Guilford Contingent Leads Fight Against Pot Legalization

Photo: from left Bo Huhn, Gabby Palumbo, Elizabeth Abernathy

GUILFORD, CT - As has been the case the past few years during the raging battle over whether to legalize recreational marijuana in Connecticut, a contingent from Guilford including two Guilford High School students, are leading the opposition to the proposal.

A bill to legalize recreational marijuana was the subject of a public hearing of the Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.

And opposing the bill were the Guilford group.

Nearly two-thirds of Connecticut voters, or 63 percent, support making possession of small amounts of cannabis legal for adults, according to a March 2015 Quinnipiac University poll.

But opponents of legalization don’t believe those numbers or other research proponents often quote that state marijuana isn’t a gateway drug to harder drugs down the road.

“It’s important to look deep into the research and who is doing the research,” Bo Huhn, a spokesman for both CT Smart Approaches to Marijuana and Guilford Development Assets for Youth (DAY), said during a break in the public hearing.

“It’s just such an important issue,” Huhn said. “The overdose issue that is plaguing our state and our country has also changed the dynamic. The legislature needs to be careful.”

Huhn added: “I wish it (pot) didn’t have adverse effects. But the research those on our side have looked at shows that’s not the case.”

Added Elizabeth Abernathy, a junior at Guilford High School: “It shouldn’t be legalized — plain and simple. It can lead to substance abuse.”

Another Guilford voice opposing was Lisa Ott, an adult chair of the DAY group, who told legislators that students tell her “that there is nothing more important in fighting drug abuse” than to beat back recreational marijuana legalization efforts.

She, Abernathy and Palumbo all told the legislators that they strongly believe that marijuana use does lead youth down the path to harder drugs.

Also testifying against legalization — as he has before in past years — was Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza, a research scientist and professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

“There is no question that marijuana is addictive,” D’Souza said, who added that research shows that “one in three” who smoke marijuana will become addicted.

He told the committee that marijuana legalization brings with it additional costs in the medical and law enforcement fields that outstrip the revenue.

Appropriations Committee Co-Chair Toni Walker, D-New Haven, a proponent of legalization, pointed out that research she’s read shows that states that have legalized weed show increased revenue and decreased arrests.

“We can go at this all day long,” Walker said, meaning she, too, believes that both the proponents and opponents of legalization will continue to trot out research they say bolsters their arguments.

The Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated last year that Connecticut could bring in $45.4 million to $104.6 million a year if it legalizes marijuana in the same way it’s been done in Massachusetts or Colorado.

Nine states and Washington, D.C. have legalized recreational pot.

In 2012, Colorado and Washington state became the first to legally allow pot for recreational purposes. Washington, D.C., and six other states, including Massachusetts and California, have since legalized marijuana — although D.C., like Vermont, does not allow recreational pot sales.

As of July 1, people in Massachusetts will be selling recreational pot. And soon to follow will be Maine, although no date has yet been set there.

But the Connecticut Chapter of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) recently released a report that says legalization of marijuana would cost the state $216 million in 2020.

CT SAM estimated the increased cost to the state would come in the form of an increase in the number of traffic fatalities, increased vehicle insurance rates, emergency room visits, homelessness, workplace injuries, and an increase in chronic absenteeism at work.

The General Law Committee on March 20 defeated a different bill — one that would have crafted a regulatory structure for recreational marijuana — by a vote of 11 to 6.

That bill didn’t technically legalize marijuana, but it would have legalized possession of up to an ounce and it would have allowed a person over the age of 21 to cultivate not more than six marijuana plants.

It also set up a licensing scheme for “marijuana lounges and marijuana retailers.”

There are at least four committees that have raised bills this year dealing with the legalization of marijuana.

A proponent of legalization, Rep. Josh Elliott, D-Hamden, has said the House Democratic caucus is still 17 votes shy of passage. Democrats hold an 80-71 majority over Republicans in that chamber.

Photo by Jack Kramer