Connecticut's Medical Marijuana Rules Taking Shape; Officials Looking For Input

This story was written and reported by Eileen McNamara. It was posted to Madison Patch by Pem McNerney.

Officials with the state's Department of Consumer Protection  are beginning to hammer out new rules that will govern how the Connecticut dispensaries are allowed to sell pot for medical purposes, and they are looking for public input.

The law allowing the "palliative use of marijuana" passed in the legislature last year, but sales of the drug, which cancer patients and others use to alleviate the symptoms of their illnesses, had to await the state's action on regulations for the drug's sale. 

The consumer protection department is convening its hearing at 10 a.m., in Room 126 of the state office building at 165 Capitol Ave., Hartford. The department is also taking written testimony through the end of this week. Instructions on how to submit testimony can be found here. 

Catherine Barden, the coalition coordinator for the Madison Alcohol and Drug Education Coalition [M.A.D.E.] in Madison, attended the hearing to provide testimony Monday. 

"The basic point of the testimony is not to speak in favor or against the regulations (not much of a point to do so since the law has been passed) but to ask that we work together to do our best to prevent youth use/abuse," Barden said via email from Hartford, while waiting to testify. "In my testimony I collected a list of questions that we have been asked by different sectors of the community so i'm going to give them a snapshot of those questions and propose that we work together to make sure everyone is at the table and represented as the regulations go into effect."

The lengthy regulatory process is intended to appease critics of the state's moves in recent years to ease pot restrictions, including the decriminalization for the possession and recreational use of small amounts of marijuana. The state legislature approved that measure in 2011. 

When the medical marijuana law passed the Connecticut Senate last May, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy stressed that consumer protection would regulate the industry to prevent any problems.