Lawmakers in the Connecticut House used “4/20" on Monday to consider legislation that would allow stronger potency for cannabis products sold in the state.
Republicans called it an insulting stunt.
Higher potency cannabis, including an increase for THC-infused beverages, would help reduce the black market and align the state’s regulated cannabis market with neighboring states like Massachusetts, said state Representative Roland Lemar (D-New Haven), co-chair of the General Law Committee.
“There are a number of folks who own businesses in Connecticut and Massachusetts,” Lemar said. “And they tell us that a large number of their sales in Massachusetts come from Connecticut residents who are driving across the border.”
“And that’s costing us jobs. It’s costing investment. And the goals of the social equity council and the revenues they would have received to support the programs.”
Connecticut’s social equity council reinvests a portion of the state’s revenue from the legalized cannabis market in the state on communities impacted by the war on drugs.
Republicans who oppose the legislation said it would promote intoxication.
“That’s where this is going. Let’s expand it. Let’s make more money off it, and meanwhile, people aren’t happy from a societal perspective of having to smell this stuff everywhere they go,” said House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford).
The bill would also allow edible cannabis products to exceed five milligrams of THC in certain circumstances.
