Connecticut Republicans demand 'guardrails' on medical marijuana: report

Since July 1, 2021, recreational marijuana has been legal in Connecticut. But some Republicans in the state legislature, noting an increase in traffic deaths in the state, are now calling for “guardrails” for Connecticut’s recreational marijuana market.

Inside Investigator’s Mark E. Pitch reports that the proposed “guardrails” include “capping the amount of THC in marijuana products, issuing restrictions for marijuana usage in parks, child-proof containers, health warnings on packaging and refraining from any more commercial enterprises from opening before more drug recognition officers can be trained.”

State Rep. Holly Cheeseman, a Republican, commented, “Now that it is legal in Connecticut, we are not doing our job as a legislature if we do not address some of the side effects of this legalization.” And Vincent Caldelora, GOP leader in the Connecticut House of Representatives, is calling for the repeal of the bill that legalized recreational marijuana in his state.

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Caldelora argued, “What was the public policy for that provision? We don’t think it’s a good idea. We think it should be repealed. We need to pull the brakes on it, be more responsible and rewrite the dialogue on how we talk about it.”

Meanwhile, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Alex Mooney (R-West Virginia) is pushing a bill that, Leafly’s Max Savage Levenson reports, would “seek to allow medical marijuana cardholders to legally purchase and possess firearms.” And Rep. Greg Steube is pushing a bill that “would codify existing policy that permits military veterans to discuss marijuana with VA doctors, and ensure that veterans do not lose government benefits if they become medical marijuana patients.”

Justin Strekal, the cannabis advocate who runs BOWL PAC, believes that the bills aren’t bad but could be better.

Strekal told Leafly, “Both of them represent an improvement from the status quo. But I think Congress has the political capacity for — and the American public deserves — more substantive reforms. The two bills are incredibly narrow pieces of legislation that in prior Congresses did not receive much support from other GOP lawmakers. Both of them are only focused on addressing medical state issues despite the fact that half of the American population now lives in adult use states.”

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