Editor's Note: Last month, the Vermont State Senate voted 17-12 to permit adults age 21 and older to smoke marijuana purchased from state-licensed growers and retailers. The Associated Press reported March 25 that the bill, S.241, will be the topic at a Statehouse hearing March 31. If the bill passes both houses and is signed by the governor, Vermont will become the fifth state to legalize and regulate marijuana.
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin wants to legalize marijuana in the Green Mountain State before Massachusetts because he does not want the Bay State’s “bad pot bill” to negatively influence his state.
Shumlin expressed his views in a blog post entitled The Time is Now to Take a Smarter Approach to Marijuana on his official website.
Shumlin is criticizing the Massachusetts ballot initiative that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana because it includes marijuana edibles. Marijuana-laced items can include food such as gummy bears and brownies. The bill Shumlin supports in Vermont would ban edibles.
