Indopedia All Things Marijuana
Marijuana advocates around the country were saddened to hear that Vermont Governor Phil Scott vetoed the bill that would have legalized recreational marijuana in his state yesterday. If passed, the bill would have made Vermont the first state to legalize via the state legislature rather than a ballot measure. Although he vetoed the bill, Gov. Scott left the door open for compromise, and a revised bill could be passed as early as this summer.
Scott said that he felt that the bill needed to have provisions to “detect and measure impairment on our highways, fund and implement additions to substance abuse education, keep our children safe and penalize those who do not, and measure how legalization impacts the mental health and substance abuse issues our communities are already facing.”
In a press conference following his veto, the governor said that he is aware that Vermont “cannot ignore the fact that it is a widely consumed substance and that many states and an entire nation to our north (Canada) are in the process of making it legal.” Matt Simon, New England director of the Marijuana Policy Project, called Scott’s willingness to compromise “extremely…
