobs and businesses.
There is an advantage to being first in business. Waiting for other nearby states is a costly gamble. Vermont should lead on this.
Might want to check in with
Might want to check in with Colorado and Washington first. And not just those making money off of the sale of Cannabis. It’s not all a bed of roses from what I’ve heard, not all terrible but there are issues. I’m not convinced this is the sort of industry or tax revenue we should be welcoming without some serious consideration. I’m fine with decriminalization and easy access to medical marijuana. I don’t even care all that much about marijuana being sold legally, however this, to my mind, is not the direction we need to be going as far as new industry and job/business creation. In fact I find it rather ironic that a state that on one hand takes such great pride in being “healthy” would embrace the easy marketing/access to marijuana while placing huge restrictions on other types of personal vices such as smoking or drinking. As for that old saw about marijuana users being less aggressive or less dangerous behind the wheel take a look at some of the experiences in Colorado now that they’ve had legalization for awhile. Old wives tales may prove to be just that or at least those old beliefs may not be always true.
Correcting old beliefs
I have looked carefully at other states. They are getting ahead of others, working issues out, and making all the money. People are moving there for medical reasons. It’s boosting them beyond expectations.
Marijuana has many medicinal uses and there are numerous health reasons to make it available. Vermont= healthy = legal. It fits.
Doesn’t need to be smoked at all. Not ironic at all.
The jobs it creates are in farming, retail, food production, garden supplies, hospitality, tourism, health care, etc. All good Vermont jobs.
So, if one is against taxable income from a recreational source, against expanding our health care options, and against good paying new jobs for the state, then yes. We should not go down this path. : )
I think you are looking at
I think you are looking at this with rose colored glasses, those round wire framed ones I used to wear to rock festivals. LOL
Guess it's time for me
Guess it’s time for me to weigh in on this.
I see we have a long way to go.
But then, the stigma against marijuana began long before even Rosa and I were born. And, it only got worse over time.
Poor marijuana simply got caught in a mesh of human foibles. The family of botanical cousins that is marijuana and hemp are themselves two of the most important plants in human history, until these past roughly 100 years. That’s when collusion, greed and corporate shenanigans grabbed them by the throats and starting squeezing the life out of them…and many of their human counterparts as well.
The marijuana war was never pretty, it was never just, never effective and goddamned expensive. If fact, the anti-marijuana war is a showcase for just how low too many humans can go.
I personally fell in love with marijuana when I was eighteen in 1967. It is a love never diminished. In fact, smoking marijuana was one of the best things that happened to me. It was and remains a personal choice that I made at a legal, emancipated age. Back then and now I say goddamned to anybody who thinks, for any reason at all, that I should be denied that personal choice.
In fact, the legal smegal medical bullshit was what I was fortunate enough to ignore. I went my own way and woe be it to any sons of bitchin bastards who think they should have domain over me. And, I’m not just say[ng that now because I’m staring hard at my sunset. I simply never had to articulate it before.
The hardest thing of all is that I am not in possession of any and wouldn’t know where or who to go to get it. But the beauty of it has always been that it is not and never was addictive.
So now, I drink Presidential Ruby port. And it tastes mighty fine. Anybody have a problems with that?
Watch out, they'll be coming
Watch out, they’ll be coming to get you. I heard ruby port is next on the list. I think the only safe right now is fancy “micro-brew” beers.
Only brews from Vermont,
naturally… 🙂
Medicinal Liquor
Good idea. We could go back to selling wine and liquor for medicinal purposes only, at the Municipal Center only.
Brattleboro: “1859: We are requested to say that all persons desiring pure articles of Native Wine, Old Bourbon Whiskey, Bininger’s London Dock Gin, and Catawba Brandy, for medicinal purposes, can obtain the same at the Brattleboro Town Agency.”
VT Cannabis Collective - Presentation and Forum July 27, 2015
â–¶ VT Cannabis Collaborative: Presentation & Forum in Brattleboro 7/27/15 – YouTube
Video link to the presentation and discussion.
“Not if, but when”
...this boy is going to raise holy HELL
I wonder if the legal marijuana people can fill the State House chamber the way the pro gun folks did?
Jeanette White and David Zucherman take note: During the January 2016 legislative session watch for how carding for marijuana unfolds. If carding for any age unfolds in the legalization bill where the license number of adults is entered into retail data banks, versus the retail person simply checking the birth year, this boy is going to raise holy HELL. Legalization is not medical marijuana! (I ain’t dead yet…)
Washington Heights
Recently got to visit a pot shop in WA, where all I needed to do was show proof of my age to the vendor, who probably was the age of my child.
It was a bit surreal, I must say. After a lifetime of furtive moves, rationalizations, dodges, barbs of discrimination, to simply acquire an organic substance, without shame or paranoia, was uplifting beyond what I expected. It made me aware again of how bogged down in the darkness we still are as a culture.