Top Vermont Lawmaker Says Legal Marijuana Sales Bill Will Be Taken Up After Coronavirus Response

A top lawmaker in Vermont says the legislature will reconsider a bill to legalize marijuana sales later this year, though she feels lawmakers and the administration are appropriately focused on responding to the coronavirus pandemic for now.

House Speaker Mitzi Johnson (D) was pressed on Thursday about why leaders aren’t giving more attention to the pending tax-and-regulate legislation given the revenue the state could derive and the jobs that could be created from legal cannabis sales.

The speaker told Vermont Public Radio that after both chambers approved a bill to provide for retail sales this session, one of her last acts before leaving the State House to work remotely was appointing members of a conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions. That said, “our attention, I believe rightly, has been entirely on the COVID crisis and making sure that we get Vermonters through this very intense desperate period,” she stated.

“This issue is still before us. We will be talking about it before the year ends,” Johnson said of the marijuana bill. “But I think our energy has been where it needs to be, which is getting Vermonters through this crisis.”
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