Local Grown
Andy Bromage
June 18, 2009
Fairfield County Weekly (New Haven, CT)
Lawmakers called it "the blunt bill."
Connecticut landed at the center of the national debate on marijuana reform this year when two state senators from New Haven, Martin Looney and Toni Harp, proposed decriminalizing small amounts of pot possession.
Under the bill, anyone caught with less an ounce of weed would have their mellow harshed with an infraction punishable by fines of $59 to $129, rather than a misdemeanor charge that could land you a year behind bars.
The benefits were threefold: The state would save $11 million by not prosecuting those pot cases, and get $320,000 a year from new fines; offenders wouldn't have records permanently stained by low-level offenses; and prosecutors and police would be freed up to work on more urgent criminal cases.
The public liked the idea, telling pollsters by a 58-37 margin the reform should be made law. The legislature's Judiciary Committee passed the bill 24-14, with one Republican voting yes.
Then came the big buzzkill: State Sen. Toni Boucher, a Wilton Republican who took a high-profile stand against a medical marijuana bill last year, vowed a long, drawn-out fight to block the legislation. An incensed pot advocate from the Connecticut chapter of the pro-legalization group NORML accidentally fired off a mildly threatening e-mail to Boucher, getting himself arrested and dealing the effort another setback.
Majority Democrats were split on the idea, with some predicting it wouldn't pass the House or Senate, and Rell's veto of the medical pot bill last year gave proponents additional pause. Ultimately the bill died when the clock ran out, but Connecticut came closer this year than ever to passing common sense reforms on pot policy.
Looney says the showing was impressive, noting that Massachusetts passed the law by referendum, not through the legislature. The fact it got through one hurdle here is meaningful, and Looney promises to reintroduce the bill next year.
"There's no indication that Massachusetts is paralyzed in a marijuana-induced haze," he says. | 
